Pronouns

The they/them pronoun user flag.

Pronouns are words that can be used in place of a noun. The most well known example of pronouns are personal pronouns, which can refer to the person or people speaking (first person), the person or people being spoken to (second person), or other people or things (third person). In many languages third person personal pronouns are gendered. Because of that the pronouns one uses are often used by people as a way to identity the gender of a person. However, that does not always work as some people use pronouns that do not align with their gender, known as pronoun non-conformity.

Some English speakers choose to go by pronouns that are not found in standard English, known as neopronouns, or nounself pronouns.

In English all pronouns have five grammatical form. The forms are:

• Nominative: Used when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence.
• Accusative: Used when the pronoun is the object of the sentence.
• Pronominal Possessive: Used to show possession of a noun. They function as part of a noun phrase, and always come directly before the noun in question.
• Predicative Possessive: Use to show possession of a noun. They come directly after a linking verb (the word "be" or one of it's other forms). This is the least common form of a pronoun, as it requires a very specific sentence construction. When listing out the forms of a pronoun, this is the form that it most commonly left out.
• Reflexive: Use when the subject and the direct object in a sentence are the same. In English these pronouns always end with -self (singular) or -selves (plural).

In some pronoun sets two or more of these forms are the same. For example, in the he/him pronoun set the pronominal possessive and the predicative possessive forms are the same (his). In the she/her pronoun set the accusative and the pronominal possessive forms are the same (her). In the they/them set all five forms are different.

He/Him

He/Him pronouns are typically, but not always, used by men, masculine-aligned people, or people who want to present masculinely. In the eighteenth century, when prescriptive grammarians decided that singular they was no longer acceptable as a gender-neutral pronoun, they instead recommended "gender-neutral he."

The he/him pronoun user flag.

Examples:

• Nominative: He (He went to the store.)
• Accusative: Him (I met him today.)
• Pronominal possessive: His (If he does not get a haircut, his hair grows long.)
• Predicative possessive: His (If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow his.)
• Reflexive: Himself (He has to drive himself to school.)

She/Her

She/Her pronouns are typically, but not always, used by women, feminine-aligned people, or people who want to present femininely.

The she/her pronoun user flag.

Examples:

• Nominative: She (She went to the store.)
• Accusative: Her (I met her today.)
• Pronominal possessive: Her (If she does not get a haircut, her hair grows long.)
• Predicative possessive: Hers (If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow hers.)
• Reflexive: Herself (She has to drive herself to school.)

Singular They

The Oxford English Dictionary traces singular "they" back to 1375, and throughout the middle ages and renaissance it was used as a singular gender neutral pronoun, making it one of the oldest pronouns in the English language. However, in the 18th century prescriptive grammarians declared that "they" should only be used when referring to multiple people, and suggested using a "gender-neutral he" as an alternative. This is due to the fact that Latin did not have a singular, gender neutral pronoun, and since Latin was a more prestigious language, prescriptive decided that English should be more like Latin.

The idea that singular they is grammatically incorrect continued to the modern day, although it is not strictly followed in normal speech, as most people will use "they" when referring to an unknown person without realizing. In the modern day singular they is often used by non-binary people as a gender neutral pronoun.

Examples:

• Nominative: They (They went to the store.)
• Accusative: Them (I met them today.)
• Pronominal possessive: Their (If they do not get a haircut, their hair grows long.)
• Predicative possessive: Theirs (If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow theirs.)
• Reflexive: Themself or themselves (They have to drive themself to school. OR They have to drive themselves to school.)

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The they/them, he/him, she/her pronoun user flags were created by Tumblr user love-all-around1223 on April 14, 2018.