146. The personal pronoun, since it takes the place of a noun, has almost all the uses of a noun. It may be,—

(1) The subject of a verb; as, “I only know I cannot drift beyond His love and care.”

The subject of an imperative sentence is always the pronoun you, thou, or ye, but this pronoun is seldom expressed; as, “Telegraph for staterooms at once.”

(2) The base word of a term of address; as, “Ho, ye who suffer, know ye suffer for yourselves.”

(3) The subjective complement of a verb; as, “This man, good Ilderim, is he who told you of me.”

(4) The base word of an appositive phrase; as, “The fourth lackey, he of the two gold watches, poured the chocolate out.”

(5) A possessive modifier; as, “All the harmless wood folk were his friends.”

Note.—The possessive pronoun is often intensified by the adjective own, which modifies the same noun that the possessive pronoun modifies; as, “This is my own, my native land.”

(6) The direct object of a verb; as, “The farm boy spreads the grass after the men have cut it.”

(7) The object of a preposition; as, “What a new world did that party open to him!”

(8) An indirect object; as, “Here will the cattle come to drink, and I will kill me a yearling heifer.”

Exercise.—Select and parse all the personal pronouns in the following sentences. In parsing a personal pronoun we should tell its person, number, gender, antecedent, case, and use in the sentence.

1. I verily believe that my ill looks alone saved me a flogging.

2. Taste the tamarisk, and you get the very flavor of the brine.

3. Then I swung my lasso, and sent it whistling over his head.

4. They worked together, read together, walked together, planned together, she and her daughter, and in all things were friends and companions.

5. Mother Wolf would throw up her head, and sniff a deep snuff of satisfaction as the wind brought her the smell of the tiger skin on the Council Rock.

6. The old crow spread the shells out in the sun, turned them over, lifted them one by one in his beak, dropped them, nestled on them as though they were eggs, toyed with them, and gloated over them like a miser.

7. The spirits have spoken to Kotuko. They will show him open ice. He will bring us the seal again.

8. The rank swamp grass concealed the nest where Raggylug’s mother had hidden him.

9.

Across the lowly beach we flit,

One little sandpiper and I.

10. Up jumped Scarface, for it was he, and ran.

11.

And a voice that was calmer than silence said,

“Lo! It is I. Be not afraid.”

12. Nearly every cottage in England has its little garden full of blooming plants and shrubs.

13.

“Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,—

Himself, his hungering neighbor, and Me.”

14. This is he that was spoken of by the prophet.

15. Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word.

16.

I called my servant, and he came;

How kind it was of him

To mind a slender man like me,

He of the mighty limb.

17. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

18. It is so slippery and shiny down here, and the stage is so much too big for me, that I rattle round in it till I’m almost black and blue.

19. These are they who have passed through much tribulation.

20. O thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my fathers, whence comes thy everlasting light?

147. Many errors are made in the form of personal pronouns.

(1) When a pronoun is used as the subject of a verb, it must have the nominative form, hence the correct answer to the question, Who is there? is I (not me).

(2) When several pronouns are used as the subject of the same verb, the pronoun of the second person should come first, and the pronoun of the first person should come last. We should say,—

You and he and I have been chosen.

You and I were on time.

He and I read the book.

Can you justify Whittier’s lines?

(3) For the subject of a sentence we may use the expressions we boys, we girls, we Americans, etc.

We girls bought the pictures.

We boys set up the tents.

We Baptists had a church supper.

(4) A pronoun used as the complement of an intransitive verb of being must have the nominative form. We should say,—

Yes, it was I.

No, it was not she.

Perhaps it is he.

It is surely they.

(5) A pronoun used as object of a verb must have the objective form. We should say,—

Mrs. Albee invited mother and me.

Did you see Julia and me in the gallery?

Didn’t you expect him and her?

She will never suspect you and me.

That team can’t beat us boys.

(6) A pronoun used as object of a preposition must have the objective form. We should say,—

Leo wrote first to her and me.

Father will call for you and me.

Between you and me he was afraid.

There is a great difference between Carrie and me.

They can never catch up with us girls.

Exercise.—Fill each blank in the following sentences with a pronoun having the correct case form. Give your reasons.

1. Mother says that it was —— and not —— that paid off the mortgage.

2. Who left the room first? ——, but Mary was close behind ——.

3. —— fellows are going to have a debating society.

4. The German teacher gave you and —— the same passage to translate.

5. There must be no secrets between —— and ——.

6. When do you expect Grandmother and ——?

7. Perhaps —— girls are most to blame.

8. Nobody chose —— or ——, so —— and —— sat on the stairs and talked.