Object Pronouns - How Are They Different From Subject Pronouns?

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Object Pronouns - How Are They Different From Subject Pronouns? - By: Warren Wong, Posted on: 2008-05-11

Pronouns are words used in place of a noun in the English language. They are divided into subject and object pronouns according to their placement and their association with the meaning of a sentence. Instead of saying "Bill took Bill's car to the garage in Bill's neighborhood", you can replace the noun "Bill" with pronouns so that the sentence is easier to say and read. Thus the new sentence would be "Bill took his car to a garage in his neighborhood".

The difference between subject and object pronouns is that those used as objects in a sentence are used instead of object nouns. Now this may sound confusing, especially if you haven't covered a lesson on object nouns. Subject pronouns are used at the beginning of a sentence and following all conjugations of the verb "to be". There is a specific list of pronouns used as objects in a sentence: me, her, him, them, you, it and us. These are the only ones that can be used in this way, so that should make it a bit simpler.

Let's look at how some of these words are used in sentences.

"I visited my aunt today. I really like her". In this sentence, aunt is the object of the first sentence. When you replace this noun with a pronoun, you use her, so it is still an object in the second sentence.

You can also think in terms of an object pronoun as showing who was the recipient of some action in a sentence. In the following sentence, "I saw Pete today and passed your message along to him", the word "him; is the object because he was the receiver of your action of passing along a message.

When you take an online English course, this topic will be covered in depth and in words that you can understand. First you will see and hear a series of dialogues using the words in the proper place in a sentence. Along with learning about these pronouns, the lesson will also introduce you to other key vocabulary, which is also listed at the bottom of the first screen containing the dialogues. Therefore, you are exposed to more than just the rules of how to use these pronouns correctly.

Then you will proceed to the instruction and when you are comfortable with this, you proceed to the practice exercises. In the first set of practice exercises, you will read a sentence in which there is a noun used in the object position. The second sentence will have the noun omitted and you have to type in the correct pronoun to use in its place.

Once you complete the practice exercise and are satisfied with your answers, you can have the page graded to see how well you have done. You then have a choice of going back over the dialogues and the instruction or of proceeding to the next set of practice exercises. Finally, there is a page of exercises using dialogues rather than simple sentences so that you have to fill in the correct pronoun to complete each short conversation.

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To learn more about object pronouns and other aspects of the English language visit www.1-language.com, the free English course.