Confusing Subject & Object Pronouns: HE or HIM? I or ME? SHE AND I or HER AND I...?
Summary
TLDRThis video lesson, presented by Rebecca from engVid, highlights one of the most common mistakes made by both English learners and native speakers: the misuse of subject and object pronouns. Rebecca explains the difference between subjects (the doers of actions) and objects (the receivers of actions), providing numerous examples to clarify the concept. She emphasizes the importance of using the correct pronouns, especially in exams and job interviews, and offers practical tips to help viewers avoid common errors. The lesson concludes with practice exercises to reinforce the concepts learned.
Takeaways
- π Understanding the difference between subject and object pronouns is crucial for both English learners and native speakers.
- π€ The subject pronoun refers to the doer of the action, while the object pronoun receives the action in a sentence.
- π Pronouns replace nouns in sentences; for example, 'John likes me' can become 'He likes me.'
- π Subject pronouns typically appear at the beginning of a sentence, while object pronouns usually appear towards the middle or end.
- π€ The mistake of confusing subject and object pronouns is common, but it's important to avoid it, especially in formal settings like exams or job interviews.
- π₯ When there are multiple subjects, the pronouns still need to come from the subject pronoun list, e.g., 'He and I are good friends,' not 'He and me.'
- π‘ After prepositions like 'to,' 'for,' or 'with,' you should always use object pronouns, e.g., 'Give it to John and me,' not 'John and I.'
- β After the verb 'to be,' object pronouns are used, such as 'Itβs me' or 'Itβs them,' instead of 'It is I.'
- π§ Practicing the correct use of pronouns by writing sentences and analyzing them can help reinforce these rules.
- π² The video encourages viewers to visit the website and take a quiz to reinforce the lesson, and also to subscribe for more lessons and shortcuts in learning English.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the lesson?
-The main topic of the lesson is subject and object pronouns in English and how to use them correctly.
Why is this lesson considered very important by the speaker?
-This lesson is considered important because the mistake of confusing subject and object pronouns is one of the most common errors, not only among English learners but also among native speakers.
What is a subject in a sentence?
-A subject in a sentence is the 'doer' of the action, meaning the person or thing that performs the action.
What is an object in a sentence?
-An object in a sentence is the receiver of the action, meaning the person or thing that the action is being done to.
What is a pronoun and how is it used?
-A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. For example, instead of saying 'John likes me,' you could say 'He likes me,' where 'He' is the pronoun replacing 'John.'
Can you give an example of a correct sentence using a subject pronoun?
-Yes, an example is 'I love movies,' where 'I' is the subject pronoun doing the action of loving.
Can you give an example of a correct sentence using an object pronoun?
-Yes, an example is 'Please call me,' where 'me' is the object pronoun receiving the action of the call.
What common mistake do people make when using subject and object pronouns together in a sentence?
-A common mistake is using an object pronoun where a subject pronoun is needed, such as saying 'Him and I went out for dinner' instead of 'He and I went out for dinner.'
What rule should be followed when using pronouns after prepositions?
-After prepositions, you should always use object pronouns. For example, 'Give it to John and me' is correct, not 'Give it to John and I.'
Why does the speaker suggest writing out sentences as a practice method?
-The speaker suggests writing out sentences to reinforce the correct use of subject and object pronouns, helping learners internalize the rules and patterns.
Outlines
π Introduction to Common English Pronoun Mistakes
Rebecca from engVid introduces a crucial lesson on the frequent misuse of subject and object pronouns by both English learners and native speakers. She emphasizes the importance of this lesson for English learners, especially in exams and job interviews, where English proficiency is critically assessed. The paragraph explains the basic concepts of subjects and objects in sentences and the role of pronouns as noun substitutes. Rebecca promises to clarify the correct usage of subject and object pronouns through examples and a rhyme to aid understanding.
π Understanding Subject and Object Pronouns in Sentences
This paragraph delves deeper into the distinction between subject and object pronouns. Rebecca explains that subjects perform actions while objects receive them. She provides examples to illustrate the correct use of pronouns, such as 'I love movies' where 'I' is the subject, and 'Please call me' where 'me' is the object. The paragraph also discusses common mistakes, such as using object pronouns in place of subject pronouns and vice versa. Rebecca introduces a rhyme to help viewers remember the correct usage and emphasizes the typical sentence positions of subjects and objects.
π€ The Nuances of Compound Subjects and Politeness in English
Rebecca addresses the complexities that arise with compound subjects, where more than one subject is involved in the action. She explains the polite convention in English of placing oneself last in a list of subjects, such as in 'He and I are good friends.' The paragraph highlights the importance of using subject pronouns in these instances and not mistakenly using object pronouns. Rebecca also tackles the correct use of pronouns after prepositions and the common errors made in this area, stressing the need to use object pronouns following prepositions.
π Correcting Common Pronoun Errors with Examples
In this paragraph, Rebecca provides a series of examples to correct common pronoun errors. She contrasts incorrect sentences with the correct ones, such as using 'He and I' instead of 'Him and me' when referring to subjects. The paragraph focuses on the proper use of pronouns after prepositions and with the verb 'to be', reinforcing the rule that object pronouns are appropriate in these cases. Rebecca encourages viewers to practice and internalize these rules to avoid making similar mistakes in their English usage.
π Practice and Resources for Mastering English Pronouns
The final paragraph offers resources for further practice and mastery of English pronouns. Rebecca invites viewers to visit engVid's website to take a quiz on the subject and explore over 1,000 lessons available. She advises viewers to focus on key areas of learning and to subscribe to her channel for shortcuts and efficient English learning. Rebecca concludes with well-wishes for viewers' English language journey and signs off with an encouraging note.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Subject Pronouns
π‘Object Pronouns
π‘Pronoun
π‘Subject
π‘Object
π‘Preposition
π‘Compound Subject
π‘Rhythm
π‘Action
π‘Grammar
Highlights
The lesson focuses on correcting a common mistake involving subject and object pronouns, which is often made by both English learners and native speakers.
Subject pronouns, like 'I,' 'you,' 'he,' and 'she,' are the doers of actions, while object pronouns, like 'me,' 'him,' and 'her,' receive the action.
A pronoun takes the place of a noun, such as using 'he' instead of 'John.'
A key mistake is using object pronouns in place of subject pronouns and vice versa.
Subject pronouns typically appear at the beginning of a sentence, while object pronouns usually appear toward the middle or end.
In sentences with multiple subjects, like 'he and I,' the pronouns should be chosen from the subject list, not the object list.
When using prepositions, the pronoun following should be an object pronoun, such as 'Give it to John and me,' not 'John and I.'
Object pronouns are also used after the verb 'to be,' e.g., 'It's me,' instead of 'It is I.'
Examples like 'Please return the book to him' demonstrate the correct usage of object pronouns after prepositions.
After a preposition, always use object pronouns, e.g., 'for me,' 'with him,' 'before her.'
The lesson emphasizes avoiding the common mistake of mixing subject and object pronouns, especially in compound subjects like 'she and I.'
Itβs important to remember the polite convention of placing 'I' last in compound subjects.
The speaker advises practicing by writing sentences and using quizzes to reinforce correct pronoun usage.
The lesson is particularly valuable for English learners who are preparing for exams or job interviews where language precision is critical.
The video concludes with a reminder to subscribe for more lessons and to use the provided resources on the website to master key aspects of English grammar.
Transcripts
Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. I'm so glad you
clicked on this lesson because today's lesson
is one of the most important lessons ever. Why? Because this mistake that I'm going to
tell you about is one of the most frequently
made mistakes, unfortunately, not only by
English learners, but also by English speakers.
So, hey, if there are any English speakers
watching this, please keep watching because you would like to correct this too. But for
the English learners, it's even more important
because you're doing exams, you're going for
job interviews, and people are judging your English a little bit more critically. Okay?
So, what are we going to talk about today?
We're talking about subject and object pronouns.
Now, I know that doesn't sound very sexy, but it's so important that you get it right
because it's a very basic mistake. All right?
And I hope that after this lesson, you will
get it right. I'm going to do my best to explain
it to you so you completely get it. Okay?
Here we go. All right. So, first of all, what's
a subject and what's an object, and what's
a pronoun? Because I said subject, object,
pronouns. There are three words there. Okay?
They're kind of like grammar words. So, the
subject of a sentence in English is the doer
of the action. Okay? It's the person that
does the action. And the object receives the
action. Okay? I'm going to explain it to you
exactly, give you an example and everything,
no problem. All right? And what's a pronoun?
A pronoun is a word that takes the place of
a noun. So, for example, I could say "John",
okay? "John likes me." Or I could say "He
likes me." So, "He" replaced "John". All right?
Now, let's look at this chart because here
what I've written for you are basically all the
subject pronouns and all the object pronouns.
Okay? Now, what's the problem? The problem is that sometimes people are using object
pronouns when they should be using subject
pronouns, and vice versa. So, sometimes they're
using subject pronouns when they should be using object pronouns. All right? So, let's
see how this works. So, in this sentence, "I
love movies." Right? The "I" is a subject.
It's doing the action. The action is love. All
right? So this is a subject pronoun. Right?
But in this sentence, "Please call me", the
subject is understood as "you", but the action
is being received to "me". "Please call me."
So, "me" is an object pronoun. Okay? I'm going
to give you so many examples that you're going
to get it, even if you didn't get it yet.
Okay?
Let's try it with this little rhyme. And you
can say it along with me if you want, if it
helps you to kind of get that rhythm in your
head. All right? Because language is not about
rules and all of that only. It starts with
that, but finally it becomes about the rhythm,
and whether it's going to sound right to your
ear. So, let's say these sentences, and we're
going to run through them with all of these examples. Okay? Here we go.
For example, "I like Jack", "Jack likes me." Okay?
"I like Jack", subject, "I", "Jack likes me", object.
"You like Jack", "Jack likes you". Here, you
can see with the word "you" that it's the
same. Okay? So there we don't usually make mistakes because it's the same. Here, "He
likes Jack", "Jack likes him". Okay? "She
likes Jack", say it with me, "Jack likes her".
"We like Jack", "Jack likes us", "They like Jack", "Jack likes them". Okay? So what do
you notice? That all of these subject pronouns
usually come at the beginning of a sentence,
and the object pronouns usually come towards
the middle or end of a sentence. Okay? You'll
see that, and that's how it is. And there
are a few other patterns which I'll show you.
So let's look at some examples. Okay? So we
said the first one already. "I love movies",
subject. "We live here", right? Also, subject.
Yeah? You see it up there? "She studies hard",
right? Subject. Yeah? All of these are subjects.
"They watch videos", like you are doing right
now. "They" is the subject, and I hope if you're
watching this video that you also subscribe
to my channel because I keep giving you all of these kind of shortcut lessons that will
really save you a lot of time and years in learning English. Okay? So subscribe. "He
and I are good friends." Now, look what happens
here. Here it was pretty straightforward,
right? Yeah, of course. I know, Rebecca. I
know what the subject is. But here, sometimes
people get confused when we have more than one subject. So here it was "he" and "I",
but these are still the subjects, so we still
have to take the word from here, take the
pronoun from up here, and not from down here.
So we have to say "he" and "I". Now, why do
we say "he" and "I", and not "I" and "he"?
Because usually in English we're very polite,
we let other people go first through the door,
and we also let other people go first in the
sentence. All right? So even if it was five
people, like "she", "he", and "I", okay? "They"
and "I", but "I" comes last. All right? So
that's how it is. But the most important thing
is not just where the "I" is, but that you're
saying "I" and you're not saying "me". So
you cannot say "he" and "me". No. Not if you're talking about the subject. You have
to say "he" and "I". And if you're not sure,
what you can do is take out that other person
or people and just say "I am good friends". That makes sense. But if I said "me am good
friends", no, that doesn't sound right. Correct?
So that's one way we can tell. Sometimes people
make the same mistake here. Instead of saying
"he", they'll say "him". "Him" and "I". No. Again,
"him" belongs on the other side, the object,
right? Not the subject. All right? So that's
something else. Now let's go to the other side
and look at some examples of the objects and
how we usually use them. So, "Please call me",
right? Receiving the action of the call. "I thank
them." Now, in this sentence, we have a subject
and an object, right? What's the subject?
"I", right? Subject. Because I'm doing the action. "I thanked", and "I thanked" who?
"Them". Okay? So this here is the object. All right? Again, this tends to usually be
at the beginning of a sentence; that tends to be at the end of a sentence.
Now, another very important clue is when you
have a preposition. So whatever follows the
preposition should be what? The objects. And
the mistake that I'm hearing a lot on TV,
and writing, on the internet, and so on, is that people are after... The prepositions
are using these subject pronouns, and that's
wrong; that's incorrect. Like, especially
if you're doing an exam or you're writing a job application, that's a bad mistake to
make. Okay? So don't make that one.
So let's look at the example. "Give it to
John and me." Okay? So after "to", so that's
"to" is the preposition, "Give it to John and
me." Okay? Because it's an object we want,
not "John and I". And again, if you're not
sure, take out "John" and say... Do we usually
say "Give it to I"? No. We say "Give it to me".
Okay? "To me", "for me", "after me", "before
me". All right? Any preposition, after that,
you're going to use the object pronoun. You
got it.
Another example, "She works for us." Again, after the preposition, you want to use the
object pronoun, "us". Not "for", "we". And
also, after the verb "to be", we usually use
these object pronouns. Now, in the old days,
like in... Or in Shakespeare, somebody might
say "It is I", but usually we don't say that
anymore. We just say "It's me." Okay? "It's
him." So we're using the object pronouns after
the verb "to be". "It's me." Okay? Object
pronoun. "It's them." Object pronoun. All right?
I hope you're beginning to see a lot of the
correct patterns that the subjects go first,
the objects go usually towards the end, the
subject does the action, the object receives
the action. And if you have a compound subject,
don't mix them up. Okay? Don't take something
from here and then something from here. No, no, no. Don't do that. All right? Just take
subjects. And on that side, just take objects.
All right? This is really, really important.
You might want to write out some sentences, write out lots of sentences. If you want,
you can put them down in the comments or whatever,
but let's practice a little bit more to make
sure that you've got it.
Okay, are you ready to own this subject? Here
we go. All right? So, I made it a little bit
easier for you. I kept the chart. Okay? In fact, you might want to copy this chart in
your notes. I think it's very helpful to see
it visually, see it as being different. Right?
The subjects up there, the objects down here.
All right? But now let's try to apply them.
Here we go. Number one, do we say, "He and I went out for dinner", or do we say, "Him
and me went out for dinner"? Which one is
right? If you need to, you can pause the video,
think about it, come back. Okay? And if not,
just stay along with me. Here we go. What's
the answer? The correct answer is the first one, "He and I went out for dinner." Okay?
So this is wrong. Why? Because this is the
subject. Right? The subject of the sentence,
the doer of the action. So we want the subject
pronouns, which are up here, "he" and "I".
And of course, I explained to you before that "I" goes last. All right?
Next, "Why are you looking at she?" or "Why
are you looking at her?" Okay? Unfortunately,
we hear this question a lot in the world. All right? So, what should it be? Which one
is right? It should be... This is correct, this is wrong. Okay? First, it's at... It's
towards the end. Right? Second, it's also
after a preposition, "at her". Right? So after
a preposition, you need to use the object
pronouns, not the subject pronouns. All right?
"At her", "to her", "for her", "with her". All right? Good.
Next, number three, "She and my sister are
friends." or "Her and my sister are friends."
Which one is right? By now, you should know
it like that in a heartbeat. Right? Tell me.
Which one is it? Okay? Which one should I
cancel? This one. Okay? And this is correct.
All right? This is good. We'll just skip that.
All right, so, "She and my sister". Why "she"?
Because this is the subject. All right? Subject,
not object. All right? "She and my sister".
Good.
Number four, "Please return the book to he." or "Please return the book to him."
Think. Subject or object? Is it at the beginning?
No. Is it at the end? Yes. Is it after a preposition?
Yes. So, what does it need to be? It's an object. Okay. What's the object? "Him", not
"he". So, we will cancel "he" and we will
circle "him" as being the right answer. "Please
return the book to him", "for him", "with
him". Okay? All of those. "Before him", "after
him". All right? All of those.
Next, "I bought this for we" or "I bought this
for us", which is correct? Again, analyze.
What's the subject of this sentence? The subject
or the doer of the action is "I". Okay? This
is the subject. "I bought", right? This is
the verb. "I bought this for", so now we need
an object, so it should be "us" and not "we".
Okay? "For us", because "we" is the subject
pronoun and "us" is the object pronoun. I know, it seems like we're saying it again
and again, but that's how our brain remembers. All right.
Next, "Me and her work together" or "You tell
me the right answer." Okay? Because this is
wrong. All right? "Me" is an object pronoun,
but here we have the subject. "Her" is an
object pronoun, and yet we hear these kind of
sentences. Completely wrong. Okay? Two object
pronouns instead of two subject pronouns. So what are the correct subject pronouns we
should use here? So instead of "me", we should
use what? "I". Instead of "her", we should
use "she". Right? Yes. But do we say "I and she work together"? No. So we also have to
do a little switch there. Right? And you need
to say "she" and "I". Okay? "She and I work
together", this is totally, totally wrong.
Even if you hear it in a movie or in a show,
or if you read it on the internet, it's wrong, and
it'll always be wrong. It's actually considered
very poor English, so you really don't want to make this kind of mistake. Okay?
So, if you want to practice this and master this very important subject-okay?-go to our
website, www.engvid.com. Immediately do the quiz.
And before you go there... Sorry, one second.
Please subscribe. Okay? Because that way you
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Wish you all the best. All the best with your English, really. Always. Bye for now.
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