A pronoun is a word used as a substitute for an explicitly name or implied person or thing. We would sound silly if we kept naming the person in a sentence, rather than using you or he instead. (I actually dated a girl in Atlanta, Shelley her name was, who kept using my name in the middle of sentences, as if she were a salesman. Anyway).

For example: I telephoned Grandma yesterday, and when I was speaking to her, I thought that she sounded tired.

Compare that to the same sentence without pronouns: Daniel telephoned Grandma yesterday, and when Daniel was speaking to Grandma, Daniel thought that Grandma sounded tired.

So we can see that pronouns are very important and common, yet most people misuse them hundreds of times every day. This article aims to .....

TODO

Let me make this very clear. Possessive pronouns use no apostrophe. If you are not sure what that means, then this article is for you.

The word it's means only two things: it is or it has.

It does not indicate possession. The possessive pronoun is its alone.

For example:

• the dog wags its tail.
• the cat and its smile.
• its sole purpose in life is to breed.

In the third person, English pronouns can be a little confusing. In the third person male, the word his is used for the equivalent of my and mine; whereas in the third person female, her is equivalent to me and my (not me and mine).

As you can see here, hers has no apostrophe. This also demonstrates that yours has no apostrophe, QED.

This brings us nicely to the widespread misuse of me. I estimate that nine times out of ten when one uses the word me, one actually should use I. Me is used when the recipient of a verb's action is I, the word I then changes to me.

It is also used in other cases, such as to I --> to me; for I --> for me; from I --> from me.

The rest of the time, one should use I.

• Who saw the film? I. (not me)
• My mother and I (not me) took a holiday.
• Who requested the taxi? I. (not me)

But:

• Whom does the girl like? Me (not I). [object of the verb to like]
• Which of you is the taxi driver collecting? Me (not I). [object of the verb to collect]
• To whom did you give the gift? To me? (not to I)

Whom is used when the person that would normally be referred to with who is the recipient of a verb's action, or in one of the special case mentioned above (to, from, for, etc).

• Whom do you love? [object of the verb to love]
• The girl, with whom I conversed for 3 hours, fell asleep.
• The girl, to whom I spoke for 3 hours, fell asleep.
• For whom the bell tools.

But

• Who saw the film? Here, who is asking about the subject, not the object, of the verb to see.

When you have a sentence that uses who(m), and you don't know which choice is the correct, simply turn the statement or quesiton around so that it would state or ask using he or him.

If the correct choice is he (the shorter) then use who; if the correct choice is him (the longer) then use whom.

Examples:

• "Who(m) do you like?" Turn this into "do you like he/him?" The correct choice is "do you like him?", so we must use whom. "Whom do you like?"
• "Who(m) gave you the money?" Turn this into, "he/him gave you the money". The correct choice is he, so we use who. "Who gave you the money?"

These old fashioned English words ably demonstrate the difference between you, your and yours.

• Thee = you. The bell tools for thee. The bell tolls for you.
• Thy = your. By thy grace. By your grace.
• Thine = yours. Thine is the Kingdom. The Kingdom is yours.

So when you see idiots trying to sound clever by subsituting you/your/yours for these old fashioned words, and choosing the wrong one, you can correct them.

Whose

Who's means who is or who has.

In the interrogative, when asking the question who is or the question who has, then it is acceptable to use who's.

For example:

• who's taller than me? Who is taller than me.
• who's been to France? Who has been to France?

Whose is for possession alone.

Whose is used when enquiring about possession, and when referring back to a possessor.

An enquiry: Whose dog is this?

A back-reference: this man, whose dog I struck, scowled at me.

In Hungarian, they very sensibly differentiate between a question and a back reference; the question is the bare word and the back-reference is prefixed with an a-.. In is most easy to demonstrate with the word for "whom".

• Kit kedvelsz? Whom do you like?
• Ez az ember, akit kedvelek, magas. This man, whom I like, is tall.