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Lesson Plan - Get It!

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Pronouns make our lives easier!

In this lesson, you will take a look at three ways that pronouns are used in sentences.

First, do a quick review of subjects and objects because you're going to learn how pronouns can be both subjects and objects of a sentence.

Subjects and Objects

Let's look to the sport of golf for some examples.

Let's say our friend, Dan, is a professional golfer.

Dan picks up his golf club.

In this sentence, Dan is the subject because he's the one doing the action. The club is the object because it's the thing to which the action is done (he picks it up).

Dan swings the club and hits the ball.

Again, Dan is the subject. In this sentence, however, he does two different actions to two different objects. He both swings and hits.

• What does he swing?

He swings the club.

• What does he hit?

He hits the ball.

So both club and ball are the objects.

Whenever you're asked to find subjects, ask yourself:

• Who or what is doing the action?

Whenever you're asked to find objects, ask yourself:

• Who or what is acted upon?

Now, onto the pronouns!

Subjective Pronouns

You can probably guess that subjective pronouns are the pronouns that are the subject of the sentence.

Let's say that Dan has a brother named Stan, who is into the sport of auto racing.

Stan drives a Formula One race car.

Of course, Stan is the subject of this sentence.

He drives a black car with red and white highlights.

When we replace Stan with the pronoun He, He becomes the subject, also called the subjective pronoun.

• The black car passes the other cars.
• It is the fastest car on the track.

• What is the subject of the first sentence?

• What is the subjective pronoun of the second sentence?

The subjective pronouns are:

• I
• we
• you
• he
• she
• it
• they

Objective Pronouns

Since subjective pronouns are the subject of a sentence, you can probably guess what objective pronouns are!

Yes, they are the objects of the sentence.

Our friend Sasha plays basketball.

• Sasha dribbles the ball up the court.
• She shoots it into the basket.

• What is the object of the first sentence?
• What does she dribble?

The ball. Ball is the object.

• What is the objective pronoun in the second sentence?
• What does she shoot?

It, meaning the basketball. So it is the objective pronoun.

The objective pronouns are:

• me
• us
• you
• him
• her
• it
• them

Some more examples:

• Sasha played one-on-one with her friend, Kelly.
• Sasha ran past her and went straight to the basket.

• What is her in the second sentence?

• What does it stand for?

• Sasha's parents came to the game.
• Sasha saw them in the stands.

• What is them in the second sentence?

• What does it stand for?

Possessives

Sasha's sister, Natasha, plays tennis.

• Whose sister is she?

She is the sister of Sasha. Sasha's is a possessive noun.

Her sister practices tennis every day.

Here, we've replaced Sasha's with her, so we know that her is a possessive pronoun.

We can replace possessive nouns with possessive pronouns:

The possessive pronouns are:

• my
• our
• your
• his
• her
• its
• their

• Are you ready to practice with subjective, objective, and possessive pronouns?

Go to the Got It? section!