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00:04

Subject + object pronouns, a la Shmoop. Tall Jim and Joan will take Bella and Della

00:10

to see Burt and Stinky Jim.

00:12

Wow, that's a lot of names to sort through. Let's clean this sentence up a bit. And

00:17

then... maybe we'll clean up Stinky Jim...

00:19

They will take them to see Burt and Stinky Jim.

00:23

In grammar, pronouns like "they" and "them" can be used to stand in for nouns.

00:28

However, some pronouns only work as subjects, while other pronouns only work as objects.

00:34

In a sentence, a subject performs an action...

00:37

...while the action in a sentence happens to an object.

00:41

Trying to make an object pronoun the subject of a sentence or a subject pronoun the object

00:44

of a sentence...

00:45

...is like trying to fit a round peg into a square hole.

00:47

Let's look at some examples of pronoun placement gone terribly awry. Say we have the sentence,

00:53

"Him went to the grocery store to stock up on candy canes."

00:57

"Him" is an object pronoun. It can't be the subject of our sentence. So, let's

01:02

change things up a bit.

01:03

"He went to the grocery store to stock up on candy canes."

01:06

"He" is a subject pronoun, so it fits perfectly into our example.

01:11

Here's another sentence: "Them took they cow tipping."

01:18

Looks like someone got their pronouns switched. It might have been that poor, startled cow.

01:23

As "them" is an object pronoun and "they" is a subject pronoun, this sentence should

01:28

read, "They took them cow tipping." From our examples, we know that subject pronouns

01:36

are completely different from object pronouns.

01:40

Subject pronouns include the words "I", "he", "she", "they", and "we".

01:45

Object pronouns include the words "me", "him", "her", "them", and "us".

01:49

However, there's one word that can serve as either a subject pronoun or an object pronoun...

01:55

...the word "you". Say we have the sentence, "You went for

01:59

a swim in the very cold ocean."

02:00

Here, the word "you" is a subject pronoun.

02:04

But what if we have this sentence? "Brad forced you to swim in the very cold ocean."

02:08

This time, the "you" is an object pronoun. The other amazing thing about the word "you"

02:14

is that it can be singular...

02:15

...as we saw in our two previous examples...

02:17

...or plural. What does this mean? "You" can stand in for one person...

02:22

...or many people. Say a tour guide is leading her group of twenty

02:26

tourists around Pamplona, and she tells them, "Watch out! You don't want to get run

02:31

over by a bull!"

02:33

In this example, the "you" isn't just a subject pronoun...

02:37

...it's a plural subject pronoun.

02:42

Say our tour guide is driving her horde through Barcelona, and she tells them, "Now I'll

02:47

show you the part of town where the pickpockets live."

02:52

In this example, the "you" isn't just an object pronoun...

02:55

...it's a plural object pronoun. We've been over the basics of subject and

02:59

object pronouns, but what happens when we have more than one person as the subject or

03:03

object of a sentence?

03:05

What happens... is that people get confused and switch their pronouns around.

03:08

Say we have the sentence, "Lisa and me ate an entire gallon of chocolate chip cookie

03:13

dough ice cream."

03:13

"Me" doesn't belong as a subject of this sentence; it's an object pronoun.

03:17

Instead, our sentence should read, "Lisa and I ate an entire gallon of chocolate chip

03:22

cookie dough ice cream."

03:24

The grammar in our example is now correct...

03:26

...even if the decision to pack away so many calories wasn't.

03:30

Or say we have the sentence, "Grandma gave she and Tom ugly sweaters for their birthdays."

03:35

"She" is a subject pronoun; it doesn't belong as an object of this sentence.

03:40

Our sentence should read, "Grandma gave her and Tom ugly sweaters for their birthdays."

03:44

Yay, correct grammar! Boo, poor gift choice! Just because a sentence has two people as

03:49

subjects or two people as objects...doesn't mean we should get so turned around that we

03:53

mix up our pronouns.

03:54

To keep poor grammar at bay, just remember this tip...

03:57

...when faced with a sentence with multiple subjects or objects, narrow the subjects or

04:02

objects down to one...

04:04

...in order to select the correct subject pronoun or object pronoun.

04:07

For example, say we have the sentence, "John and I-slash-me went to the rave last night."

04:13

If John's presence scrambles the brain, just kick him out of the sentence for a moment.

04:18

This leaves us with, "I-slash-me went to the rave last night."

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"I" is a subject pronoun, so that's the pronoun we want in this sentence, instead

04:27

of the object pronoun "me".

04:30

So, the sentence in its entirety should read, "John and I went to the rave last night."

04:37

There's one last thing we need to know about subject and object pronouns...

04:41

...whenever a pronoun is part of a prepositional phrase, we always use an object pronoun...

04:46

...never a subject pronoun.

04:49

Just to review, prepositions normally describe relationships or show possession...

04:53

...and some examples of prepositions include the words "between", "above", "including",

04:58

and "over". Say we have the sentence, "We'll keep

05:01

this secret between you and me."

05:03

Our prepositional phrase in this example is "between you and me"...

05:07

...and "you" and "me" are object pronouns.

05:09

We would never say, "We'll keep this secret between you and I"...

05:13

...because "I" is a subject pronoun.

05:17

Or say we have the sentence, "Bill was so angry he threw the lamp at her."

05:20

Here, "at her" is our prepositional phrase...

05:23

...and we use "her" because it's an object pronoun.

05:26

We would never say, "Bill was so angry he threw the lamp at she"...

05:30

...because "she" is a subject pronoun. There may be a lot of rules about subject

05:36

and object pronouns...

05:37

...but the most important thing to remember is that some pronouns only work as subjects...

05:41

...while other pronouns only work as objects...

05:43

...and never the twain shall meet.

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