yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Subject and object pronouns | The parts of speech | Grammar | Khan Academy


3m read
·Nov 11, 2024

All right, so grammarians, I want to talk to you about the difference between subject and object pronouns. But before we do that, let's start off with a little primer on what subjects and objects actually are—um, just generally, for our grammatical purposes.

So, in grammar, the subject is the part of the sentence or clause that does a thing. The subject does a thing. The object, on the other hand, is the thing that is acted on, has stuff done to it. So, the object has stuff done to it. The subject acts; the object is acted upon.

Let's give an example. In the sentence, "Reina wrote an email," the subject of the sentence, the doer of the thing, is Reina. Reina is the subject. The thing she is doing is writing an email. So, "Reina wrote an email." Email is the object of the verb "wrote." It is the object of the sentence.

Now, there are cases when a sentence doesn't have an object. For example, we could just say, "Reina wrote." It doesn't have an object; it's just "Reina" as the subject, and then there is no object. This is what we call intransitive usage. But you don't need to write that down or anything.

Now, understanding the relationship between "email" and "Reina" enables you to understand how subject and object pronouns are used. So, when we're subbing out these nouns for pronouns, we can figure out which ones we have to use because pronouns have different forms depending on whether or not they are subjects or objects.

So, "Reina" is a girl's name, and if we know that "Reina" is a girl, we can refer to her as either "she" or "her." These are two of the feminine pronouns. One of these is a subject, and one of them is an object. "She" is the subject form, and "her" is the object form. So, if we wanted to rewrite this sentence, speaking of Reina, we would say, "She wrote an email," not "Her wrote an email." You see? Because "her" is the object pronoun, and therefore is the thing that has—uh, the object pronoun has stuff done to it as opposed to the doer of things. "She" is the subject form; it's the doer.

For email, it's easy; this just becomes "it." In all cases, the subject form and the object form are the same. Let's do a couple more examples just to shore this up so you see what I mean.

I give her a present. Right now, "I" is the subject; "her" is the object. Subject, object. But what if we switched it? What would it look like then? Well, it wouldn't be "her give I a present," because since we're switching the subject and the object, we're going to be switching the pronouns that we use too. So, it would be "She gave me a present." Now, "she" is the subject form of "her," and "me" is the object form of "I." Get a little period in there.

Same thing with "they" and "he." So, "They showed him a guitar." Why not? So, "they" is the subject, and "him" is the object. And let's give it the old switcheroo: "He showed them a guitar."

So, now we do the switcheroo. "Him" becomes "he," so we go from the object form, which is "him," to the subject form, which is "he." And then "they," the subject form, becomes "them," the object form.

Now, when it comes to "you" and "it," you're in luck because the subject and object forms of these are the same. So, subject equals object with "you" and "it." So, I could say, "You give it a present," just as easily as I could say, "It gives you a present."

Oh, I didn't realize I changed this to the past tense. "She gives me a present." There we go, that's better. And that's the difference between a subject and an object pronoun. You can learn anything. Dave it out.

More Articles

View All
Lateral & total surface area of triangular prisms | Grade 8 (TX) | Khan Academy
We’re asked what is the lateral surface area of the triangular prism and what is the total surface area of the triangular prism. Pause this video and try to solve this on your own before we work through this together. All right, so first let’s just remin…
The Future of Crypto Under President Trump #shorts
Most of the moves you’re seeing, including in Bitcoin, are around lifting of the regulatory weight that’s been put on in the previous administration. About a trillion dollars has been pulled out of this, and this will be very good for every sector, includ…
What Happens If We Throw an Elephant From a Skyscraper? Life & Size 1
Let’s start this video by throwing a mouse, a dog, and an elephant from a skyscraper onto something soft. Let’s say, a stack of mattresses. The mouse lands and is stunned for a moment before it shakes itself off and walks away pretty annoyed, because that…
Photographing Pandas and their Return to the Wild | Nat Geo Live
China is performing a minor miracle right now. They are taking captive-born pandas and releasing them back into the wild. They’re also creating corridors and creating more habitat for pandas and a whole host of other species. So, I had front row access to…
If Life Has No Meaning, Why Live? | Albert Camus & The Absurd Man
According to French-Algerian philosopher Albert Camus, our world has no ultimate meaning, but if it had, it would be impossible to know it. It’s all pretty pointless, as if the universe is nothing more than a cosmic coincidence, born without any specific …
Definite integral involving natural log | AP Calculus AB | Khan Academy
Let’s now take the definite integral from 2 to 4 of (6 + x^2) over (x^3) dx. At first, this might seem pretty daunting. I have this rational expression, but if we just rewrite this, it might jump out at you how this could be a little bit simpler. So, thi…