FM: Lesson - Personal Pronouns Review

Personal Pronouns

A personal pronoun is a word used to express the person referred to: 1st, 2nd or 3rd. In English, the words I, We, You, He, She, It, They are all personal pronouns. Look at the picture: who is he and what do you think of him? Those words, he and him, are personal pronouns.

Personal Pronouns - overview

The English persons are as follows: 

Personal Pronoun Review

Person	Singular	Plural	Explanation
1st	Subject: I Object: me Possessive: my (mine)	Subject: We Object: us Possessive: our(s)	Talking about yourself
2nd	Subject: You Object: you Possessive: your(s)	Subject: You Object: you Possessive: your(s)	Talking to someone else
3rd	Subject: He, She, It Object: him, her, it Possessive: his, her(s), its	Subject: They Object: them Possessive: their(s)	Talking about someone or something else

Nota Bene

• Latin uses the same system, with 1st, 2nd and 3rd person, singular and plural forms.
• In English, the personal pronouns have three cases (uses): subject, object and possessive. As you see in the table, the 1st person singular can be written:
  • Subject: I
  • Object: me
  • Possessive: my/mine

Personal Pronouns - Latin 1st and 2nd Person Personal Pronouns - Review

Below is a chart showing the 1st and 2nd person personal pronouns for you to review.

1st and 2nd Person Personal Pronouns - Latin Review

	1st Person Singular I/me	2nd Person Singular You/you	1st Person Plural We/us	2nd Person Plural You/you (pl)
Nominative	ego	tu	nos	vos
Genitive	mei	tui	nostri/nostrum	vestri/vestrum
Dative	mihi	tibi	nobis	vobis
Accusative	me	te	nos	vos
Ablative	me	te	nobis	vobis

Genitive Case - Personal Pronouns

The genitive of personal pronouns will never be used for possession because Latin uses a personal possessive adjective:

• meus, mea, meum - my, mine
• tuus, tua, tuum - your, yours (singular)
• noster, nostra, nostrum - our, ours
• vester, vestra, vestrum - your, yours (plural)

However, the genitive could be used as a partitive genitive (part of the whole) or an objective genitive (relating to an active noun):

• Partitive:
  • multi nostrum - many of us
• Objective:
  • cura mei - care for me

This is why the plural pronouns have two genitive forms:

1. Objective:
   • nostri/vestri are used in the objective sense:
     • cura nostri - care for us
2. Partitive:
   • nostrum/vestrum are used in the partitive sense:
     • pauci vestrum - a few of you

For practical purposes, just remember that it is generally rare to see a personal pronoun in the genitive case. If you do see one, it is because it fits into a special circumstance (partitive or objective genitive), but you can still use the basics: genitive = of/for + noun.