How To Use Pronoun Cases In Your Writing

Pronouns are just some of the words in English language where most people are aware about it. We keep on hearing these words every English course we enter at schools. For those who don’t even know what these words are, these words take the place of a noun in a sentence. Pronouns have a lot of types namely personal pronouns which takes the name of a person or thing; possessive pronouns which signifies ownership; demonstrative pronouns like these, this, that and those; indefinite pronouns which refers to general category of a person or thing like anyone and everything; interrogative pronouns are pronouns that are used in asking question like who, what. Where, how, why, and when; and relative pronouns which gives back the action to a person or thing that were previously mentioned.

Cases of pronouns are simple and are easy to be understood. What you need is some basic knowledge about these words and then you’re good to go. Somehow, you need to be very aware in whatever words you are going to use in your writings in order to avoid mistakes or any grammatical errors in your statements.

There are three cases for pronouns in the English language, namely nominative, accusative and genitive. While the genitive form, which denotes ownership (e.g. my, your, his, its, your), is generally well-understood, the other two are usually fodder for frequent mistakes.


Genitive form of pronouns is also known as possessive pronoun which shows ownership in whatever statements you are having for your write-ups.

The nominative case is used for the subject of a finite verb and is employed when referring to the person who is performing the action (e.g. I, you, they, who, he, she, it, we). This is a simple discussion since pronouns are often used as a subject. These words always substitute the noun and can be identified easily.

As such, you say “He walked the dog this morning” and “I ate the remaining piece of cake.” It is also employed with the verbs “to be,” “to feel,” and “to seem,” as in “It is I who ate that piece of cake.” Do note that modern usage is a bit looser; basically letting transgresses like “It is me who ate that piece of cake” slide by. Technically, though, that is the wrong case to employ and will be flagged so by your English grammar software.

The accusative case, on the other hand, is used to refer to the direct or indirect object of a verb (e.g. me, you, them, us, whom, him, her). In such instances, you write that “I owe him money” and “Send the money to them.” It is also similarly employed for the object of a preposition, as in “That money is from her and me.”

However, there are also incorrect ways of using these three cases of pronouns. As a writer, you need to be very more careful about this stuff. These are just simple grammatical errors that need to be focused cautiously in order to avoid any complications in your statements.