7/28/2019 Personal Pronouns Lesson Plan

1/2

PERSONAL PRONOUNS

1. Recognising the repetition of nouns Whats wrong with these sentences?

Jamie put the coat on because Jamie was cold. The dog is a Labrador and the dog is thirsty. Xavier ate the yellow snakes because he likes yellow snakes.

In all these sentences, a noun is repeated. These would make much more sense as: Jamie put the coat on because he was cold. The dog is a Labrador and itis thirsty. Xavier ate the yellow snakes because he likes them.

These are probably what you thought was wrong in the sentences before: if you saythem out loud, it just seems weird to use the same noun twice in the same sentence!

2. Identifying personal pronouns Quick recap:

A noun is a word that is a person, place or thing. For example: Brian, the car, a pencil,Uluru etc.

A pronoun is a word that can be used instead of a noun. Is the pen a blue pen?

Is thata blue pen?

A personal pronoun is used instead of a noun that is a person or a thing. However, forthese to make sense you must have already mentioned the noun youre replacing in

your paragraph. For example:Personal pronouns for people = I, you, he, she, we, they

me, you, him, her, us, them

Personal pronouns for things = it, they, them

Just like you dont refer to other people as it, you dont call a pencil him. Itsimportant to use the right personal pronoun!

Personal pronouns add to your writing because they save you from repeating yoursubject (noun), so make your sentence shorter and more interesting.

3. Using the correct personal pronoun Insert the correct personal pronoun in these sentences.

a) Amy called earlier. Please return _____ call before 2pm. _____ says its important.Amy called earlier. Please return hercall before 2pm. She says its important.

Here, the personal pronoun she refers to Amy. If you then had a sentence Jill said

she might see you there! the personal pronoun she is now referring to Jill.

b) The parcel arrived at the post office; you can collect _____ now.The parcel arrived at the post office; you can collect itnow.

c) Phil and _____ are going to the movies. Do _____ want to come with _____?Phil and Iare going to the movies. Do you want to come with us?

7/28/2019 Personal Pronouns Lesson Plan

2/2

4. Understanding singular versus plural pronouns Hopefully you remember the difference between singular and plural?

There was a seagullat the beach. There were seagulls at the beach. This second sentence has a plural noun because its talking about (referring to) a

group of things.

You might have noticed in the last sentence there were different types of personalpronouns. Iwas used: thats a singular personal pronoun because its only referring to

one person. When 'us'was used, it was referring to a group of people; its a plural

personal pronoun (try saying that 10 times fast!)

'You'is a special personal pronoun because it can be used for either one person or agroup of people.

Do you like going fishing? (Could refer to multiple people, but most likely just one.) Have any of you ever been to Disneyland? (A group of people)

To know which you is being used, you have to get the context from the rest of thesentence/paragraph.

5. Knowing when to use I and when to use me The personal pronouns I and me often get used in the wrong place. You know which

one to use depending on whether the sentence is talking about you (You are the

subject so you use I) or youre talking about some other object(You are not the subject

so you use me) Jack and Iare going down to the shops. Can you lend me your ruler?

An easy way to know which one is right is to take the other person out of the sentenceand say it out loud. Jack and Iare going down to the shops. If you take out Jack, you get I am going down to the shops. Its easy to hear/see that Me am going down to the shops isnt right.

Should I or me be used in these sentences? _____ am 13 years old.

Iam 13 years old.

Feel free to thank _____ for getting your ball back.Feel free to thank me for getting your ball back.

Shane, Mikayla and _____ are going to the movies.Shane, Mikayla and Iare going to the movies.

6. Correcting personal pronouns in a paragraph When youre writing a postcard there isnt much space, so use personal pronouns to

save on space and make your sentences more interesting.

(Attached worksheet)