Confusing Subject & Object Pronouns: HE or HIM? I or ME? SHE AND I or HER AND I...?

Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. I'm so glad you

clicked on this lesson because today's lesson

is one of the most important lessons ever. Why? Because this mistake that I'm going to

tell you about is one of the most frequently

made mistakes, unfortunately, not only by

English learners, but also by English speakers.

So, hey, if there are any English speakers

watching this, please keep watching because you would like to correct this too. But for

the English learners, it's even more important

because you're doing exams, you're going for

job interviews, and people are judging your English a little bit more critically. Okay?

So, what are we going to talk about today?

We're talking about subject and object pronouns.

Now, I know that doesn't sound very sexy, but it's so important that you get it right

because it's a very basic mistake. All right?

And I hope that after this lesson, you will

get it right. I'm going to do my best to explain

it to you so you completely get it. Okay?

Here we go. All right. So, first of all, what's

a subject and what's an object, and what's

a pronoun? Because I said subject, object,

pronouns. There are three words there. Okay?

They're kind of like grammar words. So, the

subject of a sentence in English is the doer

of the action. Okay? It's the person that

does the action. And the object receives the

action. Okay? I'm going to explain it to you

exactly, give you an example and everything,

no problem. All right? And what's a pronoun?

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of

a noun. So, for example, I could say "John",

okay? "John likes me." Or I could say "He

likes me." So, "He" replaced "John". All right?

Now, let's look at this chart because here

what I've written for you are basically all the

subject pronouns and all the object pronouns.

Okay? Now, what's the problem? The problem is that sometimes people are using object

pronouns when they should be using subject

pronouns, and vice versa. So, sometimes they're

using subject pronouns when they should be using object pronouns. All right? So, let's

see how this works. So, in this sentence, "I

love movies." Right? The "I" is a subject.

It's doing the action. The action is love. All

right? So this is a subject pronoun. Right?

But in this sentence, "Please call me", the

subject is understood as "you", but the action

is being received to "me". "Please call me."

So, "me" is an object pronoun. Okay? I'm going

to give you so many examples that you're going

to get it, even if you didn't get it yet.

Okay?

Let's try it with this little rhyme. And you

can say it along with me if you want, if it

helps you to kind of get that rhythm in your

head. All right? Because language is not about

rules and all of that only. It starts with

that, but finally it becomes about the rhythm,

and whether it's going to sound right to your

ear. So, let's say these sentences, and we're

going to run through them with all of these examples. Okay? Here we go.

For example, "I like Jack", "Jack likes me." Okay?

"I like Jack", subject, "I", "Jack likes me", object.

"You like Jack", "Jack likes you". Here, you

can see with the word "you" that it's the

same. Okay? So there we don't usually make mistakes because it's the same. Here, "He

likes Jack", "Jack likes him". Okay? "She

likes Jack", say it with me, "Jack likes her".

"We like Jack", "Jack likes us", "They like Jack", "Jack likes them". Okay? So what do

you notice? That all of these subject pronouns

usually come at the beginning of a sentence,

and the object pronouns usually come towards

the middle or end of a sentence. Okay? You'll

see that, and that's how it is. And there

are a few other patterns which I'll show you.

So let's look at some examples. Okay? So we

said the first one already. "I love movies",

subject. "We live here", right? Also, subject.

Yeah? You see it up there? "She studies hard",

right? Subject. Yeah? All of these are subjects.

"They watch videos", like you are doing right

now. "They" is the subject, and I hope if you're

watching this video that you also subscribe

to my channel because I keep giving you all of these kind of shortcut lessons that will

really save you a lot of time and years in learning English. Okay? So subscribe. "He

and I are good friends." Now, look what happens

here. Here it was pretty straightforward,

right? Yeah, of course. I know, Rebecca. I

know what the subject is. But here, sometimes

people get confused when we have more than one subject. So here it was "he" and "I",

but these are still the subjects, so we still

have to take the word from here, take the

pronoun from up here, and not from down here.

So we have to say "he" and "I". Now, why do

we say "he" and "I", and not "I" and "he"?

Because usually in English we're very polite,

we let other people go first through the door,

and we also let other people go first in the

sentence. All right? So even if it was five

people, like "she", "he", and "I", okay? "They"

and "I", but "I" comes last. All right? So

that's how it is. But the most important thing

is not just where the "I" is, but that you're

saying "I" and you're not saying "me". So

you cannot say "he" and "me". No. Not if you're talking about the subject. You have

to say "he" and "I". And if you're not sure,

what you can do is take out that other person

or people and just say "I am good friends". That makes sense. But if I said "me am good

friends", no, that doesn't sound right. Correct?

So that's one way we can tell. Sometimes people

make the same mistake here. Instead of saying

"he", they'll say "him". "Him" and "I". No. Again,

"him" belongs on the other side, the object,

right? Not the subject. All right? So that's

something else. Now let's go to the other side

and look at some examples of the objects and

how we usually use them. So, "Please call me",

right? Receiving the action of the call. "I thank

them." Now, in this sentence, we have a subject

and an object, right? What's the subject?

"I", right? Subject. Because I'm doing the action. "I thanked", and "I thanked" who?

"Them". Okay? So this here is the object. All right? Again, this tends to usually be

at the beginning of a sentence; that tends to be at the end of a sentence.

Now, another very important clue is when you

have a preposition. So whatever follows the

preposition should be what? The objects. And

the mistake that I'm hearing a lot on TV,

and writing, on the internet, and so on, is that people are after... The prepositions

are using these subject pronouns, and that's

wrong; that's incorrect. Like, especially

if you're doing an exam or you're writing a job application, that's a bad mistake to

make. Okay? So don't make that one.

So let's look at the example. "Give it to

John and me." Okay? So after "to", so that's

"to" is the preposition, "Give it to John and

me." Okay? Because it's an object we want,

not "John and I". And again, if you're not

sure, take out "John" and say... Do we usually

say "Give it to I"? No. We say "Give it to me".

Okay? "To me", "for me", "after me", "before

me". All right? Any preposition, after that,

you're going to use the object pronoun. You

got it.

Another example, "She works for us." Again, after the preposition, you want to use the

object pronoun, "us". Not "for", "we". And

also, after the verb "to be", we usually use

these object pronouns. Now, in the old days,

like in... Or in Shakespeare, somebody might

say "It is I", but usually we don't say that

anymore. We just say "It's me." Okay? "It's

him." So we're using the object pronouns after

the verb "to be". "It's me." Okay? Object

pronoun. "It's them." Object pronoun. All right?

I hope you're beginning to see a lot of the

correct patterns that the subjects go first,

the objects go usually towards the end, the

subject does the action, the object receives

the action. And if you have a compound subject,

don't mix them up. Okay? Don't take something

from here and then something from here. No, no, no. Don't do that. All right? Just take

subjects. And on that side, just take objects.

All right? This is really, really important.

You might want to write out some sentences, write out lots of sentences. If you want,

you can put them down in the comments or whatever,

but let's practice a little bit more to make

sure that you've got it.

Okay, are you ready to own this subject? Here

we go. All right? So, I made it a little bit

easier for you. I kept the chart. Okay? In fact, you might want to copy this chart in

your notes. I think it's very helpful to see

it visually, see it as being different. Right?

The subjects up there, the objects down here.

All right? But now let's try to apply them.

Here we go. Number one, do we say, "He and I went out for dinner", or do we say, "Him

and me went out for dinner"? Which one is

right? If you need to, you can pause the video,

think about it, come back. Okay? And if not,

just stay along with me. Here we go. What's

the answer? The correct answer is the first one, "He and I went out for dinner." Okay?

So this is wrong. Why? Because this is the

subject. Right? The subject of the sentence,

the doer of the action. So we want the subject

pronouns, which are up here, "he" and "I".

And of course, I explained to you before that "I" goes last. All right?

Next, "Why are you looking at she?" or "Why

are you looking at her?" Okay? Unfortunately,

we hear this question a lot in the world. All right? So, what should it be? Which one

is right? It should be... This is correct, this is wrong. Okay? First, it's at... It's

towards the end. Right? Second, it's also

after a preposition, "at her". Right? So after

a preposition, you need to use the object

pronouns, not the subject pronouns. All right?

"At her", "to her", "for her", "with her". All right? Good.

Next, number three, "She and my sister are

friends." or "Her and my sister are friends."

Which one is right? By now, you should know

it like that in a heartbeat. Right? Tell me.

Which one is it? Okay? Which one should I

cancel? This one. Okay? And this is correct.

All right? This is good. We'll just skip that.

All right, so, "She and my sister". Why "she"?

Because this is the subject. All right? Subject,

not object. All right? "She and my sister".

Good.

Number four, "Please return the book to he." or "Please return the book to him."

Think. Subject or object? Is it at the beginning?

No. Is it at the end? Yes. Is it after a preposition?

Yes. So, what does it need to be? It's an object. Okay. What's the object? "Him", not

"he". So, we will cancel "he" and we will

circle "him" as being the right answer. "Please

return the book to him", "for him", "with

him". Okay? All of those. "Before him", "after

him". All right? All of those.

Next, "I bought this for we" or "I bought this

for us", which is correct? Again, analyze.

What's the subject of this sentence? The subject

or the doer of the action is "I". Okay? This

is the subject. "I bought", right? This is

the verb. "I bought this for", so now we need

an object, so it should be "us" and not "we".

Okay? "For us", because "we" is the subject

pronoun and "us" is the object pronoun. I know, it seems like we're saying it again

and again, but that's how our brain remembers. All right.

Next, "Me and her work together" or "You tell

me the right answer." Okay? Because this is

wrong. All right? "Me" is an object pronoun,

but here we have the subject. "Her" is an

object pronoun, and yet we hear these kind of

sentences. Completely wrong. Okay? Two object

pronouns instead of two subject pronouns. So what are the correct subject pronouns we

should use here? So instead of "me", we should

use what? "I". Instead of "her", we should

use "she". Right? Yes. But do we say "I and she work together"? No. So we also have to

do a little switch there. Right? And you need

to say "she" and "I". Okay? "She and I work

together", this is totally, totally wrong.

Even if you hear it in a movie or in a show,

or if you read it on the internet, it's wrong, and

it'll always be wrong. It's actually considered

very poor English, so you really don't want to make this kind of mistake. Okay?

So, if you want to practice this and master this very important subject-okay?-go to our

website, www.engvid.com. Immediately do the quiz.

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