Subject Pronouns: I, You, He, She, It, We, They

Level: A1. A subject pronoun is a short word that replaces the person or thing doing the action, so you don’t repeat the noun. English has seven: I, you, he, she, it, we and they.

The rule

The subject of a sentence is the person or thing that does the action (or that the sentence is about). Instead of naming it again and again, you replace it with a subject pronoun:

• My brother works in London. → He works in London.
• The keys are on the table. → They are on the table.

The pronoun goes before the verb, in the same place the noun was. English also insists on a subject in almost every sentence — even when there is no real “doer”, you still need it (It is cold today.) or there (There is a problem.).

The subject pronouns

Only the third person singular splits by gender (he / she / it). Everywhere else one word does the job.

How to say it

These are the sounds English learners most often trip on in these words:

Example sentences

Common mistakes

• ❌ Is raining today. → ✅ It is raining today. English needs a subject, so add dummy it.
• ❌ Me and my friend are here. → ✅ My friend and I are here. As the subject, use I, not me.
• ❌ My mother, she is a nurse. → ✅ My mother is a nurse. Don’t use the noun and its pronoun together.
• ❌ He a doctor. → ✅ He is a doctor. A subject pronoun still needs a verb (here, is).
• ❌ She is my brother. → ✅ He is my brother. Match the pronoun to the person’s gender.

A short conversation

A: Who is that? B: He is my cousin. He lives here now. A: And the two people with him? B: They are his friends. We are going to lunch — do you want to come?

Usage notes

• Formal vs informal: we’re, you’re, they’re, it’s, I’m (contractions) are normal in speech and friendly writing; write the full forms in formal texts.
• Singular “they”: English commonly uses they for one person when the gender is unknown or not relevant: Someone called — they didn’t leave a name.
• “You” for people in general: You never know means “one never knows” — a general statement, not about the listener.

Compared with…

• Object pronouns (me, you, him, her, it, us, them) do the opposite job — they receive the action: She called me (not She called I). See Object Pronouns.

Quick recap before the quiz.

Practice

Quiz

Recap cheat-sheet

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