Pronoun Problems

1. Pronoun Problems Lesson 3.9

2. Here’s the Idea • We and Us with Nouns • The pronouns we and us are sometimes followed by a noun that identifies the noun. • Use we when the noun is a subject or a predicate noun. • Use us when the noun is an object.

3. Examples: • We volunteers like to help out. • Do you have work for us volunteers? subject Object of Preposition

4. When to choose We or Us? • First, drop the identifying noun from the sentence. • You can join (we, us) students tomorrow. • You can join (we, us) tomorrow.

5. Second, decide whether the pronoun is used as a subject or an object. • You can join us tomorrow. • In this sentence, the pronoun is the object of the verb join. • Lastly, use the correct pronoun in the original sentence. • You can join us students tomorrow.

6. Unclear Reference • Be sure that each personal pronoun refers clearly to only oneperson, place, or thing. • If there is a chance your reader will be confused by whom you are talking about, use a noun instead of a pronoun. • Noah and Rodrigo came to the work site, but he didn’t stay. • Who didn’t stay? • Noah and Rodrigo came to the work site, but Noah didn’t stay. • Now it is clear as to who didn’t stay.

7. It’s Practice Time! We • (We, Us) students help out in lots of ways. • That garden was planted by (we, us) volunteers. • Carlos worked with Joe to clean the river, even though (he, Carlos) had never done that kind of work before. • Some of (we, us) athletes offered to coach youngsters. us Carlos us