Before we learn what a subject pronoun is, we first need to know what the subject of a sentence is.
What is the subject of a sentence?
The subject of a sentence is a person, thing or idea that is doing something or being something. The subject often performs the action of the verb.
- Paul plays football.
Paul is the subject of this sentence because he is the thing (in this case the person) doing the action.
- The ball is red
The ball is the subject of this sentence because it is the thing being something (it is “being” red).
The subject often appears right before the verb. You can normally find the subject by asking WHO or WHAT did the verb (or IS).
- Susan ate my chocolate.
Who ate my chocolate? (Who did the action?) Susan … so Susan is the subject.
What is a subject pronoun?
Subject pronouns are used to REPLACE the subject (person or thing) to avoid sounding repetitive or when we already know who or what we are talking about.
We do NOT normally say:
- Mary is an actress and Mary is funny.
Saying the word “Mary” twice is repetitive and does not sound natural.
We replace the Subject (Mary) that appears the second time with a subject pronoun to avoid repetition (in this case to avoid saying the name Mary again.)
So we would say:
- Mary is an actress and she is funny.
We replace the second “Mary” with the Subject Pronoun “She”.
In English the subject pronouns are I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they.
In Italian a subject pronoun is called pronomi (personali) soggetto. We will see these next…