Personal Pronouns: Unstressed Function Words

Personal pronouns are the most basic pronouns used to take the place of a
noun or a noun phrase. Grammatically, they can be the subject of the
sentence (I, he, she, it, you, we, and they) or the object of the sentence
(me, him, her, it, you, us, and them).
Personal Pronouns
Subject
Pronoun

Object
Pronoun

verb
I

like

him.

He

likes

her.

She

likes

it.

It

likes

us.

You

like

them.

They

like

me.

Personal pronouns are function words; their purpose is to provide a

grammatical shortcut rather than to provide details. Like other function
words, personal pronouns are not usually stressed.
She

likes

them.

Play
They

gave

it

to

Play

us.

We

got

there

before

it

started.

Play

Reduced pronouns
Along with being unstressed, the personal pronouns he, him,
her, and them can be further reduced by omitting the first consonant
sound. Notice that the pronunciation of a reduced him can have a nearly
identical pronunciation as a reduced them.
Reduced
pronoun

Full pronoun

Example
phrase

he

he

does he

Play

him

him

ask him

Play

her

her

ask her

Play

them

them

ask them

Play

If the pronoun is the first word of a sentence or is stressed to give it special

meaning (see below), the pronoun may not be reduced.
In the sentence He likes her, the pronoun her can be reduced, but the
pronoun he, since it it the first word of the sentence, cannot be reduced. In
the sentence I think he likes her, however, both he and her can be reduced.
He

likes

her.

Play
I

think

he

likes

Play

her.

Similarly, in the sentence Her car is missing, the pronoun her cannot be
reduced, though it can be reduced in the sentence She gave her car to
them, because it is no longer the first word of the sentence.
Her

car

is

missing.

Play
She

gave

her

car

to

Play

them.