Word List

Pronouns – person and number

Students are likely to know the terms first, second and third person narrative in relation to stories they read. The term person is based on the pronouns that are used when narrating a story.

The pronouns may either be singular (one only) in number, or plural (more than one).

First person pronouns take the place of the person speaking.
Second person pronouns take the place of the person spoken to.
Third person pronouns take the place of the person spoken about.

First person
I, me, mine, myself (Singular)
we, us, ours, ourselves (Plural)   

Second person
you, yours, yourself (Singular)
you, yours, yourselves (Plural)

Third person
he, she, it, him, her, his, hers, its, himself, herself, itself  (Singular)
they, them, theirs, themselves (Plural)

Common errors with apostrophes

Common errors with apostrophes include:

•    using apostrophes with the possessive pronouns, its, his, hers, ours, yours, which do not take apostrophes.
•    confusing its (meaning ‘owned by it’) with it’s (the abbreviation for ‘it is’).
•    confusing his (the possessive pronoun) with he’s (the abbreviation for ‘he is’).
•    putting apostrophes before the ‘s’ in plurals.
•    putting apostrophes between the ‘n’ and ‘t’ in words like want, which are not abbreviations.