Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. I'm so glad you
clicked on this lesson because today's lesson
is one of the most important lessons ever. Why? Because this mistake that I'm going to
tell you about is one of the most frequently
made mistakes, unfortunately, not only by
English learners, but also by English speakers.
So, hey, if there are any English speakers
watching this, please keep watching because you would like to correct this too. But for
the English learners, it's even more important
because you're doing exams, you're going for
job interviews, and people are judging your English a little bit more critically. Okay?
So, what are we going to talk about today?
We're talking about subject and object pronouns.
Now, I know that doesn't sound very sexy, but it's so important that you get it right
because it's a very basic mistake. All right?
And I hope that after this lesson, you will
get it right. I'm going to do my best to explain
it to you so you completely get it. Okay?
Here we go. All right. So, first of all, what's
a subject and what's an object, and what's
a pronoun? Because I said subject, object,
pronouns. There are three words there. Okay?
They're kind of like grammar words. So, the
subject of a sentence in English is the doer
of the action. Okay? It's the person that
does the action. And the object receives the
action. Okay? I'm going to explain it to you
exactly, give you an example and everything,
no problem. All right? And what's a pronoun?
A pronoun is a word that takes the place of
a noun. So, for example, I could say "John",
okay? "John likes me." Or I could say "He
likes me." So, "He" replaced "John". All right?
Now, let's look at this chart because here
what I've written for you are basically all the
subject pronouns and all the object pronouns.
Okay? Now, what's the problem? The problem is that sometimes people are using object
pronouns when they should be using subject
pronouns, and vice versa. So, sometimes they're
using subject pronouns when they should be using object pronouns. All right? So, let's
see how this works. So, in this sentence, "I
love movies." Right? The "I" is a subject.
It's doing the action. The action is love. All
right? So this is a subject pronoun. Right?
But in this sentence, "Please call me", the
subject is understood as "you", but the action
is being received to "me". "Please call me."
So, "me" is an object pronoun. Okay? I'm going
to give you so many examples that you're going
to get it, even if you didn't get it yet.
Okay?
Let's try it with this little rhyme. And you
can say it along with me if you want, if it
helps you to kind of get that rhythm in your
head. All right? Because language is not about
rules and all of that only. It starts with
that, but finally it becomes about the rhythm,
and whether it's going to sound right to your
ear. So, let's say these sentences, and we're
going to run through them with all of these examples. Okay? Here we go.
For example, "I like Jack", "Jack likes me." Okay?
"I like Jack", subject, "I", "Jack likes me", object.
"You like Jack", "Jack likes you". Here, you
can see with the word "you" that it's the
same. Okay? So there we don't usually make mistakes because it's the same. Here, "He
likes Jack", "Jack likes him". Okay? "She
likes Jack", say it with me, "Jack likes her".
"We like Jack", "Jack likes us", "They like Jack", "Jack likes them". Okay? So what do
you notice? That all of these subject pronouns
usually come at the beginning of a sentence,
and the object pronouns usually come towards
the middle or end of a sentence. Okay? You'll
see that, and that's how it is. And there
are a few other patterns which I'll show you.
So let's look at some examples. Okay? So we
said the first one already. "I love movies",
subject. "We live here", right? Also, subject.
Yeah? You see it up there? "She studies hard",
right? Subject. Yeah? All of these are subjects.
"They watch videos", like you are doing right
now. "They" is the subject, and I hope if you're
watching this video that you also subscribe
to my channel because I keep giving you all of these kind of shortcut lessons that will
really save you a lot of time and years in learning English. Okay? So subscribe. "He
and I are good friends." Now, look what happens
here. Here it was pretty straightforward,
right? Yeah, of course. I know, Rebecca. I
know what the subject is. But here, sometimes
people get confused when we have more than one subject. So here it was "he" and "I",
but these are still the subjects, so we still
have to take the word from here, take the
pronoun from up here, and not from down here.
So we have to say "he" and "I". Now, why do
we say "he" and "I", and not "I" and "he"?
Because usually in English we're very polite,
we let other people go first through the door,
and we also let other people go first in the
sentence. All right? So even if it was five
people, like "she", "he", and "I", okay? "They"
and "I", but "I" comes last. All right? So
that's how it is. But the most important thing
is not just where the "I" is, but that you're
saying "I" and you're not saying "me". So
you cannot say "he" and "me". No. Not if you're talking about the subject. You have
to say "he" and "I". And if you're not sure,
what you can do is take out that other person
or people and just say "I am good friends". That makes sense. But if I said "me am good
friends", no, that doesn't sound right. Correct?
So that's one way we can tell. Sometimes people
make the same mistake here. Instead of saying
"he", they'll say "him". "Him" and "I". No. Again,
"him" belongs on the other side, the object,
right? Not the subject. All right? So that's
something else. Now let's go to the other side
and look at some examples of the objects and
how we usually use them. So, "Please call me",
right? Receiving the action of the call. "I thank
them." Now, in this sentence, we have a subject
and an object, right? What's the subject?
"I", right? Subject. Because I'm doing the action. "I thanked", and "I thanked" who?
"Them". Okay? So this here is the object. All right? Again, this tends to usually be
at the beginning of a sentence; that tends to be at the end of a sentence.
Now, another very important clue is when you
have a preposition. So whatever follows the
preposition should be what? The objects. And
the mistake that I'm hearing a lot on TV,
and writing, on the internet, and so on, is that people are after... The prepositions
are using these subject pronouns, and that's
wrong; that's incorrect. Like, especially
if you're doing an exam or you're writing a job application, that's a bad mistake to
make. Okay? So don't make that one.
So let's look at the example. "Give it to
John and me." Okay? So after "to", so that's
"to" is the preposition, "Give it to John and
me." Okay? Because it's an object we want,
not "John and I". And again, if you're not
sure, take out "John" and say... Do we usually
say "Give it to I"? No. We say "Give it to me".
Okay? "To me", "for me", "after me", "before
me". All right? Any preposition, after that,
you're going to use the object pronoun. You
Another example, "She works for us." Again, after the preposition, you want to use the
object pronoun, "us". Not "for", "we". And
also, after the verb "to be", we usually use
these object pronouns. Now, in the old days,
like in... Or in Shakespeare, somebody might
say "It is I", but usually we don't say that
anymore. We just say "It's me." Okay? "It's
him." So we're using the object pronouns after
the verb "to be". "It's me." Okay? Object
pronoun. "It's them." Object pronoun. All right?
I hope you're beginning to see a lot of the
correct patterns that the subjects go first,
the objects go usually towards the end, the
subject does the action, the object receives
the action. And if you have a compound subject,
don't mix them up. Okay? Don't take something
from here and then something from here. No, no, no. Don't do that. All right? Just take
subjects. And on that side, just take objects.
All right? This is really, really important.
You might want to write out some sentences, write out lots of sentences. If you want,
you can put them down in the comments or whatever,
but let's practice a little bit more to make
Okay, are you ready to own this subject? Here
we go. All right? So, I made it a little bit
easier for you. I kept the chart. Okay? In fact, you might want to copy this chart in
your notes. I think it's very helpful to see
it visually, see it as being different. Right?
The subjects up there, the objects down here.
All right? But now let's try to apply them.
Here we go. Number one, do we say, "He and I went out for dinner", or do we say, "Him
and me went out for dinner"? Which one is
right? If you need to, you can pause the video,
think about it, come back. Okay? And if not,
just stay along with me. Here we go. What's
the answer? The correct answer is the first one, "He and I went out for dinner." Okay?
So this is wrong. Why? Because this is the
subject. Right? The subject of the sentence,
the doer of the action. So we want the subject
pronouns, which are up here, "he" and "I".
And of course, I explained to you before that "I" goes last. All right?
Next, "Why are you looking at she?" or "Why
are you looking at her?" Okay? Unfortunately,
we hear this question a lot in the world. All right? So, what should it be? Which one
is right? It should be... This is correct, this is wrong. Okay? First, it's at... It's
towards the end. Right? Second, it's also
after a preposition, "at her". Right? So after
a preposition, you need to use the object
pronouns, not the subject pronouns. All right?
"At her", "to her", "for her", "with her". All right? Good.
Next, number three, "She and my sister are
friends." or "Her and my sister are friends."
Which one is right? By now, you should know
it like that in a heartbeat. Right? Tell me.
Which one is it? Okay? Which one should I
cancel? This one. Okay? And this is correct.
All right? This is good. We'll just skip that.
All right, so, "She and my sister". Why "she"?
Because this is the subject. All right? Subject,
not object. All right? "She and my sister".
Good.
Number four, "Please return the book to he." or "Please return the book to him."
Think. Subject or object? Is it at the beginning?
No. Is it at the end? Yes. Is it after a preposition?
Yes. So, what does it need to be? It's an object. Okay. What's the object? "Him", not
"he". So, we will cancel "he" and we will
circle "him" as being the right answer. "Please
return the book to him", "for him", "with
him". Okay? All of those. "Before him", "after
him". All right? All of those.
Next, "I bought this for we" or "I bought this
for us", which is correct? Again, analyze.
What's the subject of this sentence? The subject
or the doer of the action is "I". Okay? This
is the subject. "I bought", right? This is
the verb. "I bought this for", so now we need
an object, so it should be "us" and not "we".
Okay? "For us", because "we" is the subject
pronoun and "us" is the object pronoun. I know, it seems like we're saying it again
and again, but that's how our brain remembers. All right.
Next, "Me and her work together" or "You tell
me the right answer." Okay? Because this is
wrong. All right? "Me" is an object pronoun,
but here we have the subject. "Her" is an
object pronoun, and yet we hear these kind of
sentences. Completely wrong. Okay? Two object
pronouns instead of two subject pronouns. So what are the correct subject pronouns we
should use here? So instead of "me", we should
use what? "I". Instead of "her", we should
use "she". Right? Yes. But do we say "I and she work together"? No. So we also have to
do a little switch there. Right? And you need
to say "she" and "I". Okay? "She and I work
together", this is totally, totally wrong.
Even if you hear it in a movie or in a show,
or if you read it on the internet, it's wrong, and
it'll always be wrong. It's actually considered
very poor English, so you really don't want to make this kind of mistake. Okay?
So, if you want to practice this and master this very important subject-okay?-go to our
website, www.engvid.com. Immediately do the quiz.
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Wish you all the best. All the best with your English, really. Always. Bye for now.