Subject pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, they)

Instead of repeating a name every time, English lets you replace it with a short word once your listener already knows who or what you mean: instead of Maria is a teacher. Maria lives in Rome., you can say Maria is a teacher. She lives in Rome. These small words — I, you, he, she, it, we, they — are called subject pronouns, because they take the place of the subject in a sentence.

Quick shortcut: in a simple statement, a subject pronoun comes right before the verb, in the same place a noun subject would go.

The subject pronouns

Notice that I is always written as a capital letter, no matter where it appears in the sentence:

• Yesterday I was busy.
• My friend and I are going to the party.

Choosing the right pronoun

He is for a man or boy, and she is for a woman or girl. It works for things, ideas, and places, and usually for animals too, when the animal's sex isn't known or isn't important — though a pet whose sex you know is often called he or she instead. It isn't used for adult people.

They is for more than one person or thing, whatever mix of male, female, or other they are — but it also has a second, very common job: talking about one person whose gender you don't know, haven't mentioned, or who simply goes by they:

• Someone left their umbrella here. I hope they come back for it.
• Alex is waiting outside. They've been there for ten minutes.

You is for the person or people you're talking to — the same word whether you mean one person or several. We is used whenever the speaker is part of the group:

• Where is my phone? It's on the table.
• My parents work in a hospital. They are doctors.
• Maria and I are classmates. → We are classmates.
• Do you and your sister like pizza? — Yes, we do.

Subject pronouns and the verb

A subject pronoun can stand for more than just one noun — it can stand in for a whole name, a noun, or a group of words acting together as the subject: Tom and Anna → they, Anna and I → we.

In a simple statement, the pronoun goes right where the subject would go, before the verb — and the verb still has to agree with it, exactly as it would with the original subject:

• My sister works in London. → She works in London. (not She work)
• My brothers are at school. → They are at school.

This matters a lot with the verb to be, since its form changes with the subject (am / is / are — see The verb "to be" (am / is / are) for the full rules).

In questions, though, the order flips: the verb (or an auxiliary like do or is) comes before the subject pronoun, not after it:

• Where is it?
• Are you ready?
• What do they want?

Common mistakes

• ❌ Him is my brother. → ✅ He is my brother. (him is an object pronoun, used after a verb or preposition — it can't be the subject of a sentence)
• ❌ My sister is a doctor. She work in London. → ✅ My sister is a doctor. She works in London. (the verb still needs to agree with the pronoun)
• ❌ i am tired. → ✅ I am tired. (I is always capitalised)
• ❌ Is raining. → ✅ It is raining. (English sentences almost always need a subject, even for weather — many other languages leave it out here, but English fills the slot with it)
• ❌ The cat, he is sleeping. → ✅ The cat is sleeping. / ✅ He is sleeping. (in basic written English, one subject is usually enough — the noun or the pronoun, not both together)

Quick check

Replace the subject with the correct subject pronoun:

1. Peter is a student. → ____ is a student.
2. My friends live in Spain. → ____ live in Spain.
3. The book is on the table. → ____ is on the table.
4. Anna and I are neighbours. → ____ are neighbours.

Key takeaways

• Subject pronouns — I, you, he, she, it, we, they — stand in for the subject, usually right before the verb (though in questions, the verb comes first).
• He/she are for people, it is mainly for things, ideas, and animals, and they covers plurals as well as a single person of unknown or unstated gender.
• I is always capitalised, wherever it appears in a sentence.
• The verb still has to agree with the pronoun: she works, not she work.