What is an Object Pronoun in English Grammar?

An Object Pronoun is a type of personal pronoun that receives the action in the sentence. A few examples are you, him, her, them, us, me, etc. It is also called “Objective Pronoun”.

In simple words, we can also define it as “the pronoun that is used to replace the object noun is known as Object Pronoun”.

These pronouns are often replaced by nouns that receive the action in the sentence, and thus it cannot be the subject in the sentence because these are objects which are somehow affected by the other subject in the sentence.

In other words, the object pronoun which replaces the object noun cannot be the subject of that sentence. Let us learn this concept more in detail.

We all know that, generally, a sentence contains 3 elements. Those are Subject, Verb and Object (SVO). We also know that Pronouns are used to replace nouns in sentences.

Here, we should only focus on the object of the sentence. Let us consider an example.

Example Sentence: Raju ate chocolate.

Here, the sentence is divided as Raju (Subject) + ate (Verb) + chocolate (Object).

Since according to the sentence structure, the word “Raju” is called Subject Noun and “chocolate” is called Object Noun.

Suppose if we used the pronoun “it” in place of “chocolate”, then the sentence will be,

Sentence with Object Pronoun: Raju ate it.

So, the word “it” is called an object pronoun.

Example Sentence: I like to talk to Mary. (Here, “Mary” is the noun object)

Sentence with Object Pronoun: I like to talk to her. (Here, “her” is the pronoun object)

The below table consists of 7 different types of objective pronouns.

Subject Pronoun Object Pronoun
IMe
YouYou
HeHim
SheHer
ItIt
WeUs
TheyThem
Subject Pronoun vs Object Pronoun Table

Note: Here, in Object Pronoun, the pronoun “You” is used for both Singular and Plural forms.

References:

Personal Pronoun | (Definition & Examples) | Full Guide 2025

What is a Sentence in English Grammar? | Best Guide for 2025

Types of Personal Objective Pronoun

The personal pronoun which is used as direct object, indirect object or as an object of a preposition is known as Personal Objective Pronoun. There are three types of it which are mentioned below.

Direct Object

The direct object of a sentence is a thing that is being acted by the verb. An example is mentioned below.

Example Sentence: I know him.

Here, the sentence structure is: I (subject) + know (verb) + him (direct object).

We can observe that the action (verb) is implied/acted on the pronoun (him).

Indirect Object

The indirect object of a sentence is a thing that is a recipient of a direct object.

In simple words, the verb is directly affecting on the direct object and indirectly affects the pronoun, which makes it an indirect object. An example is mentioned below.

Example Sentence: I sent her a gift.

Here, the sentence structure is: I (subject) + sent (verb) + her (indirect object) + a gift (direct object).

We can observe that the action (verb) is implied/acted on the direct object (a gift), but the pronoun (her) became the indirect object because it is a recipient of the direct object.

Object of a Preposition

The Object of a Preposition is defined as an object pronoun that is being controlled by the preposition in a sentence.

Example Sentence: He was with us.

Here, the sentence structure is: He (subject) + was (verb) + with (preposition) + us (object pronoun).

We can observe that the preposition (with) is used in between the verb (was) and object pronoun (us).

More examples of Object Pronoun

Here are some more examples for a better understanding of this topic.

Usage of Object Pronoun

Object Pronouns can be used in many ways. Some of them are mentioned below.

Example Sentences:

  1. I did it!
  2. The team played it very well.
  3. He respects them.
  4. She won it.
  5. Siri knows him.

Example Sentences:

  1. It’s important to me.
  2. He works for them.
  3. The cake for us.
  4. Jenny told something to them.
  5. She is suspicious to us.

Example Sentences:

  1. It is him!
  2. Oh! It’s you again!
  3. Likewise, it is her.
  4. It was her!
  5. Who’s there? It’s me!

Example Sentences:

  1. He is as smart as her.
  2. He is smarter than her.
  3. She rides as fast as them.
  4. She rides faster than them.

Example Sentences:

  1. Everyone lost the game but me.
  2. Everyone lost the game except me.
  3. The teacher scold everyone but me.
  4. The teacher scold everyone except me.

How to identify Object Pronoun in any sentence?

Below are a few simple steps to follow in order to find the Object Pronoun in the sentence. To explain this, we will choose an example sentence.

The basic structure of the object pronoun is,

Subject (Noun/Pronoun) + Verb + Object Pronoun + Object

Example Sentence: The teacher gave us a lot of homework.

Step 1: Identify the structure of the given sentence. That is SVO (Subject Verb Object).

i) So, the first task is to identify the Subject in the sentence. Here, the Subject is “teacher”

The teacher gave us a lot of homework.

ii) Next, identify the verb (action) in the sentence. Here, the verb is “gave”.

The teacher gave us a lot of homework.

iii) Then, finally, identify the object that receives the action (verb)/gets influenced by the subject in the sentence.

Tip: Mostly, the object pronoun will be positioned after the verb.

The teacher gave us a lot of homework.

Here, we got the final answer, which is “us”. But make sure that it is in the form of the pronoun, otherwise, it is called an Object Noun if it is in the noun form.

Quiz (Test Your Knowledge)

[HDquiz quiz = 183]

Summary: (What is an Object Pronoun in English Grammar?)

Object Pronoun

Here is the summary of what we had learned till now.

If you are interested to learn more about this topic, then you can refer to Wikipedia from here.

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