These are going to be a few grammar rules to keep in mind for any upcoming tests. Especially the ACT, since I am writing this for that reason.<h3>1. When doing comparisons between 2 pronouns, they must be of the same kind:</h3>Example:<ol><li>After all, she’s much less amusing than I.</li></ol>Here, instead of "me" we use "I". This is because there is a comparison being made between "she" and "I" using "less". So, both of them need to be in the Subject Pronoun form.<h3>2. When there is a prepositional phrase before a pronoun, that pronoun must be an Object Pronoun:</h3>Example:<ol start="2"><li>Which one among us is qualified to judge his or her ability to understand this problem in all its ramifications?</li></ol>Let's focus on the word "among". This is a preposition. So, the pronoun next to it should be an Object Pronoun.Also, the "his or her" is connected to the word "one". And thus, we used "his or her" instead of "their".<h3>3. Words like "each", "every", and "any" mean that the connected pronoun should be singular.</h3><h3>4. When there are pronouns joined together using "and" and it asks you to check if a Subject Pronoun or an Object Pronoun should be used, DELETE the other pronoun. Finally, sound out the pronoun left if it feels like this should be a Subject Pronoun or an Object Pronoun.</h3>Example:<ol start="3"><li>When the magician asked for volunteers from the audience,&nbsp;our friends pushed Kim and me up onto the stage.</li></ol>Here, you should DELETE "Kim" and sound out if "me" works here or "I".<h3>5. The correct possessive pronoun for "one" is "one's".</h3><h3>6. Some other Possessive Pronouns:</h3><h3>"Ours" = Something belonging to us.</h3><h3>"Theirs" = Something belonging to them.</h3><h3>"Its" = Something belonging to it.</h3><h3>"Whose" = Something belonging to who.</h3><h3>7. When you see "and" joining two nouns together and later a pronoun is used to refer to any of the two nouns, you need to clarify the noun that the pronoun must be referring to.</h3>Example:<ol start="4"><li>The Progressives and Independents argued back and forth for hours until the Progressives finally garnered enough votes to pass the&nbsp;measure.</li></ol>Here, you can see that if we used "they" in the place of "the Progressives", the pronoun would become ambiguous. So, we need to be explicit about who we are referring to.<h3>8. When trying to use grammar rules on question sentences, first turn them into simple sentences:</h3>Example:<ol start="5"><li>Whom do we have to thank for this delightful meal?</li></ol>Rephrased: We have to thank him for this delightful meal.Just like that, now we can easily spot that we need to use "whom" for this sentence since the appropriate pronoun is "him" for the simple sentence.<h3>9. When dealing with who/whom questions, use the latter part of the sentence starting from who/whom:</h3>Example:<ol start="6"><li>I’d like to thank whoever is responsible for this gift.</li></ol>Here, you would rephrase it like this to know if you should use whoever or whomever in the underlined place:Rephrased:She (whoever) is responsible for this gift.Since we can use "She" here, so it has to be "whoever" that goes in the underlined spot.<h3>9. Also when dealing with who/whom questions, try to see if the pronoun who/whom is the subject of the main verb or the object:</h3>Going back to the previous example:<ol start="6"><li>I’d like to thank whoever is responsible for this gift.</li></ol>Here, the whoever is used since it is the subject of the main verb "is". Since the main verb already has a subject then the other pronoun must be an object pronoun.<h3>10. Special time when "one" is involved in the sentence:</h3>This is a bit tricky one. But we need to know the simple rule that if a verb already has a subject the other pronoun tied to the verb will always be an object pronoun:<ol start="7"><li>Fiona was better suited for the job than whomever one of the&nbsp;other candidates finished second.</li></ol>First, we know to focus on the second part of the sentence starting from "whomever", and we see that the main verb finished already has a subject. The subject is "one". So, the other pronoun "whomever" must be an object pronoun.

These are going to be a few grammar rules to keep in mind for any upcoming tests. Especially the ACT, since I am writing this for ...

Aneek Rahman

Grammar: Short pronoun rules to remember