Words that stand in for a name
Read these two sentences.
“Ava fed the fish. Ava washed the bowl.”
Saying “Ava” twice sounds clunky. English has a shortcut.
“Ava fed the fish. She washed the bowl.”
The word “she” stands in for the name. A word that stands in for a naming word is a pronoun.
The two you use for yourself
When you talk about yourself, you have two pronouns to pick from.
- I
- me
They both mean the same person. That is you. But they are not swappable, and picking the wrong one is something people notice.
| Right | Wrong |
|---|---|
| I ate lunch. | Me ate lunch. |
| Leo helped me. | Leo helped I. |
Read the wrong column out loud. Your ear already knows something is off. The next two lessons explain what.
One word always takes a capital
The word “I” is a capital letter wherever it sits in a sentence.
“I lost my glove.”
“Leo and I lost our gloves.”
In the second one it sits in the middle and still gets a capital. The word “me” does not. It stays small unless it starts the sentence.
Words to know
- pronoun: a word that stands in for a naming word
Your turn
Say right or wrong.
- “I like apples.”
- “Me like apples.”
- “Ava saw me.”
- “Ava saw I.”
Check your answers
- Right.
- Wrong.
- Right.
- Wrong.
Remember
- A pronoun stands in for a naming word.
- “I” and “me” both mean you.
- “I” is always a capital letter.