Subject pronouns replace a noun that is doing the action in a sentence. Instead of saying Maria works here, English can say She works here. The pronoun stands in the subject position and points to the person, animal, or thing already known from the situation or the previous sentence.

A subject pronoun can also make a sentence shorter and smoother. Compare My brothers live in Chicago with They live in Chicago. The meaning stays clear, but the second sentence avoids repeating the noun. For more on how pronouns fit into sentence structure, see Word Order and Making Statements.

The singular subject pronouns are I, you, he, she, and it. I refers to the speaker. You refers to the person or people spoken to. He refers to a male person, she to a female person, and it to one animal, thing, idea, or place.

Use it for objects and for many situations where English treats something as a single thing, such as a company, a car, or the weather: It is cold, It needs repair, It is open today. In everyday English, these pronouns are the basic way to name the subject without repeating a noun. If you want to ask who or which person is involved, Interrogative Pronouns show that form in questions.

We refers to the speaker plus one or more other people. They refers to two or more people or things. These pronouns work the same way as singular subject pronouns, but they point to a group.

Use we when the speaker is included: We start at nine, We live near the station. Use they when the speaker is not part of the group: They work upstairs, They are on the table. They can also refer to plural things: The keys are missing. They were on the counter. For reference to groups in a sentence, they often follows the same pattern as other subject pronouns, while we includes the speaker in the subject.

In a normal English statement, the subject pronoun comes before the verb: I know her, She likes coffee, They live here. The pattern is subject + verb, and the subject pronoun usually starts the sentence or clause.

This placement stays the same in short answers and in longer sentences with extra information: We eat at home on Mondays, It rains often in spring, You can sit here. English does not usually move the subject pronoun after the verb in a statement. In questions, word order changes, so the subject pronoun may appear after an auxiliary verb, as in Are you ready? See Asking Questions for that pattern.

Subject pronouns control the verb form in the present tense. With he, she, and it, many verbs take -s or -es: He walks, She watches, It rains. With I, you, we, and they, the verb stays in the base form: I walk, You watch, We rain is not used, so the verb must fit the meaning and the subject.

The pronoun you always takes the same verb form for singular and plural: You work, You work together. In everyday speech, they can refer to one person when the gender is unknown or not important: They are waiting, They need help. In that use, the verb still follows the plural pattern: they are, they were, they need. For more on the forms that work with pronouns, Making Statements shows how the whole sentence is built.

A subject pronoun must fill the subject role, not the object role. After a verb or after a preposition, English usually needs an object pronoun, not a subject pronoun. Say She saw him, not She saw he. Say This is for us, not This is for we. For the object forms, see Object Pronouns.

Subject pronouns also get mixed up with possessive forms. She is the subject, but her can mean possession or an object: Her bag is here, I called her. The sentence position tells the role. When the pronoun is doing the action, use the subject form. When it receives the action or follows a preposition, use the object form.

When answering a question with who, use a subject pronoun if the answer is the subject of the verb. If someone asks Who called?, the reply can be I did, She did, or They did, depending on the person who made the call. The pronoun matches the person doing the action.

If the answer needs more information, the subject pronoun still leads the clause: Who is coming? He is, We are. In short replies, English often uses the pronoun alone with a form of do or be: Who finished the report? I did. For naming people directly in questions and replies, Interrogative Pronouns gives the question form, and Relative Pronouns shows how pronouns connect clauses in longer sentences.