Pronouns
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After a verb or a preposition, the pronoun changes its form — always into the same one. No case tables, just me, him, her, us, them.
Object pronouns are the forms me, you, him, her, it, us and them. They follow a verb or a preposition — and one single form covers what German splits into accusative and dative.
Updated: July 2026
A1 · Pronouns · 8 min
A structured ten-slide lesson for A1 learners. Hear the object pronouns in context, meet the rule from a tutor, then practise across six interactive drills before a final five-question quiz. The whole arc takes about eight minutes and nothing requires a signup.
Object pronouns are the small words English uses when a person or thing receives the action instead of doing it. Someone calls — that is the subject. Someone gets called — that is the object, and it needs the object form: me, you, him, her, it, us, them. The good news for German speakers is hard to overstate: German forces a choice between accusative and dative in every sentence — mich or mir, ihn or ihm — while English folds all of that into a single form. Whether the pronoun follows a verb ("call me"), a preposition ("with me"), or stands as an indirect object ("send me the file"), the word is simply me. There is nothing to weigh up and no table to memorise beyond seven short words. Once you know the seven forms, you already know every case English will ever ask of you.
English has exactly seven object pronouns: me, you, him, her, it, us, them. Only five of them are genuinely new forms — I becomes me, he becomes him, she becomes her, we becomes us, they becomes them — while you and it simply keep the shape they already had, which means there are only five changes to learn. Learn them as spoken pairs, almost like a chant: I–me, he–him, she–her, we–us, they–them. The third person singular works the way you would expect: him for a man, her for a woman, it for a thing, an animal you do not know personally, or an idea. Them covers every plural — people, companies, files, clients — and is increasingly also used for a single person whose gender is unknown or should stay open, as in "If a customer calls, ask them to wait." For an A1 learner, the plural use is the one to master first; the singular use will meet you again at higher levels.
Object pronouns live in two places. First, directly after a verb: call me, help us, ask her, invite them. Second, after a preposition — small words like to, for, with, from, about: send it to us, this is for you, I work with them, tell me about it. If the pronoun sits in either of those slots, it takes the object form, no exceptions. When a verb has two objects — a person and a thing — English gives you two equally correct patterns. Pattern one puts the person first, with no preposition: send me the file, show her the numbers. Pattern two puts the thing first and attaches the person with to or for: send the file to me, show the numbers to her. Both are natural and mean the same thing; the one order English never allows is send to me the file. The good news: the German order — mir die Datei schicken — maps directly onto pattern one, so your instinct is usually right.
The most German-specific error is not a wrong word but a lost second: learners pause mid-sentence to decide whether English needs the equivalent of mich or mir, of ihn or ihm — and there is nothing to decide. German splits its object territory into two cases; English merged accusative and dative into a single form, so me is always right where either mich or mir would appear. Trust the short answer and keep talking. The second classic error is the hypercorrect subject form after and: between you and I, the boss invited Tom and I. Both sound polished to many ears and both are wrong — prepositions and verbs demand the object form, so it is between you and me and invited Tom and me. The reverse error appears too: using the object form as a subject (Me and Tom finished the report), common in casual speech but out of place in writing. Finally, watch the order with two objects: send me it feels awkward to many speakers; prefer send it to me.
Subject and object pronouns are two halves of one system, and the fastest way to choose between them is the slot test. Look at where the pronoun sits. Before the verb, doing the action? Subject form: I, he, she, we, they. After the verb or after a preposition, receiving the action? Object form: me, him, her, us, them. A single sentence can carry both: She calls him every Monday, and he calls her back on Tuesday. Same two people, different slots, different forms. The test also settles the tricky cases. In short spoken answers, English prefers the object form even where school grammar once demanded the subject: Who broke it? — Me. And after than in comparisons, everyday English says She is taller than him, while more formal writing prefers than he is. Neither is a mistake at A1 — just recognise both when you hear them. If subject pronouns still feel wobbly, review that lesson first; this one builds directly on it.
Office English runs on object pronouns, because work is mostly about moving things between people: files, numbers, calls, decisions. A handful of patterns covers most of a working day. Requesting: send me the file, could you forward it to us? Keeping people informed: let me know, keep them updated, I'll get back to you. Copying colleagues in: CC her, put him in the loop. Phone language: call me back, I'll put you through to her. Meetings: join us at ten, can everyone hear me? Delegating: ask him to prepare the slides, remind them about the deadline. Notice how many of these put the pronoun immediately after the verb — that position is where object pronouns earn their living. A practical exercise: open your own sent emails and rewrite three sentences in English using send me, let me know, and contact us. Because the patterns repeat so often, they harden into habits quickly — which is exactly what an A1 learner wants.
I is the subject form and sits before the verb: "I sent the file." Me is the object form and sits after the verb or after a preposition: "Send me the file." / "This is for me." With lists of people, use a simple test: drop the other person. "The boss invited Tom and me" works because "invited me" works — "invited I" does not.
For learners from case-marking languages: searching for a distinction that is not there. Where German picks between mich and mir or ihn and ihm, English collapses everything into one object form, so hunting for a second option only makes you slow and unsure — the answer is always me, him, us. The second most common mistake is the hypercorrect "between you and I" — the correct form is "between you and me," because a preposition takes the object form.
Modern English uses the object form after be in identifying sentences: "It's me." / "That's him." / "Was that her on the phone?" The old school form "It is I" is not ungrammatical, but today it sounds distinctly formal or even archaic — hardly anyone uses it in conversation. For a learner, "It's me" is the normal, universally accepted form.
No — the seven forms me, you, him, her, it, us, them are identical on both sides of the Atlantic, in spelling and in use. What you will hear are differences of register, not region: "Me and Sarah are going" is casual speech in both varieties and is avoided in formal writing in both. For exams and business correspondence the same pattern applies everywhere: subject form before the verb, object form after it.
Object pronouns are the second brick in the pronoun cluster. Before this lesson you should be solid on *subject-pronouns* (A1) — the slot test only works when you know both halves. The natural next step is *possessive-adjectives-pronouns* (A1), which adds my, your, his and mine, yours, his, and later *reflexive-pronouns* (A2) with myself, yourself and herself.
English once had a case system resembling the German one, with distinct endings for nominative, accusative and dative. Over the centuries those endings wore away, and fixed word order took over their job: whoever stands before the verb acts, whoever stands after it receives. Today the pronouns are almost the only place where English still marks case at all — me, him, her, us and them are the last remnants of that older system.
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