+241.+ Here are a number of common errors which only constant practice
and watchfulness can overcome. Study these over and watch your
conversation closely. Force yourself to speak correctly for a time, and
soon correct speech will become a habit.
+1.+ +Do not use both a noun and a pronoun as the subject of a
sentence+; as, _John, he waited for me._ _Mary, she refused to go._
Leave out the pronouns _he_ and _she_ in these sentences. They are
unnecessary and incorrect.
+2.+ +Never use+ _hern_, _ourn_, _hisn_ or _yourn_ for _hers_, _ours_,
_his_ and _yours_; as, _The book is hisn._ _Ourn stopped on the first._
_Did you get yourn?_ Say: _This book is his._ _Ours stopped on the
first._ _Did you get yours?_
+3.+ +Never say+ _hisself_ for _himself_. There is no such word as
_hisself_. Do not say, _He hurt hisself_. Say, _He hurt himself_.
+4.+ +Do not say+ _them_ for _those_; as, _Did you bring them songs?_
_Them things are not right._ Say, _Did you bring those songs?_ _Those
things are not right._
+5.+ +Do not use an apostrophe in writing the possessive forms of
pronouns+, as _her's_, _our's_, _it's_. Leave out the apostrophe and
write _hers_, _ours_, _its_.
+6.+ +Do not use _who_ to relate to animals or things+; as, _The dog
who bit me was killed_. Say, _The dog that bit me was killed_.
+7.+ +Do not use _myself_ as the subject+. It can be used only as an
emphatic or reflexive pronoun. It is correct to say, _I found the book
myself_, and _I hurt myself_. But do not say, _They asked my friend and
myself_, or _Myself and my wife will go_. Say, _They asked my friend and
me_. _My wife and I will go._
+8.+ +Avoid the use of pronouns when the reference to the antecedent is
not clear.+ Better repeat the nouns or re-write the sentence. For
example:
He said to his friend that if he did not feel better soon he thought
he had better go home.
Now you can interpret this in at least four different ways. No one but
the speaker can ever know to whom the pronouns _he_ refer, whether to
the speaker or to his friend. Or in the sentence,
A tried to see B in the crowd, but could not because he was so short.
Who was short, _A_ or _B_? _John's father died before he was born._ Did
John's father die before John was born or did John's father die before
John's father, himself, was born? Be careful in the use of pronouns in
this way.
+9.+ +Remember that _I_, _we_, _he_, _she_, _they_ and _who_ are
always used as subject forms and also as the complement of all forms of
the verb _be_.+
+10.+ +Remember that _me_, _him_, _her_, _them_, _us_ and _whom_ are
always object forms+. Never say, _They charged he and I too much_. Say,
_They charged him and me too much_. In an attempt to speak correctly and
follow the niceties of English, this mistake is so often made. Always
use the object form as the object of a verb or preposition.
+11.+ +When a participle is used as a _noun_, and a pronoun is used
with it, the pronoun should always be in the _possessive_ form+. We
make this mistake so frequently. For example, we say: _Us going there
was a mistake_. We should have used the possessive form, _Our going
there was a mistake_. _I have never known of him being absent from
work._ We should say: _I have never known of his being absent from
work_. _Did he tell you about me joining with them?_ This should be,
_Did he tell you about my joining with them?_ _You talking to him set
him to thinking._ This should be, _Your talking to him set him to
thinking_. Watch this and wherever you have used a participle as a
_noun_, use the pronoun in the _possessive_ form, as you would with any
other noun.
+12.+ +Watch carefully that the number of the pronoun always agrees with
the number of its antecedent.+ If you are speaking of one person or
thing use a singular pronoun. If you are speaking of more than one
person or thing in your antecedent, use the plural pronoun. For example:
_Each man must do his own work._ _The soldiers fully understood their
danger._
+13.+ +When a singular noun, in the common gender (this means that it
may name either a male or female being), is the antecedent of the
pronoun, it is customary for us to use the masculine pronoun.+ For
example:
Every student should send in _his_ examination paper promptly.
Every member of the class may select _his_ own subject.
Do not use the pronoun _their_ when the antecedent is a singular noun.