LoginImpersonal Pronouns
An impersonal pronoun does not refer to a specific person or thing. These pronouns help us talk about a thing or person without mentioning what or who.
What Are Impersonal Pronouns?
Impersonal pronouns are used to refer to people in general, without specifying their identity or identifying them.
English Impersonal Pronouns
There are three impersonal pronouns in English:
One
'One' is used to talk about people in general or about unidentified/unknown things.
'One' is used for singular nouns while for plural nouns 'ones' is used:
When Do We Use 'One'?
We use 'one' and 'ones' after:
- Definite article 'the'
- 'Which' in questions
- Some adjectives
Matthew is the
Which
Matthew is the fat
You
When 'you' is used to refer to people in general in informal contexts, it is called 'impersonal you' or 'generic you.' It refers to anyone or everyone. In these cases, 'you' has the same meaning as 'people':
If
They
'They' is used to talk about a group of people, such as an authority, an institution, a company, etc. In these sentences, 'they' refers to people in general.
When we do not want to mention the gender of a person, we use the third-person plural pronoun 'they'. It is called singular they.
If
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