Chicago Style Workout 8: Personal Pronouns

/ August 23, 2016

Updated January 28, 2025

Military personnel curl logs

Ready for some heavy lifting?

This workout centers on paragraphs 5.42–52 in CMOS 18. Advanced editors might tackle the questions cold; learners can study that section of the Manual before answering the questions.

Remember: The workouts are all about Chicago! If you’re an expert in MLA, AP, or New York Times style, you might be surprised to find that your instincts don’t quite match Chicago’s. That doesn’t mean your answer is necessarily “wrong”—it just means it isn’t Chicago style.

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Now updated to refer and link to the 18th edition.

Chicago Style Workout 8: Personal Pronouns

Note: The first five questions are true/false statements based on the guidelines at CMOS 5.42–52; the last five ask you to judge whether the grammar is correct.

1. A first-person pronoun is always singular.
2. Although the second-person pronoun you is both singular and plural, it always takes a plural verb, even if only a single person or thing is addressed.
3. Only the third-person singular pronouns he, she, and it directly express gender.
4. If a prepositional phrase contains more than one personal-pronoun object, then each of these pronouns must be in the objective case (Will you send an invitation to him and me?).
5. A pronoun serving as the complement of a linking verb should be in the nominative case (It was she who asked for a meeting).
6. Rupert and she have decided to start up a start-up.
7. My sister looks more like him than she looks like me.
8. Whoever left their coat on the bus can pick it up in the office.
9. This argument is strictly between her and me.
10. Taylor and he worked on this for six months before handing it over to Sergei, Barb, and I.

 

Photo: Coronado, Calif. (June 22, 2003), Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) students. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Eric S. Logsdon, 030622-N-3953L-106. Wikimedia Commons.

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