Pronouns: one, you, we, they
One, you, we and they are generic personal pronouns. We can use one, you, we and they to refer to ‘people in general’.
One, you and we
We can use one, you or we when we are making generalisations and not referring to any one person in particular. When used like this, one, you and we can include the speaker or writer:
- One can use the Internet without understanding cookies. (or You can use … or We can use …)
- You usually need a raincoat in Ireland. It rains a lot.
- We tend to avoid talking about money.
One is much more formal than you or we, and is rare in speaking:
- One would have thought that agreement could be reached easily on that matter.
We can use one’s before a noun as a possessive determiner:
- Conversations with one’s children are extremely predictable, especially as they hit adolescence.
They
We can use they to talk about a wide group of people, such as an authority or an institution. In such cases, they does not refer to specific people:
- They*’re chopping down the rainforests.*
- They*’ve opened a new cinema in the town centre.*
- They started running yoga classes at the school.
We use they and them to refer back to the indefinite pronouns someone, anyone, everyone (underlined below) when we do not know the number or gender. We also use they and them in question tags:
- If someone comes with a parcel for me, can you ask them to take it next door.
- I believe anyone can do anything if they really want to enough, can’t they?
- Pronouns: personal (I, me, you, him, it, they, etc.)
- Pronouns: possessive (my, mine, your, yours, etc.)
- Possessive ’s
- One