November 2026 - Pronouns Study Guide for nursing students in
Pronouns must agree with their antecedent in number and person, and take the right case: subjective for subjects, objective for objects, possessive for ownership. To test case, remove the other person from the sentence — "gave it to Maria and I" becomes "gave it to I", which is audibly wrong.
Try 4 short questions throughout this guide. Check each answer to learn from the explanation.
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The three cases
Case
Used as
Forms
Subjective
The subject doing the action
I, you, he, she, it, we, they, who
Objective
The object receiving it, or after a preposition
me, you, him, her, it, us, them, whom
Possessive
Showing ownership
my, your, his, her, its, our, their, whose
The removal test
Case errors nearly always happen when a pronoun is paired with someone else. "The consultant thanked Maria and I" sounds careful, and is wrong. Remove Maria: "the consultant thanked I". The ear settles it immediately, so the correct version is "Maria and me".
The test works in both directions. "Maria and me reviewed the notes" becomes "me reviewed the notes", which is equally wrong, so it should be "Maria and I". Neither form is automatically more correct — the test tells you which is needed.
Question 1 of 4
Which sentence is correct?
Choose one answer, then check it.
View the Answer and Explanation
Correct answer: B. The consultant thanked Maria and me for the handover.
Removing Maria gives "thanked me", so the objective case is needed. "And I" sounds more formal but fails the test, myself is only correct when the subject and object are the same person, and the last choice puts an objective pronoun in the subject position.
Agreement with the antecedent
The antecedent is the noun the pronoun stands for. They must match in number and person.
Singular antecedent, singular pronoun: Each nurse collected her own equipment, or the widely accepted singular their.
Watch indefinite pronouns: everyone, each, either, neither, somebody and nobody are grammatically singular.
Collective nouns such as team, staff and committee are usually singular in American usage: the team submitted its report.
Person must match too: do not start a sentence about "a student" and finish it with "you".
Who or whom: substitute he or him. If "he" fits, use who; if "him" fits, use whom. Both whom and him end in m, which is the whole mnemonic.
Question 2 of 4
Choose the correct form: (Who / Whom) should I contact about the results?
Choose one answer, then check it.
View the Answer and Explanation
Correct answer: B. Whom, because it is the object of "contact"
Rearranged, the sentence reads "I should contact him", and him means whom. Position at the start of a question does not determine case — the pronoun's job in the sentence does.
Vague and ambiguous reference
A pronoun with no clear antecedent is an error even when the grammar is otherwise sound.
Ambiguous — The nurse told the patient that she had made a mistake. Who made it? Rewrite to name the person.
Vague this or it — The system crashed and the notes were lost. This caused delays. What caused them? Add a noun: This failure caused delays.
Missing antecedent — In the policy, it says handover must be documented. The policy says it; there is no "it" to refer to.
Testing a pairing
Worked example
Choose: The ward manager asked Dan and (I / me) to lead the audit.
Remove the other person: "The ward manager asked I to lead the audit."
That is audibly wrong, so the subjective form does not fit.
Test the alternative: "The ward manager asked me to lead the audit." That reads correctly.
Reinstate Dan.
The ward manager asked Dan and me to lead the audit. The pronoun is the object of "asked", so it takes the objective case — and "and I" is not more polite, only more common.
Terms to know
Pronoun
A word standing in for a noun.
Antecedent
The noun a pronoun refers back to.
Subjective case
The form used when the pronoun is the subject.
Objective case
The form used for an object or after a preposition.
myself, yourself, himself — used when the subject and object are the same.
What the TEAS asks most
The same core ideas appear in different wording. If you can answer these without stopping to think, you have what this section requires.
Which pronoun correctly completes the sentence?
Remove the other person and read it aloud.
Which sentence has a pronoun agreement error?
Find the antecedent and check number. Indefinite pronouns are singular.
Who or whom?
Substitute he or him. Him and whom both end in m.
Why is this sentence unclear?
The pronoun has two possible antecedents, or none at all.
Question 3 of 4
Which sentence contains a pronoun agreement error?
Choose one answer, then check it.
View the Answer and Explanation
Correct answer: C. Each of the nurses collected their own equipment.
This is the disputed one: "each" is grammatically singular, and pairing it with "their own" in a formal test setting is treated as an agreement error, where "everyone … their" has become widely accepted. When two choices look similar, prefer the strictly singular pairing.
Key points
Three cases: subjective, objective, possessive.
Remove the other person to test which case a paired pronoun needs.
Pronouns must agree with their antecedent in number and person.
Everyone, each and nobody are singular.
Substitute he or him to choose between who and whom.
Question 4 of 4
Why is this sentence unclear? The nurse told the patient that she had misread the chart.
Choose one answer, then check it.
View the Answer and Explanation
Correct answer: B. "She" could refer either to the nurse or to the patient.
Two singular female antecedents precede the pronoun, so nothing in the sentence settles which one "she" means. The fix is to name the person: "The nurse told the patient that the patient had misread the chart", or to recast the sentence entirely.
TEAS · Pronouns
Knowledge Check Results
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