Grammar: Personal Pronouns

Russian Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns in Russian are used to represent people and things. The pronouns need to change their form based on the noun’s gender, number, and case.
The first person pronoun is я (I) in the nominative case, меня in genitive and accusative cases, мне in dative case, and мной in instrumental case.
The second person pronoun is ты (you) in the nominative case, тебя in genitive and accusative cases, тебе in dative case, and тобой in instrumental case.
Russian language also differentiates between singular you and plural/formal you. The latter is вы in nominative case, вас in genitive and accusative cases, вам in dative case, and вами in instrumental case.
The third person pronouns vary by gender. For example, он (he) becomes его in genitive and accusative, ему in dative and им in instrumental. For она (she), the forms are ее, ей, ею and for оно (it), they are его, ему, им.
There is also a neutral gender pronoun это (this/that/it) used to refer to an unspecified or general thing or situation.
Plural personal pronouns include мы (we), вы (you, plural or formal) and они (they). Their forms change similarly depending on cases.

Personal pronouns usually replace the noun they refer to avoid repetition.
They can be the subject, object or indirect object in a sentence, and their form changes based on their function.
For example, consider the sentence Мы видим тебя (We see you), where мы is the nominative form acting as the subject and тебя is the accusative form acting as the direct object.
Adapt the personal pronoun to match the case, gender and number of the noun it represents.
Note the difference between the informal ты and the formal вы, and use them appropriately depending on your relationship with the person you address.