Overview

He is the English third-person singular pronoun traditionally used to refer to a male individual (man or boy). As a personal pronoun it replaces a previously mentioned or understood noun (the antecedent) to avoid repetition. In standard use, "he" functions as the subject of a clause and participates in normal subject–verb agreement (for example, "He walks" or "He has").

Forms and grammatical functions

The set of related forms that arise from this pronoun includes several distinct words with different syntactic roles:

  • he — subjective (nominative) form used as the sentence subject;
  • him — objective (accusative) form used after verbs and prepositions;
  • his — possessive determiner (my/your/his book) and possessive pronoun (the book is his);
  • himself — reflexive or emphatic form (he hurt himself; he himself agreed).

These forms are part of the English personal-pronoun paradigm and contrast with other pronouns such as she or they in grammatical role and agreement.

Pronunciation and common variants

In careful speech the subject form is typically pronounced /hiː/; in unstressed positions it often reduces to a shorter vowel sound, roughly /i/. Contractions such as "he's" (he is/he has) are frequent in spoken and written English. Dialectal and colloquial forms may alter vowel quality or reduce the pronoun in rapid speech, but the functional distinctions among the forms remain stable.

History and development

The modern English pronoun he traces back to Old English hē, a West Germanic form cognate with German er and Dutch hij/hem. Over time English maintained a distinct masculine set of singular personal pronouns while other distinctions (such as grammatical gender in nouns) largely disappeared. Historical usage patterns also included broader, generic uses of masculine pronouns in contexts where the referent's sex was unspecified.

Usage, antecedents, and agreement

In conventional grammar, a pronoun must agree with its antecedent in person, number, and—when relevant—gender. For example, if the antecedent is "the boy" or a named man, "he" is the expected choice: "Marcus arrived late; he apologized." When an antecedent is plural, the pronoun must be plural as well: "The students left; they closed the door." English relies largely on natural (semantic) gender for pronoun selection: animate male persons are referred to as "he," animate female persons as "she," and inanimate objects typically as "it."

Gender-neutral concerns and alternatives

From the 20th century onward, writers and speakers increasingly questioned the use of masculine pronouns to represent unspecified persons. The generic use of "he" (for an unspecified person of either sex) was common historically but has declined in formal and inclusive writing. Several alternatives are now widely used: explicit repetition of nouns, alternating masculine and feminine forms, paired constructions like "he or she," and the singular they, which has become broadly accepted in many style guides as a gender-neutral singular pronoun. Some writers prefer neopronouns or rephrased sentences to avoid specifying gender altogether.

Examples and notable facts

  • Subject example: "He left the room before dinner."
  • Object example: "I saw him at the station."
  • Possessive examples: "This is his coat." / "The choice was his."
  • Reflexive example: "He prepared himself for the test."

In certain contexts—religious texts, stylistic conventions, or historical documents—the pronoun may appear capitalized or be used following older norms of generic reference. Discussions about pronoun use often involve social and communicative considerations as much as grammatical rules; for current guidance, consult contemporary usage manuals or institutional style guides. For further reading on pronouns, gender-neutral language, and English pronoun history, see resources on personal pronouns and inclusive usage: reference on pronouns, gendered language overview, and history and usage notes.