What Is a Pronoun Shift?

There are many common errors that writers often make in the English language. These common errors are made into specific terms so that they can be avoided. These terms are then taught to young students so that they don't make the same mistakes and keep in mind the rules while writing. One such common error of English writing is the pronoun shift. To truly understand the mistakes that writers make with pronoun shifts, you must be aware of the concept of pronouns.

Pronouns are simply substitutes of nouns. It often happens that a single noun becomes the subject of the entire paragraph or a long body of the text. That noun has to be mentioned again and again in the coming lines. Repeating the same noun over and over again can make the text look weak. This is where the function of pronoun comes in. Pronouns are used as substitutes of nouns or noun phrases to avoid repetitions. They are also used for a clear understanding of the text. The three main types of pronouns are the first person pronoun, second-person pronoun, and third-person pronoun.

The first person pronoun includes I, me, us, we, our, etc. The second person pronoun includes you, your, yours, etc. The third person pronoun includes they, he, she, it, their, her, his, etc.

The pronoun shift is a common mistake where the write shifts the pronoun from one person to another. The writer may be writing the text in the third person pronoun in the beginning and then quickly shifts to the second person pronoun in the coming sentence. This is known as pronoun shift. It can get extremely confusing for the readers. It is best to avoid such mistakes when writing to produce a clear piece of writing for the readers.

How to Use Pronoun Shifts in Your Writing

Pronoun shift is the phenomenon of changing pronouns throughout the text. The writers should stick to one type of pronoun throughout the text. However, there are some cases in which the pronoun shifting is needed. For instance, when converting the direct speech to indirect speech.

Here are some rules that you should follow when it comes to pronoun shifting.

Rule Number 1

If in the reported speech, the first-person pronoun is used, then you should change to the third person pronoun when making a pronoun shift. Here are some examples for better understanding.

She said, "I will come home late".
She said that she will come home late.
He said, "I am tired of doing everyone's work".
He said that he was tired of doing everyone's work.
They said, "We are having a lot of fun".
They said that they were having a lot of fun.
She said, "I love my son".
She said that she loved her son.

Rule Number 2

The second rule is that you cannot make a pronoun shift when converting into indirect speech if the first person pronoun is used in reporting speech and the reporting verb is also in the first person.

Here are some examples.
I said, "I will be out late".
I said that I will be out late.
We said, "we are happy here".
We said that we were happy there.

Rule Number 3

When you are making a pronoun shift for the conversion of direct to indirect speech, then the second person of reported speech is changed according to the object of the sentence. Here are some examples.

He said to me "you are a brilliant teacher".
He said to me that I was a brilliant teacher.
She said to him "you have changed."
She said to him that he has changed.
I said to her "you are going out of your way".
I said to her that she was going out of her way.