Personal Pronouns: Overview and Declension

The personal pronouns are the words for "I, you, he, she, it, we, you (plural), they." In English they barely change — "I / me / my," "he / him / his" — and that is the whole system. Ukrainian pronouns change far more: each one runs through all seven cases, so я "I" becomes мене́, мені́, мно́ю depending on its job. This page lays out the full set and their declension, and flags the two features that trip up every English speaker: the н- prefix that third-person pronouns grow after a preposition, and the fact that the subject pronoun is normally left out because the verb already announces who is acting.

The eight pronouns in the nominative

Here is the base set — the dictionary forms, all in the nominative (subject) case.

Two notes before the declension. ти vs ви is the informal/formal split — ти to one person you're close to, ви to a group or, politely, to one person you're not — and it has its own page. And the three third-person singular pronouns track grammatical gender: він goes with masculine nouns, вона́ with feminine, воно́ with neuter — so a table (стіл, masculine) is він "it," and a window (вікно́, neuter) is воно́ "it," even though both are "it" in English.

The full declension

Each pronoun has a form for every case. Read these tables as the core of the page — they are worth memorizing, because pronouns are among the most frequent words in the language. (Where two forms are listed, the second is the after-preposition н- form, explained in the next section.)

First and second person singular

For я and ти the genitive and accusative are identical (мене́, тебе́), and the locative copies the dative (мені́, тобі́). So you really only learn four distinct shapes each.

Third person singular

він and воно́ share every form below the nominative — both go his/it through його́, йому́, ним. So you do not learn a separate "it" paradigm; you learn він/воно́ together.

Plurals

ми and ви are tidy: one form covers genitive/accusative/locative (нас, вас). вони́ "they" is the one plural that grows the н- prefix, exactly like the third-person singulars.

The н- prefix after prepositions — the headline feature

This is the single most distinctive thing about Ukrainian personal pronouns, and the most common error spot for English speakers. The third-person pronouns — він, вона́, воно́, вони́ — have two shapes in the oblique cases:

• a plain form (його́, її́, їх, йому́, їй, ним, не́ю, ни́ми) used when there is no preposition in front;
• an н- form (ньо́го, не́ї, них, ньо́му, ній, ни́ми) used after a preposition.

The rule is mechanical: preposition → start the pronoun with н-. It is a euphonic rule (it makes the join smoother to pronounce), and it is obligatory — not optional, not stylistic.

Crucially, the н- appears only with a preposition, never with a bare verb object or a bare dative. "I gave him" is дав йому́ (no preposition, no н-); "I went to him" is до ньо́го (preposition до, so н-). Mixing these up — writing до йому́ or бачу ньо́го — is the classic mistake.

The deeper mechanics, the full list of which prepositions trigger it, and the edge cases live on the н- prefix after prepositions. For now, drill the reflex: see a preposition before a 3rd-person pronoun, add н-.

Pro-drop: the subject pronoun is usually left out

The second big difference from English. In Ukrainian the verb ending already tells you the person and number — чита́ю can only mean "I read," чита́єш can only mean "you read." So the subject pronoun я, ти, ми, ви is normally omitted; including it is reserved for emphasis or contrast.

So a bare я sitting in a Ukrainian sentence usually carries a little weight — "I'll pay (not you)." Stringing я in front of every verb, English-style, sounds heavy and slightly foreign. The third-person pronouns він/вона́/вони́ are dropped less often, because their referent isn't always recoverable from the verb alone, but even they disappear once context makes the subject clear. The full logic of when to keep and when to drop is on subject pronouns are optional.

Source-language comparison

For an English speaker, three habits need rewiring. (1) Pronouns inflect for case far more than English's "I/me/my" — you must produce мене́, мені́, мно́ю, not one fixed "me." (2) The н- prefix has no English analogue at all; English never changes "him" to "nim" after "to." You simply have to install the reflex. (3) English requires a subject pronoun ("I read"); Ukrainian forbids the unemphatic one and lets the verb carry the person — so resist the urge to say я before every verb.

For a Russian speaker, the system is close but the forms differ in detail: Ukrainian instrumental мно́ю and тобо́ю, the locative ній, and the н- distribution don't always match the Russian forms one-for-one — verify against the Ukrainian table above rather than reaching for the Russian pronoun. And Ukrainian writes до ньо́го, з не́ю with the same euphonic н- logic; don't carry over Russian spellings.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• The personal pronouns are я, ти, він, вона́, воно́, ми, ви, вони́, and each declines through all seven cases (я → мене́ → мені́ → мно́ю).
• він and воно́ share one paradigm (його́, йому́, ним); the three 3rd-singular pronouns track grammatical gender (a masculine noun is він even when English says "it").
• The н- prefix is obligatory after a preposition on third-person pronouns: бачу його́ but на ньо́го; її́ but до не́ї; їх but з ни́ми. No preposition → plain form; 1st/2nd person never take н-.
• Subject pronouns are normally dropped because the verb ending shows the person; keep я/ти only for emphasis or contrast.
• Verify forms against the Ukrainian tables — don't import Russian pronoun shapes.