she
part of speech
pronoun (she — subject; her — object and possessive; hers; herself); noun (a she — a female, informal)
meaning for a pupil
1) A word used instead of the name of a girl, woman or female animal already talked about. tree →
2) Sometimes used for a ship, a country or a car, as if it were a person. tree →
3) (informal) A she is a female animal: «Is your cat a he or a she?» tree →
4) (casual, Australia, NZ) «She'll be right» means everything will be fine; «she» here means things in general. tree →
5) (casual) «She's» = she is or she has; «she'd» = she would or she had; «she'll» = she will. tree →
6) (rough, rude) «Who's she, the cat's mother?» is an old put-down for saying «she» about someone who is right there. tree →
7) (casual, broken grammar) «Her and me went» is heard in speech; in writing say «She and I went». tree →
sense in the lessons
In stories and word problems «she» points back to a female character named earlier, so the reader must find who «she» is. In casual talk she is often the person everybody can see, never named («she took 3 of mine»). In the exam voice the name is repeated or the passive is used: «4 apples are given away by the girl». Phrases: she said, she is, she has, she'll be right.
examples
- Mia lost her pencil, so she borrowed one. tree →
- She is my older sister. tree →
- The cat licked her kittens because she loves them. tree →
- She has 5 apples and gives away 2. tree →
- My teacher says she likes poetry. tree →
- She and I walk to school together. tree →
- The ship sailed and she reached port at dawn. tree →
- she had 5 — no wait, 6 apples, then ate 2 (casual, self-correction) tree →
- Lost the ball? She'll be right, we've got 3 more. (casual, Australia) tree →
- She nicked my pen again, the cheeky cow. (rough) tree →
- It is given that she possesses 5 apples and subsequently relinquishes 2; determine the quantity remaining in her possession. (formal exam) tree →
- "Some wine and meat," she replied. tree →
note
«She» is the subject: «She runs.» The object form is «her»: «I saw her.» Say «She and I», not «Her and me went». With «she» the verb takes -s: she runs, she has, she is. In a maths problem «she» is the same person as the girl named before, so her numbers belong to that person. Trap: with two girls in the story, check who «she» is. «She'll be right» is not about a girl. Insults like «the cheeky cow» still mean the same she and do not change the numbers. Formal «in her possession» = what she has; «relinquishes» = gives up.
In the corpora
- That night she opens her banking app and groans: "The app says we've spent eighty dollars on takeaways this month."
- Bridesmaids are friends or relatives who help the bride and walk with her, and children can be flower girls or page boys.
- She is seeing someone to talk to and is off work for a while.
- The money taken off pays for schools, hospitals and roads, and some is saved for when she is old.
- Third time this week!» What she saw is one car in one space on Tuesday.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «she» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.