Him or His: Choose the Right Word

When you speak about a male colleague, you must choose between referring to the person himself and pointing to something that belongs to him. Both words connect to the subject pronoun he. Use him when the person is the object of an action or preposition. Use his when you identify an item, responsibility, or connection that belongs to that person.

Verbs of communication and assistance take him when a male person receives the action. When you call, help, see, or thank that person, use him because the action concerns that individual. Verbs such as give or show can also introduce him as the recipient before naming the object. In these sentences, him names the recipient, not the object given.

You can practise this again in Eat, ate, or eaten: choose the right form and Too long or to long: Choose the right word.

Prepositions such as to, for, with, near, and beside are followed by an object form when they refer directly to the person. You say speak with him or sit near him. However, if the preposition introduces a person or item belonging to that colleague, his must introduce that noun. Compare working with him to working with his friend.

Place his before a noun to show who owns an item or has a relationship to something. This form does not change whether the noun is singular or plural. If an adjective describes the noun, his stays before the adjective. You can describe his container, his blue container, his break, or his brothers without altering the possessive word.

You do not need to repeat a noun if everyone knows what item you are discussing. When the noun is already clear from earlier conversation, his can stand completely alone. It often follows the verb be to identify an owner, or it can even serve as the subject of a following sentence. English never adds an extra letter to this word.

Learners make three frequent mistakes with these words. First, some place him before a noun, saying him bag instead of his bag. Second, some add an apostrophe or an extra letter, creating his's or hi's. Third, some combine an article with a possessive word, saying the his bag instead of his bag. Remember that his already defines the specific item.

In spoken English, him and his often link smoothly to nearby words. Both words can drop the initial h sound when the speaker moves quickly through unstressed syllables. Pay close attention to the final consonant: him ends in an m sound with closed lips, whereas his ends in a z sound. Context also tells you whether a person or an object is named.

When you write a note about returning a colleague's lunch from a shared refrigerator, check each sentence for person versus possession. If you name an action directed toward your coworker, write him. If you describe an item belonging to that coworker, write his. Test your recall by writing clean notes to your colleagues without looking back at reference charts or grammar tables.