U.S.

We don’t traditionally think of us as having synonyms, but there are several situations in which it can replace—or be replaced with—another word, phrase, or series of words.

we

Sometimes, you can reword a sentence that uses the object form us to instead use the subject form we, or vice versa. For example, instead of saying Luckily, the storm didn’t affect us, you could say Luckily, we weren’t affected by the storm.

me and _____ 

The main job of us is to serve as a way of not having to name every person in a group of two or more people. Sometimes, though, it’s best to be clear by naming them. Instead of saying Dave walked home with us, you could say Dave walked home with me and Emily (or Emily and me).

all of us

The phrase all of us can be used instead of us by itself to emphasize the entirety of the group that’s present, as in This gift is from all of us.

In cases when you want to avoid speaking for a group, you can just say me. There are ways that you can acknowledge part of the group but not all of it. For example, you could say something like This is the right decision for me—and, I think, for many of us.

Us is a personal pronoun. Pronouns are used as substitutes for nouns—they’re another way of referring to a noun without using a specific name.

Us is an objective pronoun—it’s the object form of the nominative pronoun we. In other words, we is typically used as a subject of a sentence, while us is typically used as an object.

Personal pronouns are used to refer to the speaker (first person), to the person being addressed (second person), or the person being talked about (third person). Us is categorized as a first person pronoun because it refers to the group of people who are speaking or writing—addressing others.