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3rd person pronouns (both English and Japanese) and the particle "は" have a
commonality. For pronouns (jp & eng) antecedent must exist in the
conversation. An "antecedent" is what the pronoun stands in the place of. This
has no antecedent:

> **He** went to Japan.

Structurally, the grammar is ok. But, who is **he**? No one knows. There is no
antecedent. This doesn't really mean anything.

> **Jim** is my co-worker.  
>  **He** went to Japan.

So, "Jim" is the antecedent of "he". We put "Jim" in the universe of
discussion, then we can use "he" as his proxy. In Japanese:

> **田中** は私の同僚です。  
>  **彼** は日本へ行った。

The antecedent of "彼" is "田中".

So, 3rd person pronouns can only be used if there is antecedent.

Similarly, in the "は" vs. "が" decision, "が" is used to mark new information
into the universe of the discussion. See, but 3rd person pronouns must already
be in the universe of discussion.

**In a sentence that ends in a verb** , could "が" ever modify "彼" / "彼女" and
have a sentence that is a _complete thought_?

`虎に彼が食べられた` is not a complete thought. Who is 彼？

田中は私の仲間でした。昨日、虎に彼 **が** 食べられた。<--- this ok?  
田中は私の仲間でした。昨日、虎に彼 **は** 食べられた。<--- or, this ok?
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particle-は particle-が pronouns は-and-が
In a sentence that ends with a verb, when could "が" modify a 3rd person pronoun?
## I THINK SO! Maybe depends on what you mean by complete thought.

Probably sounds better without the pronoun though...

> 田中は私の仲間だった。昨日、虎に食べられた。

But to answer your question **"In a sentence that ends in a verb, could "が"
ever modify "彼" / "彼女" and have a sentence that is a complete thought?"...**

I suppose you might hear something like this:

> **田中は** 仲間だった。立派な男だった。今日、我々は友人を失ってしまったのです。 **彼が**
> トラに喰われてしまったのを初めて聞いたとき、正直、泣きました。彼の為ではなく、トラの為でした。あいつはがりがりで、きっとまずかっただろう。

  * **Tanaka** was a colleague. He was a good man. Today, we have lost a friend. When I first heard that **he** had been eaten by a tiger, honestly, I wept. But not for Tanaka, for the tiger. That guy was really skinny. He must have tasted awful.
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If you haven't read this question, please check it first: [What's the
difference between wa (は) and ga
(が)?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/22/5010)

Whether a noun is already in _the universe of discourse_ is very important,
but that's not the only thing that determines when to use が or は. There are at
least three types of situation where が _must_ be used with 彼 (or more
generally, nouns which are already in the universe of discourse).

  1. When 彼 is in a sub-clause, が must be used instead of は, because は usually marks the topic of the main clause.

>     * 田中さんは私の仲間でした。彼 **が** 虎に食べられたのは昨日のことです。
>     * 田中さんは私の仲間でした。彼 **が** 虎に食べられる瞬間、彼 **は** 何かを叫んでいました。

  2. が is used if it is used as exhaustive-listing が.

>     * その3人の中で、最初に彼 **が** 虎に食べられました。

  3. が can be used with certain types of verbs as neutral-description が. "Sentences of neutral description present an objectively observable action, existence, or temporary state as a new event." (quote from [the question above](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/22/5010))

>     * 先生 **は** まだかな… (knock) あ、先生 **が** 来た！
>     * どうしよう、お父さん **が** 怒っている。
>     * 大変です、彼 **が** 虎に襲われています！
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