This document defines and provides examples of different types of pronouns:
- Pronouns take the place of nouns and their categories include personal, possessive, demonstrative, reflexive, interrogative, and indefinite pronouns.
- Personal pronouns represent specific people or things and depend on number, person, gender, and case.
- Possessive pronouns show ownership and never use apostrophes.
- Demonstrative pronouns single out nouns by distance or time as this/these (near) and that/those (far).
3. Example:
Halloween is one of America's
holidays. It is celebrated in
October.
(Halloween is a noun. Itis a
pronoun that refers to the
antecedent, Halloween.)
4. Example
When Robert was fixing the
car, he cut his hand.
(Robertis a noun. He is a
pronoun that refers to the
antecedent, Robert.)
5. Pronouns have the same functions
as nouns do, but they are used to
avoid repetition, and to set/clarify
nouns' categories of number,
person, and gender.
6. There are eight categories of pronouns, The
categories of pronouns are:
1. Personal Pronouns
2. Possessive Pronouns
3. Demonstrative Pronouns
4. Reflexive
5. Interrogative Pronouns
6. Indefinite Pronouns
8. Personal pronouns represent specific people or
things. We use them depending on:
number: singular (I) or plural ( we).
person: 1st person (I), 2nd person (you) or 3rd
person(he).
gender: male (he), female (she).
case: subject (we) or object (us).
We use personal pronouns in place of the
person or people that we are talking about.
9. Here are the personal pronouns, followed by some example sentences:
personal pronouns
number person gender subject object
1st male/female I me, mine
2nd male/female you you
singular male he him
3rd female she her
it it
1st male/female we us
plural 2nd male/female you you
3rd male/female they them
Examples (in each case, the first example shows a subject pronoun, the second
an object pronoun):
10. - Ilike coffee. (subject pronoun)
- John helped me. (object pronoun)
- Do you like coffee? (subject pronoun)
- John loves you. (object pronoun)
- He runs fast. (subject pronoun)
- Did Ram beat him? (object pronoun)
-She is clever.(subject pronoun)
- Does Mary know her? (object pronoun)
- Wewent home.(subject pronoun)
-Anthony drove us. (object pronoun)
-It doesn't work.(subject pronoun) ME!
-Can the engineer repair it? (object pronoun)
-Do you need a table for three? (subject pronoun)
-Did John and Mary beat youat doubles? (object pronoun)
-They played doubles.(subject pronoun)
-John and Mary beat them. (object pronoun)
11. We often use it to introduce a remark:
-It is nice to have a holiday sometimes.
-It is important to dress well.
.
We also often useitto talk about the
weather, temperature, time and distance:
-It's raining.
-It will probably be hot tomorrow.
-Is it nine o'clock yet?
-It's 50 kilometers from here to
Cambridge.
13. We use possessive pronouns to refer to something or -
someone specific belonging to something or someone.
They are used to show ownership, but they never have
an apostrophe.
Examples:
-Look at these pictures. Mineis the big one. (subject
pro/antecedent = mine/picture)
-I like your artwork. Do you like mine? (object pro =
mine/artwork)
These possessive pronouns are away from the nouns they are replacing.
His essay was the best. (his = possessive pronoun)
-Mary couldn't find her homework. (her= homework)
These possessive pronouns are next to the nouns to show ownership.
14. Below are the possessive pronouns, followed by some
example sentences. Each possessive pronoun is used
according to number, person, or gender:
- be subject or object.
-refer to a singular or plural antecedent.
gender (of possessive
number person "owner") pronouns
1st male/female mine
2nd male/female yours
singular
male his
3rd
female hers
1st male/female ours
2nd male/female yours
plural
3rd male/female theirs
15. Singular Plural
Used my our
before your your
nouns his, her, its their
Used mine ours
alone yours yours
his, hers, its theirs
Write a sentence using each pronoun as a possessive. The ones
In the top row will be used before the noun to show ownership and
the ones in the bottom row will be used away from the noun.
17. -Reflexive pronounis used with an active voice verb in order to
reflect the action of the verb back on the subject--the antecedent.
** We use a reflexive pronoun when we want to refer back to the
subject of the sentence or clause. Reflexive pronouns end in "-self"
(singular) or "-selves" (plural).
There are eight reflexive pronouns:
reflexive pronoun
myself
singular yourself
himself, herself, itself
ourselves
plural yourselves
themselves
18. the underlined words are the
SAME person/thing
-Isaw myself in the mirror.
-Why do you blame yourself?
-Johnsent himself a copy.
20. A demonstrative pronoun is used to single out one or more
nouns referred to in a sentence.
*near in distance or time (this, these)
*far in distance or time (that, those)
near far
singular this that
plural these those
*This tastes good.
*These are bad times.
*Thatis beautiful.
*Those were the days!
21. ATTENTION
The word "that" has four mainfunctions:
1. demonstrative pronoun or adjective:
Thatbook is good.
2. relative pronoun:
Anything thatyou remember could help a
lot.
3. conjunction:
He said thathe had been there before.
4. adverb:
The snow wasthathigh.
22. -Do not confuse demonstrative pronouns with
demonstrative adjectives. They are identical, but a
demonstrative pronoun stands alone,
while a demonstrative adjective qualifies a noun.
-That smells really good. (demonstrative pronoun)
-That bookis good. (demonstrative adjective + noun)
Normally we use demonstrative pronouns for things
only. But we can use them for people when the
person is identified. Look at these examples:
-This is Joseph speaking. Is that Mary?
-Thatsounds like John.
24. We use interrogative pronouns to ask questions. The
interrogative pronoun represents the thing that we don't
know (what we are asking the question about).
There are four main interrogative pronouns: who, whom,
what, which.
-The possessive pronoun whose can
also be an interrogative pronoun (an
interrogative possessive pronoun).
subject object
person who whom
thing what
person/thing which
person whose (possessive)
25. Examples:
question answer
Who told you? John told me. subject
Whom did you
I told Mary. object
tell?
What's An accident's
subject
happened? happened.
27. An indefinite pronoun does
not refer to any specific
person, thing or amount. It
is vague and "not definite.”
Some typical indefinite
pronouns are:
28. Some Indefinite Pronouns
Singular Plural
another everybody no one both
anybody everyone nothing few
anyone everything one many
anything much somebody others
each neither someone several
either nobody something
All, any, most, none and some can be singular
or plural, depending on the phrase that
follows them.
29. Note that many indefinite pronouns also function
as other parts of speech. Look at "another" in the
following sentences:
- He has one job in the day and another at night.
(pronoun)
- I'd like another drink, please. (adjective)
30. Most indefinite pronouns are either singular or plural.
However, some of them can be singular in one context and
plural in another.
Notice that : A singular pronoun takes a singular
verb AND that any personal pronoun should also
agree (in number and gender).
- Allis forgiven.
-Allhave arrived.
- We can start the meeting because everybody
has arrived.
- John likes coffee but not tea. I think both are good.
