DEMONSTRATIVE, INTERROGATIVE, RELATIVE, AND INDEFINITE PRONOUNS

Demonstrative Pronouns

A demonstrative pronoun points out a person, a place, a thing, or an idea.

NOTE: A demonstrative pronoun must take the place of a noun or pronoun – it cannot appear right in front of a noun or pronoun.

So, if you replaced a demonstrative pronoun with a noun, the sentence should still make sense.

Demonstrative Pronouns There are only four words in the English

language that are used as demonstrative pronouns.

They are:

This That TheseThose

How they’re used Examples of demonstrative pronouns:

This is the best meal I have ever had.

Please put the books on top of that.

After dinner, can you wash these?

Can you give me the names of those who were absent?

Demonstrative pronoun or not? Determine if there are demonstrative pronouns

in the following sentences.

That was a great volleyball game.

This table is wobbly and needs to be balanced.

Please put the fork on the left of that plate.

I hope they remember to bring that.

Interrogative Pronouns

An interrogative pronoun introduces a question.

NOTE: An interrogative pronoun must take the place of a noun or pronoun – it cannot appear right in front of a noun or pronoun.

Interrogative Pronouns There are only five words in the English language

that are used as interrogative pronouns.

They are:

What Which Who Whom Whose

Note: Technically, you can add “-ever” to the end of each of these five and then we have ten possible interrogative pronouns, not five.

Note Interrogative pronoun, like all pronouns, must

take the place of a noun or pronoun.

Therefore, if we turn a question into a statement, we should be able to replace an interrogative pronoun what a noun or pronoun.

Therefore, a word like why can’t be interrogative, because we could never answer a why? question with just a noun or pronoun.

How they’re used Examples of interrogative pronouns:

What is the capital of Missouri?

Which of these is your favorite?

Who played quarterback in the game last night?

Whom did she give the note to?

Whose is this?

Interrogative pronoun or not? Which magazine would you rather

read? Who went to the meeting last night? Why is there mud all over the room? When do you want to work on the

project? Whom are you going to the dance

with? What is your sister’s name? Which of these shirts do you like

best? Which shirt do you like the best?

Relative Pronouns

A relative pronoun introduces a subordinate clause.

A subordinate clause must contain a subject and a verb (just like a sentence), but cannot stand on its own as a sentence. A subordinate clause needs the other words

around it to make a complete sentence.

Relative Pronouns

There are five words that commonly serve as relative pronouns. They are:

That Which Who Whom Whose

BE CAREFUL! Four of these same words can also be interrogative pronouns.

What this looks like in a sentence In the following sentences, the relative pronoun is in

bold, and the entire subordinate clause is underlined. The one over there is the cake that Ashley baked.

The new building, which was just built five years ago, already looks old.

Collin is the player who scored the winning touchdown.

The man whom you are looking for is over there.

The person whose car this is will be angry when he sees what happened.

Relative pronoun or not? The planets which make up our solar system all

revolve around the sun.

Which of these movies do you like the best?

The man whom I talked to said that our team won.

That is the first house I ever lived in.

That is the woman who helped my sister fix a flat tire.

Relative pronoun or not? The Statue of Liberty, which is in New York, was

given as a gift from France.

Whom were you talking to on the phone?

Whose house were you at last night?

I hope that I win the race tomorrow.

Our neighbor’s dog, whose bowl is always empty, is really overweight.

Indefinite Pronouns

An indefinite pronoun refers to a person, a place, a thing, or an idea that may or may not be specifically named.

As with other pronouns, be very careful: indefinite pronouns will never appear directly before a noun or pronoun.

Our indefinite pronouns There are many indefinite pronouns in

English. Some of the most common are:

All Both Everything NeitherOther

AnotherEach Few Nobody SeveralAny Each other Many None

SomeAnybody Either More No one

SomebodyAnyone Everybody Most Nothing

SomeoneAnything Everyone Much One

Something

What this looks like Nobody at the movie had a good time.

Both of the students were sent to the office.

We don’t have anything to eat for dinner.

Much of our time was wasted in the meeting.

I gave a gift to everyone there.

What this looks like They have taken all of the paintings to the art

room.

I only had a chance to look at some of the stories.

Many of my family members will be at the dinner.

We hope that everyone will be there.

The umpires talked to each other to figure out the correct call.

Indefinite pronoun or not? Anybody can come to tutoring for extra help.

I need you to take everything and put it in the closet.

Nothing is going right for me today.

Many bands will be at the music festival.

More money is needed before we can afford the new uniforms.

Indefinite pronoun or not? Someone in my class left their notebook.

Neither of those is the correct answer.

Few of the sandwiches look fresh.

Several students did well on the quiz yesterday.

Nobody in my class could help answer the question.