I

He

WeWe

She

Us

PRONOUNS

Definition Pronouns take the place of nouns.

The word or phrase replaced by a pronoun is called an antecedent .

Example:

Halloween is one of America's holidays. It is celebrated in October.

(Halloween is a noun. It is a pronoun that refers to the antecedent, Halloween.)

Example

When Robert was fixing the car, he cut his hand .

(Robert is a noun. He is a pronoun that refers to the

antecedent, Robert ).

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 .

There are eight categories of pronouns, The categories of pronouns are:

1 .Personal Pronouns2 .Possessive Pronouns

3. Demonstrative Pronouns 4. Reflexive 5. Interrogative Pronouns6. Relative Pronouns7. Reciprocal Pronouns8. Indefinite Pronouns

PERSONAL PRONOUN

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.

Here are the personal pronouns, followed by some example sentences:

number person gender

personal pronouns

subject object

singular

1st male/female I Me, mine

2nd male/female you you

3rd

male he him

female she her

it it

plural

1st male/female we us

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):

- I like coffee . -John helped me.

-Do you like coffee ? -John loves you.

-He runs fast . -Did Ram beat him?

-She is clever . -Does Mary know her?

-They played doubles .-John and Mary beat them

-Do you need a table for three ?-Did John and Mary beat you at doubles?

-We went home .-Anthony drove us.

-It doesn't work .-Can the engineer repair it?

ME!

-It is nice to have a holiday sometimes .-It is important to dress well .

.

We often use it to introduce a remark:

We also often use it to 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 .

Possessive

Pronouns

-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.

-Look at these pictures. Mine is 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.

Examples:

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.

number persongender (of "owner")

possessive pronouns

singular

1st male/female mine

2nd male/female yours

3rdmale his

female hers

plural

1st male/female ours

2nd male/female yours

3rd male/female theirs

oursyourstheirs

mineyours

his, hers, its

Usedalone

ouryourtheir

myyour

his, her, its

Used before nouns

PluralSingular

Write a sentence using each pronoun as a possessive. The onesIn 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 .

REFLEXIVE PRONOUN

-Reflexive pronoun is 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

singularmyselfyourselfhimself, herself, itself

pluralourselvesyourselvesthemselves

the underlined words are the SAME person/thing

-I saw myself in the mirror.

-Why do you blame yourself?

-John sent himself a copy.

DEMONSTRATIVE

PRONOUN

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 .

*That is beautiful .*Those were the days !

ATTENTIONThe word "that" has four main functions:1. demonstrative pronoun or adjective:That book is good.2. relative pronoun:Anything that you remember could help a lot.3. conjunction:He said that he had been there before.4. adverb:The snow was that high.

-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 book is 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 ?

-That sounds like John.

INTERROGATIVE

PRONOUN

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 .

subject object

person who whom

thing what

person/thing which

person whose (possessive)

-The possessive pronoun whose can also be an interrogative pronoun (an interrogative possessive pronoun).

question answer

Who told you? John told me. subject

Whom did you tell? I told Mary. object

What's happened?

An accident's happened. subject

Examples:

INDEFINITE PRONOUN

An indefinite pronoun does not refer to any specific person, thing or amount. It is vague and "not definite.” Some typical indefinite pronouns are:

Some Indefinite PronounsSingular Plural

another everybody no oneanybody everyone nothinganyone everything oneanything much somebodyeach neither someoneeither nobody something

bothfew

manyothersseveral

All, any, most, none and some can be singular or plural, depending on the phrase that

follows them.

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)

-All is forgiven.- All have arrived.

-John likes coffee but not tea. I think both are good.

-We can start the meeting because everybody has arrived.

Notice that : A singular pronoun takes a singular verb AND that any personal pronoun should also agree (in number and gender).

Most indefinite pronouns are either singular or plural. However, some of them can be singular in one context and

plural in another.

1 -. .www englishclub com.

2 -. .www corollarytheorems c

om .

References :