The Pronoun

Table of Contents
1. Definition
2. Personal Pronouns
3. Demonstrative Pronouns
4. Indefinite Pronouns
5. Interrogative Pronouns
6. Relative Pronouns
7. Distributive Pronouns
8. Reflexive and Emphatic Pronouns
9. Agreement and Common Usage Notes
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Definition

Pronoun is a word used in place of a noun to avoid repetition. A pronoun must agree with the noun (its antecedent) in person, number and gender. Pronouns make sentences shorter and clearer by substituting for nouns already known from context.

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns stand for persons or things and change form according to their use in a sentence. They appear in different cases:

• Nominative case - used as the subject of a verb (subjective case).
• Objective case - used as the object of a verb or preposition (objective case).
• Possessive case - shows ownership or possession.

The possessive forms are of two kinds:

• Possessive pronouns (stand alone): mine, ours, yours, his, hers, theirs.
• Possessive determiners (used before nouns): my, our, your, his, her, their, its.

Remember: possessive determiners are followed by a noun; possessive pronouns are not followed by a noun.

The most common personal pronouns in English (by person, number and case) are:

• 1st person singular: I (nominative), me (objective), my/mine (possessive).
• 1st person plural: we (nominative), us (objective), our/ours (possessive).
• 2nd person (singular & plural): you (nominative & objective), your/yours (possessive).
• 3rd person singular (masculine): he (nominative), him (objective), his (possessive).
• 3rd person singular (feminine): she (nominative), her (objective), her/hers (possessive).
• 3rd person singular (neuter): it (nominative & objective), its (possessive).
• 3rd person plural: they (nominative), them (objective), their/theirs (possessive).

Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns point to particular persons or things. They indicate proximity (near/far) and number (singular/plural).

• This (singular, near): This is my purse.
• That (singular, far): That is your cycle.
• These (plural, near): These are her dolls.
• Those (plural, far): Those are our friends.

Indefinite Pronouns

Indefinite pronouns refer to persons or things in a general way, not to any particular one. They may be singular or plural depending on meaning and usage.

• Some are born great.
• Many of these eggs are rotten.
• Few escaped unhurt.
• One should keep one's promise.
• Do good to others.
• None of these apples are ripe.
• All are quite up to the mark.
• Somebody has stolen my book.

Note: some indefinite pronouns (e.g., some, all, none, any) can be followed by singular or plural verbs depending on whether the speaker refers to a singular amount or to individuals.

Interrogative Pronouns

Interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions.

• Who teaches you English?
• Whose is this pen?
• Whom do you want to see?
• Which is your house?
• What are you doing?

Use who when asking about the subject and whom when asking about the object. In informal speech, whom is often replaced by who, but in formal writing the distinction should be kept.

Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns relate a clause to a noun or pronoun mentioned earlier (the antecedent). The common relative pronouns are who, whom, whose, which, that, what (depending on clause type).

Interrogative pronouns often become relative pronouns when they introduce a relative clause.

• I met Khushi. Khushi stood first in the class.
  I met Khushi who stood first in the class.
• We met a girl. Her brother was given a reward.
  We met a girl whose brother was given a reward.
• This is the girl. All praise her.
  This is the girl whom all praise.
• Sagun has found the purse. She had lost the purse.
  Sagun has found the purse which she had lost.
• What had happened? I do not know.
  I do not know what had happened.
• I know the hostel. He lives in the hostel.
  I know the hostel that he lives in.

Use who/whom/whose for people and which/that for things; that is commonly used in restrictive (essential) clauses, while which often introduces non-restrictive (additional) information and is normally set off by commas.

Distributive Pronouns

Distributive pronouns refer to members of a group separately rather than collectively. Common distributive pronouns include each, either, neither.

• Each of them got a prize.
• Neither of them came to see me.
• Either of the two roads leads to Delhi.

Reflexive and Emphatic Pronouns

Reflexive pronouns show that the subject of the verb acts on itself. They end in -self (singular) or -selves (plural): myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, itself, themselves.

• I injured myself.
• You hurt yourself.
• She killed herself.
• They will enjoy themselves.

Emphatic pronouns (the same forms as reflexive pronouns) are used to add emphasis to a noun or pronoun:

• I myself locked the door.
• You yourself ask for money.
• He himself insulted her.
• The wall itself fell.

Agreement and Common Usage Notes

Antecedent: the noun a pronoun refers to. A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in person, number and gender. For example, if the antecedent is singular, use a singular pronoun: The girl lost her book.

Use who for subjects and whom for objects: Who came? I saw the girl whom you invited.

Distinguish between possessive determiners and possessive pronouns:

• This is my pen. - my is a possessive determiner before a noun.
• This pen is mine. - mine is a possessive pronoun standing alone.

When using indefinite pronouns such as everyone, someone, nobody, treat them as singular: Everyone is ready. Some indefinites (such as all, some, none) may take singular or plural verbs depending on whether the reference is to a singular quantity or to individual items.