The University of Spoken English & Computer Sciences

The University of Spoken English & Computer Sciences

What is pronoun?
Pronoun is a word which is used in place of noun to avoid the repetition of nouns.
For example:
 Do you like the manager? I don't like the manager. The manager's not friendly.
With pronouns, we can say:
 Do you like the manager? I don't like him. He's not friendly.

Types of pronoun
There are following types of pronoun.
1. Personal pronouns
2. Demonstrative pronouns
3. Interrogative pronouns
4. Indefinite pronouns
5. Possessive pronouns
6. Reciprocal pronouns
7. Reflexive pronouns
8. Relative pronouns
9. Intensive pronouns
1) Personal pronoun
Personal pronouns represent specific people or things. We use them depending on:
 number: singular (eg: I) or plural (eg: we)
 person: 1st person (eg: I), 2nd person (eg: you) or 3rd person (eg: he)
 gender: male (eg: he), female (eg: she) or neuter (eg: it)
 case: subject (eg: we) or object (eg: us)
We use personal pronouns in place of the person or people that we are talking about. My name is
Josef but when I am talking about myself I almost always use "I" or "me", not "Josef". When I am
talking direct to you, I almost always use "you", not your name. When I am talking about another
person, say John, I may start with "John" but then use "he" or "him". And so on.
Here are the personal pronouns, followed by some example sentences:
Personal Pronouns

Number Person Gender Subject Object

Singula 1st Male/ Female I Me

r
2nd Male/ Female You You

3rd Male He Him

Female She Her

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Personal Pronouns

Number Person Gender Subject Object

Neuter It It

Plural 1st Male/ Female We Us

2nd Male/ Female You You

3rd Male/ Female/ Neuter They Them

Examples (in each pair, the first sentence 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?
 It doesn't work. / Can the man fix it?
 We went home. / Anthony drove us.
 Do you need a table for three? / Did John and Mary beat you at doubles?
 They played doubles. / John and Mary beat them.

2. Demonstrative Pronouns
Demonstrate (verb): to show; to indicate; to point to
A demonstrative pronoun represents a thing or things:
 near in distance or time (this, these)
 far in distance or time (that, those)
  near • far ⇒

singular ☺ this That

plural ☺☺☺ these Those

Here are some examples with demonstrative pronouns, followed by an illustration:

 This tastes good.
 These are bad times.
 Look at that!
 Can you see those?
 This is heavier than that.
 These are bigger than those.
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3)Interrogative pronouns
The use of w/h words in place of pronoun is called interrogative pronoun.we use interrogative
pronpouns to ask questions.
What,Which,Who,Whom,Whose,Whatever,Whichever,Whoever,Whomever,Whosever
Examples:
Who are the singers of the day of Declaration of Independence?
John and mary.
“who” is the subject in above sentense
Whom did you tell? I told mary.
4) Possessive pronouns
The use of pronouns to show the possession and ownership are called as possessive pronouns.
Forms Subject pronouns Possessiv pronouns
Singular I mine
She her
He him
You yours
Plural
They theirs
We ours
It its

5) Indefinite pronouns
All pronouns that have no specific gender or showing no gender of noun.
 all, another, any, anybody/anyone, anything, each, everybody/everyone, everything, few,
many, nobody, none, one, several, some, somebody/someone
Example:
Someone knock the door.
Don’t say anything.
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6) Reflexive pronouns
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

Singular myself
yourself
himself, herself, itself

Plural ourselves
yourselves
themselves

non-reflexive REFLEXIVE pronouns

the underlined words are NOT the same the underlined words are the SAME
person/thing person/thing

John saw me. I saw myself in the mirror.

Why does he blame you? Why do you blame yourself?

David sent him a copy. John sent himself a copy.

David sent her a copy. Mary sent herself a copy.

My dog hurt the cat. My dog hurt itself.

We blame you. We blame ourselves.

Can you help my children? Can you help yourselves?

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  reflexive pronoun

They cannot look after the babies. They cannot look after themselves.

7) Intensive pronouns
Notice that all the above reflexive pronouns can also act as intensive pronouns, but the function and usage
are different. An intensive pronoun emphasizes on the meaning of verb.
Examples:
 I made it myself. OR I myself made it.
 Have you yourself seen it? OR Have you seen it yourself?
 The President himself promised to stop the war.

8) Relative pronouns
A relative pronoun is a pronoun that introduces a relative clause. It is called a "relative" pronoun because it
"relates" to the word that its relative clause modifies. Here is an example:
 The person who phoned me last night is my teacher.
In the above example, "who":
 relates to "The person", which "who phoned me last night" modifies
 introduces the relative clause "who phoned me last night.

There are five basic relative pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, that*

Who (subject) and whom (object) are generally only for people. Whose is for
possession. Which is for things. That can be used for things and people only in defining relative
clauses (clauses that are essential to the sentence and do not simply add extra information).

9) Reciprocal pronouns
We use reciprocal pronouns when each of two or more subjects is acting in the same way towards the other.
For example,
Peter and David hate each other
There are only two reciprocal pronouns, and they are both two words:
 each other
 one another