Pronouns (0)

Pronouns
By: Anneli Võikar
Pronouns are small words that take the place of a noun.
We can use a pronoun instead of a noun. Pronouns are
words like: he, you, ours, themselves, some, each... If we
didn't have pronouns, we would have to repeat a lot of
nouns.
Types of pronouns
Personal pronouns
Reflexive pronouns
Demonstrative pronouns
Interrogative pronouns
Indefinite pronouns
Relative pronouns
Possesive pronouns
Reciprocal pronouns
Pronoun case
Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns represent specific people or things. We use them
depending on:
number
person
gender
Case
Singular: subject- I, you, he, she, it ; object-me, you, him, her, it.
Plural: subject-we, you, they ; object-us, you, them.
Examples:
1) Do you like coffee? (subject)
2) John loves you. (object)
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).
singular : myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself
plural : ourselves, yourselves, themselves
Examples:
1) I saw myself in the mirror.
2) They cannot look after themselves.
Demonstrative pronouns
A demonstrative pronoun represents a thing or things:
near in distance or time (this, these)
far in distance or time (that, those)
Examples:
1) Look at that!
2) These are bigger than those.
Interrogative pronouns
We use interrogative pronouns to ask questions.
Four main interrogative pronouns:
(person) who, whom,
(thing) what,
(person/thing) which ,
(person) whose . (possesive)
Examples:
1) Who told you? - John told me.
2) Whom did you tell? - I told Mary.
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: all, another, any,
anybody/anyone, anything, each, everybody/everyone,
everything, few, many, nobody, none, one, several,
some, somebody/someone.
Examples:
1) Each has his own thoughts.
2) All have arrived.
Relative pronouns
A relative pronoun is a pronoun that introduces a relative
clause.
There are five relative pronouns: who, whom, whose,
which, that*
Examples:
1) The car which hit me was yellow.
2) Mrs Pratt, who is very kind, is my teacher.
Possesive pronouns
We use possessive pronouns to refer to a specific person/people or
thing/things belonging to a person/people.
We use possessive pronouns depending on:
number
person
gender
Singular ­ mine, yours, his, hers
Plural ­ ours, yours, theirs
Examples:
1) Look at these pictures. Mine is the big one.
2) Here is your car. Ours is over there, where we left it.
Reciprocal pronouns
We use reciprocal pronouns when each of two or more
subjects is acting in the same way towards the other.
There are only two reciprocal pronouns, and they are
both two words:
each other
one another
Examples:
1) John and Mary love each other.
2) The gangsters were fighting one another.
Pronoun Case
Pronouns (and nouns) in English display "case"
according to their function in the sentence. Their
function can be:
subjective (they act as the subject)
objective (they act as the object)
possessive (they show possession of something else)
Thanks for listening !