Pronouns take the place of nouns.
Fred is my butler. He is diligent. He is the pronoun taking the place of the noun Fred (also called the “antecedent”).
I. Personal so-called because they refer to persons (or a person)
There are three different cases of pronouns in English.
1. Nominative – used for pronouns as the subject or predicate nominative of a sentence.
•Example: He is president (subject). It is I. (I is the predicate nominative)
2. Objective – used for pronouns as the direct object, indirect object, or object of the preposition (or subject of the infinitive – see “Verbals”)
•Example: John hit him. (direct object). Fred gave him the money. (indirect object). Leave the remainder for him. (object of the preposition “for”).
3. Possessive – to show possession (obviously).
•Example: The cards are mine. The rest are yours. The money is his. Those are my shoes. What happened to our team? I think those are their uniforms.
Remember: All possessive pronouns describe nouns; therefore, they are also adjectives.
Each case of personal pronoun is divided into 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person, both singular and plural forms. Use the chart below for reference.
|
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
1st Person |
I |
We |
|
2nd Person |
You |
You |
|
3rd Person |
He, she, it |
They |
|
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
1st Person |
Me |
Us |
|
2nd Person |
You |
You |
|
3rd Person |
Him, her, it |
Them |
|
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
1st Person |
My, mine |
Our, ours |
|
2nd Person |
Your, yours |
Your, yours |
|
3rd Person |
His, hers, its* |
Their, theirs |
*Notice that the possessive form “its” does not have an apostrophe. None of the personal possessive pronouns need an apostrophe. Remember that! It’s means “it is.”
II. Reflexive Pronouns – these pronouns end in –self or –selves and refer to the subject.
•Example: He worked himself to death. (refers to subject he).
You should always try to be yourself. (refers to subject you).
These pronouns can also be used for emphasis.
•Example: I myself don’t want to take this test. (emphasizes subject I).
You yourself don’t want to go. (emphasizes subject you).
III. Indefinite Pronouns – are so-called because they don’t refer to anyone or anything specific.
List of common Indefinite Pronouns
Each, either, neither, everyone, anyone, no one, someone, everybody, somebody,
nobody, anybody, any, few, fewer, much, more, many, some, all, most, both
•See Agreement for a further discussion of Indefinite Pronouns.
There are four demonstratives in English. This, that, these, those.
Depending on their use, demonstratives can be classified as either pronouns or
adjectives.
•Examples: This is difficult (this is the subject, there is no noun visible that it
refers to, therefore, it is a pronoun).
This pen doesn’t work. (this describes which pen, the visible noun
it refers to, and is therefore an adjective).
V. Interrogative Pronouns – also known as the question words.
Who, whom, whose, whoever, what, which, and whichever ask questions that will yield the antecedent in the answer. Sounds complicated, but look at the examples below.
•Examples: Who won the award? Answer: Fred won the award. (Fred is the
antecedent for who).
Which car is the fastest? Answer: Fred’s car is the fastest. (again).
Whose pen are you using? Answer: I’m using Fred’s pen. (again).
VI. Relative Pronouns –will be covered in the section on subordinate clauses.