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Pronouns

Created on

Pronoun

  • takes the place of one or more nouns or proper nouns

  • the word or word group that a pronoun stands for is called the antecedent of the pronoun
    • Marcus enjoys hiking and camping; in fact, they are his two favorite pastimes
      • antecedents = hiking and camping
      • pronoun = they
    • One of the film projectors is broken. It is being repaired
      • antecedent = One
      • pronoun = It
  • sometimes can be used as an adjective
    • This dog is mine (This modifies dog as a specific one in proximity relative to first person speaker)
    • My dog ran away (My modifies dog as being owned by first person speaker)

Pronoun - Types

Type

Description

Subject Pronoun

Object or Subject Complement Pronoun

Possessive Adjective
Pronoun

Possessive Object
Pronoun

Reflexive Pronoun

First Person

refers to the person speaking

I

me

my

mine

myself

Second Person

refers to the person spoken to

you

you

your

yours

yourself

Third Person (Male)

refers to the guy spoken about

he

him

his

his

himself

Third Person (Female)

refers to the girl spoken about

she

her

her

hers

herself

Third Thing

refers to the thing spoken about

it

it

its

(not used)

itself

First Person (Plural)

refers to the people speaking

we

us

our

ours

ourselves

Second Person (plural)

refers to the people spoken to

you

you

your

yours

yourselves

Third Person & Thing (plural)

refers to the people/things spoken about

they

them

their

theirs

themselves

Who Pronoun

refers to some non-particular person

who

whom

whose

(not used)

(not used)

Description

Singular/Plural

Relative Pronoun
  • joins a clause which introduces its own attachment
    • She is the girl who won the race
    • This is the dog that was lost
    • The person that wins is whoever falls last

relative:

  • who, whom, whose, which, that, what

compound relative:

  • whoever, whichever, whatsoever

Reflexive Pronoun

Demonstrative Pronoun
  • indicates which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others
    • Is this the one you want?
    • That may be the only reasonable option
    • These are the pictures from our vacation
  • this/these - here
  • that/those - there

Indefinite Pronouns
  • does NOT point to a definite noun or another pronoun (i.e. the pronoun may not have a specific antecedent)
    • All of the members have voted [All refers to members]
    • One of the members have voted [One refers to members]
    • Does everyone favor a weekly meeting? [Everyone has no specific antecedent]
    • The fallen tree provided homes for several of the creature of the woods [several refers to creatures]

singular:

  • another, anybody, anyone, anything, each, somebody, someone, other, either, enough, everybody, everyone, everything, something, one, less, little, much, neither, nobody, no one, nothing

plural:

  • both, many, others, several, few, fewer

both singular & plural:

  • all, any, more, most, none, such, some

Interrogative Pronouns
  • introduces a question
    • What is the capital of USA?
    • Whose is this red sweater?
    • To whom should I direct your call?
  • who, whom, whose, which, what