What part of speech is the word pronoun

This article is about a word which is used instead of a noun. For other uses, see Pronoun (disambiguation).

In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated PRO) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.

Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not consider them to form a single class, in view of the variety of functions they perform cross-linguistically. An example of a pronoun is «you», which can be either singular or plural. Subtypes include personal and possessive pronouns, reflexive and reciprocal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, relative and interrogative pronouns, and indefinite pronouns.^{[1]: 1–34 [2]}

The use of pronouns often involves anaphora, where the meaning of the pronoun is dependent on an antecedent. For example, in the sentence That poor man looks as if he needs a new coat, the meaning of the pronoun he is dependent on its antecedent, that poor man.

The name of the adjective that belongs with a «pronoun» is called a «pronominal«.^[A] A pronominal is also a word or phrase that acts as a pronoun. For example, in That’s not the one I wanted, the phrase the one (containing the prop-word one) is a pronominal.^[3]

Theory[edit]

Pronoun versus pro-form[edit]

Pronoun is a category of words. A pro-form is a type of function word or expression that stands in for (expresses the same content as) another word, phrase, clause or sentence where the meaning is recoverable from the context.^[4] In English, pronouns mostly function as pro-forms, but there are pronouns that are not pro-forms and pro-forms that are not pronouns.^{[5][p. 239]}

Pronouns versus Pro-forms

	Example	Pronoun	Pro-form
1	It is a good idea.	✓	✓
2	I know the people who work there.	✓	✓
3	Who works there?	✓
4	It is raining.	✓
5	I asked her to help, and she did so right away.		✓
6	JJ and Petra helped, but the others didn’t.		✓

Examples [1 & 2] are pronouns and pro-forms. In [1], the pronoun it «stands in» for whatever was mentioned and is a good idea. In [2], the relative pronoun who stands in for «the people».

Examples [3 & 4] are pronouns but not pro-forms. In [3], the interrogative pronoun who does not stand in for anything. Similarly, in [4], it is a dummy pronoun, one that does not stand in for anything. No other word can function there with the same meaning; we do not say «the sky is raining» or «the weather is raining».

Finally, in [5 & 6], there are pro-forms that are not pronouns. In [5], did so is a verb phrase that stands in for «helped», inflected from to help stated earlier in the sentence. Similarly, in [6], others is a common noun, not a pronoun, but the others probably stands in for the names of other people involved (e.g., Sho, Alana, and Ali), all proper nouns.

Grammar[edit]

Pronouns (antōnymía) are listed as one of eight parts of speech in The Art of Grammar, a treatise on Greek grammar attributed to Dionysius Thrax and dating from the 2nd century BC. The pronoun is described there as «a part of speech substitutable for a noun and marked for a person.» Pronouns continued to be regarded as a part of speech in Latin grammar (the Latin term being pronomen, from which the English name – through Middle French – ultimately derives), and thus in the European tradition generally.

Because of the many different syntactic roles that they play, pronouns are less likely to be a single word class in more modern approaches to grammar.^[6]

Linguistics[edit]

Linguists in particular have trouble classifying pronouns in a single category, and some do not agree that pronouns substitute nouns or noun categories.^[1] Certain types of pronouns are often identical or similar in form to determiners with related meaning; some English examples are given in the table.

	Pronoun	Determiner
Possessive	ours	our freedom
Demonstrative	this	this gentleman
Indefinite	some	some frogs
Negative	none	no information
Interrogative	which	which option

This observation has led some linguists, such as Paul Postal, to regard pronouns as determiners that have had their following noun or noun phrase deleted.^[7] (Such patterning can even be claimed for certain personal pronouns; for example, we and you might be analyzed as determiners in phrases like we Brits and you tennis players.) Other linguists have taken a similar view, uniting pronouns and determiners into a single class, sometimes called «determiner-pronoun», or regarding determiners as a subclass of pronouns or vice versa. The distinction may be considered to be one of subcategorization or valency, rather like the distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs – determiners take a noun phrase complement like transitive verbs do, while pronouns do not.^[8] This is consistent with the determiner phrase viewpoint, whereby a determiner, rather than the noun that follows it, is taken to be the head of the phrase. Cross-linguistically, it seems as though pronouns share 3 distinct categories: point of view, person, and number. The breadth of each subcategory however tends to differ among languages.^[9]

Binding theory and antecedents[edit]

The use of pronouns often involves anaphora, where the meaning of the pronoun is dependent on another referential element. The referent of the pronoun is often the same as that of a preceding (or sometimes following) noun phrase, called the antecedent of the pronoun. The grammatical behavior of certain types of pronouns, and in particular their possible relationship with their antecedents, has been the focus of studies in binding, notably in the Chomskyan government and binding theory. In this binding context, reflexive and reciprocal pronouns in English (such as himself and each other) are referred to as anaphors (in a specialized restricted sense) rather than as pronominal elements. Under binding theory, specific principles apply to different sets of pronouns.

In English, reflexive and reciprocal pronouns must adhere to Principle A: an anaphor (reflexive or reciprocal, such as «each other») must be bound in its governing category (roughly, the clause). Therefore, in syntactic structure it must be lower in structure (it must have an antecedent) and have a direct relationship with its referent. This is called a C-command relationship. For instance, we see that John cut himself is grammatical, but Himself cut John is not, despite having identical arguments, since himself, the reflexive, must be lower in structure to John, its referent. Additionally, we see examples like John said that Mary cut himself are not grammatical because there is an intermediary noun, Mary, that disallows the two referents from having a direct relationship.

On the other hand, personal pronouns (such as him or them) must adhere to Principle B: a pronoun must be free (i.e., not bound) within its governing category (roughly, the clause). This means that although the pronouns can have a referent, they cannot have a direct relationship with the referent where the referent selects the pronoun. For instance, John said Mary cut him is grammatical because the two co-referents, John and him are separated structurally by Mary. This is why a sentence like John cut him where him refers to John is ungrammatical.

Binding cross-linguistically[edit]

The type of binding that applies to subsets of pronouns varies cross-linguistically. For instance, in German linguistics, pronouns can be split into two distinct categories — personal pronouns and d-pronouns. Although personal pronouns act identically to English personal pronouns (i.e. follow Principle B), d-pronouns follow yet another principle, Principle C, and function similarly to nouns in that they cannot have a direct relationship to an antecedent.^[9]

Antecedents[edit]

The following sentences give examples of particular types of pronouns used with antecedents:

• Third-person personal pronouns:
  • That poor man looks as if he needs a new coat. (the noun phrase that poor man is the antecedent of he)
  • Julia arrived yesterday. I met her at the station. (Julia is the antecedent of her)
  • When they saw us, the lions began roaring (the lions is the antecedent of they; as it comes after the pronoun it may be called a postcedent)
• Other personal pronouns in some circumstances:
  • Terry and I were hoping no one would find us. (Terry and I is the antecedent of us)
  • You and Alice can come if you like. (you and Alice is the antecedent of the second – plural – you)
• Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns:
  • Jack hurt himself. (Jack is the antecedent of himself)
  • We were teasing each other. (we is the antecedent of each other)
• Relative pronouns:
  • The woman who looked at you is my sister. (the woman is the antecedent of who)

Some other types, such as indefinite pronouns, are usually used without antecedents. Relative pronouns are used without antecedents in free relative clauses. Even third-person personal pronouns are sometimes used without antecedents («unprecursed») – this applies to special uses such as dummy pronouns and generic they, as well as cases where the referent is implied by the context.

English pronouns[edit]

English personal pronouns have a number of different syntactic contexts (Subject, Object, Possessive, Reflexive) and many features:

• person (1st, 2nd, 3rd);
• number (singular, plural);
• gender (masculine, feminine, neuter or inanimate, epicene)

Personal pronouns in standard Modern English

Person	Number & Gender	Subject	Object	Dependent possessive (determiner)	Independent possessive	Reflexive
First	Singular	I	me	my	mine	myself
Plural	we	us	our	ours	ourselves
Second	Singular	you	your	yours	yourself
Plural	yourselves
Third	Masculine	he	him	his	himself
Feminine	she	her	hers	herself
Neuter/Inanimate	it	its	itself
Epicene	they	them	their	theirs	themself
Plural	themselves

English also has other pronoun types, including demonstrative, relative, indefinite, and interrogative pronouns:

Demonstrative	Relative	Indefinite	Interrogative
this	who / whom / whose	one / one’s / oneself	who / whom / whose
these	what	something / anything / nothing (things)	what
that	which	someone / anyone / no one (people)	which
those	that	somebody / anybody / nobody (people)
former / latter

Personal and possessive[edit]

Personal[edit]

English personal pronouns^[2]: 52

Person	Number	Case
Subject	Object
First	Singular	I	me
Plural	we	us
Second	Singular	you
Plural
Third	Singular	he	him
she	her
it
they	them
Plural/Epicene	they	them

Personal pronouns may be classified by person, number, gender and case. English has three persons (first, second and third) and two numbers (singular and plural); in the third person singular there are also distinct pronoun forms for male, female and neuter gender.^{[2]: 52–53} Principal forms are shown in the adjacent table.

English personal pronouns have two cases, subject and object. Subject pronouns are used in subject position (I like to eat chips, but she does not). Object pronouns are used for the object of a verb or preposition (John likes me but not her).^{[2]: 52–53}

Other distinct forms found in some languages include:

• Second person informal and formal pronouns (the T–V distinction), like tu and vous in French. Formal second person pronouns can also signify plurality in many languages. There is no such distinction in standard modern English, though Elizabethan English marked the distinction with thou (singular informal) and you (plural or singular formal). Some dialects of English have developed informal plural second person pronouns, for instance, y’all (Southern American English) and you guys (American English).
• Inclusive and exclusive first person plural pronouns, which indicate whether or not the audience is included, that is, whether we means «you and I» or «they and I». There is no such distinction in English.
• Intensive (emphatic) pronouns, which re-emphasize a noun or pronoun that has already been mentioned. English uses the same forms as the reflexive pronouns; for example: I did it myself (contrast reflexive use, I did it to myself).
• Direct and indirect object pronouns, such as le and lui in French. English uses the same form for both; for example: Mary loves him (direct object); Mary sent him a letter (indirect object).
• Prepositional pronouns, used after a preposition. English uses ordinary object pronouns here: Mary looked at him.
• Disjunctive pronouns, used in isolation or in certain other special grammatical contexts, like moi in French. No distinct forms exist in English; for example: Who does this belong to? Me.
• Strong and weak forms of certain pronouns, found in some languages such as Polish.
• Pronoun avoidance, where personal pronouns are substituted by titles or kinship terms (particularly common in South-East Asia).

Possessive[edit]

Possessive pronouns are used to indicate possession (in a broad sense). Some occur as independent noun phrases: mine, yours, hers, ours, theirs. An example is: Those clothes are mine. Others act as a determiner and must accompany a noun: my, your, her, our, your, their, as in: I lost my wallet. (His and its can fall into either category, although its is nearly always found in the second.) Those of the second type have traditionally also been described as possessive adjectives, and in more modern terminology as possessive determiners. The term «possessive pronoun» is sometimes restricted to the first type. Both types replace possessive noun phrases. As an example, Their crusade to capture our attention could replace The advertisers’ crusade to capture our attention.^{[2]: 55–56}

Reflexive and reciprocal[edit]

Reflexive pronouns are used when a person or thing acts on itself, for example, John cut himself. In English they all end in -self or -selves and must refer to a noun phrase elsewhere in the same clause.^[2]: 55

Reciprocal pronouns refer to a reciprocal relationship (each other, one another). They must refer to a noun phrase in the same clause.^[2]: 55 An example in English is: They do not like each other. In some languages, the same forms can be used as both reflexive and reciprocal pronouns.

Demonstrative[edit]

Demonstrative pronouns (in English, this, that and their plurals these, those) often distinguish their targets by pointing or some other indication of position; for example, I’ll take these. They may also be anaphoric, depending on an earlier expression for context, for example, A kid actor would try to be all sweet, and who needs that?^[2]: 56

Indefinite[edit]

Indefinite pronouns, the largest group of pronouns, refer to one or more unspecified persons or things. One group in English includes compounds of some-, any-, every- and no- with -thing, -one and -body, for example: Anyone can do that. Another group, including many, more, both, and most, can appear alone or followed by of.^{[2]: 54–55} In addition,

• Distributive pronouns are used to refer to members of a group separately rather than collectively. (To each his own.)
• Negative pronouns indicate the non-existence of people or things. (Nobody thinks that.)
• Impersonal pronouns normally refer to a person but are not specific as to first, second or third person in the way that the personal pronouns are. (One does not clean one’s own windows.)

Relative and interrogative[edit]

Relative[edit]

Relative pronouns in English include who, whom, whose, what, which and that. They rely on an antecedent, and refer back to people or things previously mentioned: People who smoke should quit now. They are used in relative clauses.^[2]: 56 Relative pronouns can also be used as complementizers.

Interrogative[edit]

Relative pronouns can be used in an interrogative setting as interrogative pronouns. Interrogative pronouns ask which person or thing is meant. In reference to a person, one may use who (subject), whom (object) or whose (possessive); for example, Who did that? In colloquial speech, whom is generally replaced by who. English non-personal interrogative pronouns (which and what) have only one form.^{[2]: 56–57}

In English and many other languages (e.g. French and Czech), the sets of relative and interrogative pronouns are nearly identical. Compare English: Who is that? (interrogative) and I know the woman who came (relative). In some other languages, interrogative pronouns and indefinite pronouns are frequently identical; for example, Standard Chinese 什么 shénme means «what?» as well as «something» or «anything».

Archaic forms[edit]

Archaic personal pronouns^[2]: 52

Person	Number	Case
Subject	Object
Second	Singular	thou	thee
Plural	ye	you

Though the personal pronouns described above are the current English pronouns, Early Modern English (as used by Shakespeare, for example) use a slightly different set of personal pronouns, shown in the table. The difference is entirely in the second person. Though one would rarely find these older forms used in recent literature, they are nevertheless considered part of Modern English.

Kinship[edit]

In English, kin terms like «mother,» «uncle,» «cousin» are a distinct word class from pronouns; however many Australian Aboriginal languages have more elaborated systems of encoding kinship in language including special kin forms of pronouns. In Murrinh-patha, for example, when selecting a nonsingular exclusive pronoun to refer to a group, the speaker will assess whether or not the members of the group belong to a common class of gender or kinship. If all of the members of the referent group are male, the MASCULINE form will be selected; if at least one is female, the FEMININE is selected, but if all the members are in a sibling-like kinship relation, a third SIBLING form is selected.^[10] In Arabana-Wangkangurru, the speaker will use entirely different sets of pronouns depending on whether the speaker and the referent are or are not in a common moiety. See the following example:

See Australian Aboriginal kinship for more details.

Special uses[edit]

Some special uses of personal pronouns include:

• Generic you, where second person pronouns are used in an indefinite sense: You can’t buy good old-fashioned bulbs these days.
• Generic they: In China they drive on the right.
• Gender non-specific uses, where a pronoun refers to a non-specific person or a person whose gender is not specified: English usage and acceptance varies (and has varied) regarding generic he and singular they, among others.
  • A closely related usage is the singular they to refer to a person whose gender is specified as non-binary, genderqueer, or other, which has gained popularity in LGBTQ+ culture in particular.
• Vernacular usage of «yo» as a gender neutral pronoun has also been recorded among school students in Baltimore.^[12][13]
• Preferred gender pronoun selected to reflect gender identity
• Dummy pronouns (expletive pronouns), used to satisfy a grammatical requirement for a noun or pronoun, but contributing nothing to its meaning: It is raining.
• Royal we, used to refer to a single person who is a monarch: We are not amused.
• Nosism: The use of the pronoun we to refer to oneself.
• Resumptive pronouns, «intrusive» personal pronouns found (for example) in some relative clauses where a gap (trace) might be expected: This is the girl that I don’t know what she said.

See also[edit]

[edit]

In English[edit]

• Old English pronouns

In other languages[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

• English pronouns exercises, by Jennifer Frost
• «Pronoun» . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.

One of the eight parts of speech in the English language is the pronoun. In order to be able to write great compositions and communicate well, you must learn how to use this type of word properly.

So, what exactly is a pronoun?

For you to understand the concept easily, you can look at nouns as actors and pronouns as stuntmen in movies. When a stuntman takes the place of an actor for a particular scene, he represents the same character. Just the same, a pronoun replaces a noun in a particular sentence, but it still refers to the same noun.

For example:

• Mr. White was a high school teacher turned race car driver. He was able to win 99.1% of the races because of his extensive knowledge in racing.

• In the sentence, the person is ­Walter White. Instead of repeating his name in the next sentence, the pronouns “he“ and “his” were used to refer to him.

What would happen if there were no pronouns?

The previous example would look like this:

• Mr. White is a high school teacher turned race car driver. Mr. White was able to win 99.1% of the races because of Mr. White’s extensive knowledge in racing.

It sounds awkward, right?

So you see, pronouns are very important in written and verbal communication because they avoid repetitiveness and ensure a good flow of words. They serve as stuntmen that are always ready to replace the real actors when the actors start to wear out.

Below is a list of the most common pronouns that you can use to replace different kinds of nouns.

The Antecedent

As previously mentioned, a pronoun is used to replace a noun. This noun is called the antecedent.

The prefix “ante” means before, so for example:

The police officers rushed into their headquarters.

In this example, the pronoun “their” refers back to the police officers. The underlined noun is therefore, the antecedent of “their.”

In a simple sentence such as that stated above, it is very easy to identify the antecedent that the pronoun is referring to. However, you should be very careful with the use of pronouns in writing complicated sentences or paragraphs. If not used properly, these can confuse readers as to what you’re talking about. Make sure that your antecedent will not get lost to avoid this confusion.

Kinds of Pronouns

There are six kinds of pronouns with different functions:

1. Personal pronouns

This kind of pronoun refers to a particular person or thing. The form of the personal pronoun that is appropriate to use for a specific sentence depends on the gender and number of persons or things that serve as the antecedents.

For example, you are referring to a female subject in the sentence, the pronouns that are appropriate to use are: she, her, and hers. If you are referring to a male, you can use: he, him, and his. For a group of persons, not including yourself, the appropriate pronouns are: they, them, and theirs.

Personal pronouns can serve as the subjects, objects of the verb or preposition, and can also show possession. They are formally classified into: subjective personal pronouns, objective personal pronouns, and possessive personal pronouns.

Examples:

• You are definitely the biggest science nerd I’ve ever met.
• In the example above, the underlined pronoun serves as the subject.

• Harry persuaded her to come with him.
• The pronoun “her” is the object of the verb persuaded. Him, on the other hand, is the object of the preposition with.

• Ours is the one on the left.
• The pronoun “ours” signifies possession.

2. Demonstrative pronouns

The function of this kind of pronoun is to point to a noun. Examples are: this, these, that, and those. The pronouns “this” and “these” points to things that are nearby while the other two are for things that are far. Aside from proximity, you must also consider the number of things you are pointing out. For singular nouns, “this” and “that” should be used, while for plural nouns “these” and “those” are appropriate.

Examples:

• That is the car that I’ll buy for my birthday.
• The speaker is pointing out to a singular noun that is far from him/her.

• She said she wanted these.
• The underlined pronoun refers to a plural noun and also serve as the object of the verb wanted.

3. Indefinite pronouns

This kind of pronoun refers to unspecified things. Some examples are: any, all, another, each, anyone, anything, anybody, nobody, everyone, everybody, someone, somebody, few, and many.

Examples:

•  Many were called for the interview but only 3 were hired.
• He’s ready to give up everything for his family’s safety.

4. Intensive pronouns

The function of intensive pronouns is to give emphasis to the antecedent. Examples of this kind of pronoun are: myself, itself, himself, herself, yourself, yourselves, themselves, and ourselves.

Examples:

• The president himself said that it was a terrorist attack.
• I myself knew that it was a mistake.

5. Interrogative pronouns

As the title implies, the function of this kind of pronoun is to ask questions. Examples of interrogative pronouns are: who, what, which, whom, whoever, whatever, whichever, and whomever.

Examples:

• Who wrote the book 1984?
• What did the doctors say?

6. Relative pronouns

This kind of pronoun links one clause or phrase to another. Some of the most common relative pronouns are: who, whoever, whomever, that, and which.

Examples:

• The contestant who gets the highest score wins the million dollar jackpot.
• In this sentence, the underlined pronoun is the subject of the verb gets. The subordinate clause, “who gets the highest score wins the million dollar jackpot,” describes the noun contestant.

• He will accept whichever project comes first.
• The subordinate clause, ”whichever project comes first,” serves as the object of the verb “will accept.”

7. Reflexive pronouns

This kind of pronoun is used to refer back to the subject. Some of the reflexive pronouns are: yourself, myself, ourselves, himself, herself, themselves, and itself.

Example:

• Sandra never forgets to send a copy of the email to herself.
• The pronoun “herself” refers back to the subject of the sentence, which is Sandra.

• He promised to repair the broken fence, however, we ended up fixing it ourselves.
• The underlined reflexive pronoun refers back to the subject we.

Final Thoughts

An in-depth understanding of pronouns and their functions is very important in creating well-constructed compositions. Pronouns make the flow of words and thoughts smoother and this should definitely engage your readers.

§ 1. The pronoun is a part of speech which points out objects and their qualities without naming them.

§ 2. Classification of pronouns.

Pronouns fall under the following groups:

(1) personal
pronouns: I,
he, she, it, we, you, they.

(2) possessive
pronouns: my,
his, her, its, our, your, their; mine, his, hers, ours, yours,
theirs.

(3) reflexive
pronouns: myself,
himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourself (yourselves),
themselves.

(4) reciprocal
pronouns: each
other, one another.

(5) demonstrative
pronouns: this
(these), that (those), such, (the) same.

(6) interrogative
pronouns: who, whose, what, which.

(7) relative
pronouns: who,
whose, which, that, as.

(8) conjunctive
pronouns: who,
whose, which, what.

(9) defining
pronouns: each,
every, everybody, everyone, everything, all, either, both, other,
another.

(10) indefinite
pronouns: some,
any, somebody, anybody, something, anything, someone, anyone, one.

(11) negative
pronouns: no,
none, neither, nobody, no one, nothing.

There is no uniformity of morphological and
syntactical characteristics in the groups of pronouns. Some pronouns
have the grammatical categories of person,
gender, case, and number.
The categories of person and gender (in
the third person singular) exist only in personal, and possessive
pronouns.

Pronouns as well as nouns have two cases but
whereas some pronouns (e. g., personal pronouns and the relative and
interrogative who)
have the nominative and objective
cases, others (e. g. indefinite pronouns such as somebody,
reciprocal pronouns such as one
another, negative pronouns such as
nobody)
have the common and genitive cases.

The category of number is found in demonstrative
pronouns (this and
that)
and the defining pronoun other.

Many pronouns are characterised by double
syntactical use (they may be used as subject, predicative, object,
and at the same time as attribute). Here belong demonstrative
pronouns, possessive pronouns, etc.

§ 3. Personal pronouns.

1. The
personal pronouns are: I, he, she, it,
we, you, they. The personal pronouns
have the grammatical categories of person, case, number and (in the
third person singular) gender.

The personal pronouns have two
cases: the nominative
case and the objective
case.

The nominative case: /, he,
she, it, we, you, they.¹

¹ The archaic
pronoun of the second person singular is thou.

The objective case: me,
him, her, it, us, you, them.²

² The
objective case of thou is
thee.

The objective case of the pronouns I,
he, she, we is
expressed by suppletive forms.

In colloquial speech me,
not I is
commonly used as a predicative: Who is
there? — It
is me.

The personal pronouns have two
numbers, singular (I,
he, she, it) and plural (we,
they).

The second-person pronoun you
is both singular and plural.

The pronouns of the third person he,
she, it distinguish gender.
Male beings (man,
father, uncle, boy, etc.) are referred
to as he; female
beings (woman, mother, aunt, girl, etc.)
are referred to as
she; inanimate
things (house, tree, cap, etc.)
are referred to as it.³

³ In literary
style the general principle is to associate with the pronoun he
words indicating strong forces, violent
passions, violent actions, big heavenly bodies (wind,
fear, love, anger, despair, sun); and
to associate with the pronoun she
gentler forces, gentler feelings,
smaller heavenly bodies (hope, mercy,
justice, modesty, moon).

Her husband asked
a few questions and sat down to read the evening paper.

He was a silent man… (Dreiser)

And then he turned and saw the girl…
She was a
pale, ethereal creature, with

wide, spiritual eyes and a wealth of golden hair.
(London)

He did not know what to do with his cap,
and was stuffing it into
his coat

pocket… (London)

As some nouns denote animate beings of either sex,
masculine or feminine (friend, teacher,
servant, cousin etc.), personal
pronouns are often used to specify them:

“Tell your servant that he must not use such
words to Hendrike, Mr. Allan,”

Stella said to me. (Haggard)

2. Personal pronouns may have different functions
in the sentence, those of subject, object, predicative:

I was not free to
resume the interrupted chain of my reflections till bed-time…

(Ch. Bronte) (SUBJECT)

He arranged to meet her
at the 96th Street station… (Wilson)
(OBJECT)

“Who’s there?”
“It’s me.”
“Who’s me?”
“George
Jackson, sir.”
(Twain)

(PREDICATIVE)

But I think that was him
I spoke to. (Cronin)
(PREDICATIVE)

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From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A pronoun is traditionally a part of speech in grammar, but many modern linguists call it a type of noun.^[1] In English, pronouns are words such as me, she, his, them, herself, each other, it, what.

Pronouns are often used to take the place of a noun, to avoid repeating the noun. For example, instead of saying

• Tom has a new dog. Tom has named the dog. Max and Tom let the dog sleep by Tom’s bed.

it is easier to say

• Tom has a new dog. He has named him Max and he lets him sleep by his bed.

When a pronoun replaces a noun, the noun is called the antecedent. For example, in the sentence: The dog that was walking down the street, the relative pronoun is the word that referring back to the antecedent, the word ‘dog’. In the sentence The spy who loved me, the relative pronoun is the word ‘who’ and its antecedent is the word ‘spy’.^[2]

Differences and similarities to nouns[change | change source]

Pronouns are different from common nouns because pronouns normally do not come after articles or other determiners. For example, people do not say «the it». Pronouns rarely come after adjectives. They are also different because many of them change depending on how they are used. For example, «we» is a ‘subject’ in grammar, but the word changes to us when used as an object.

Pronouns are the same as nouns because they both change for number (singular & plural), case (subject, object, possessive, etc.), and gender (male, female, animate, inanimate, etc.) Nouns and pronouns can be used in almost all the same places in sentences, and they name the same kinds of things: people, objects, etc. Even though they can not normally come after determiners, or adjectives, neither can proper nouns.

Kinds of pronouns[change | change source]

There are different kinds of pronouns: personal, reciprocal, interrogative, and relative.

Kinds of English pronouns

i	personal	you love them	Your sister loves herself
ii	reciprocal	we like each other	we are looking at one another
iii	interrogative	who is there?	what happened?
iv	relative	the person who saw it	the time which you told me

Personal pronouns in English[change | change source]

This table shows all the personal pronouns in English that are commonly used today.

Personal pronouns in English

	Subject	Object	Possessive	Reflexive
Singular	First	I	me	my, mine	myself
Second	you	you	your, yours	yourself
Third	Gender Neutral	they	them	their, theirs	themself
Feminine	she	her	her, hers	herself
Masculine	he	him	his	himself
Neuter	it	it	its	itself
Plural	First	we	us	our, ours	ourselves
Second	you	you	your, yours	yourselves
Third	Feminine	they	them	their, theirs	themselves
Masculine
Neuter

A subject pronoun can replace a noun that is the subject of a sentence. Refer to the table above; the subject pronouns are: I, You, He, She, It, We, They. An object pronoun can replace a noun that is the object of a sentence. A possessive pronoun shows who or what a noun belongs to.

Another type of personal pronoun is called the ‘reflexive pronoun’. Reflexive pronouns are the words ending in ‘-self’ or ‘-selves’, such as: myself, itself, themselves. One of the primary functions of reflexive pronouns is for situations in which a single agent is both the doer of the action and the receiver of the action. For example, if I cut my finger, we don’t typically say «I cut me.» in English; we use the reflexive pronoun and say «I cut myself.» ^[3]

«It» and its other forms «its», and «itself» only refer to objects, not people. «They» and its other forms «them», «their», and «theirs» can be used as a singular, for a person whose gender is unknown at the time, or for a person who does not identify with either the «she/her» or «he/him» pronouns. For example: «The patient will be told how much they will be required to pay.» ^[4]

References[change | change source]

• Grammar
• Pronoun

The pronoun can be defined as, “A pronoun is one of the parts of speech, is a word that comes in a sentence as an alternative to the noun.” Also, we can say, a pronoun is a replacement for a noun or a noun phrase in a sentence.

When we have to introduce any person in a sentence more than once, then repetition of the same name in a single sentence looks unusual, that time we replace all other nouns with a pronoun.

Pronouns are short words and function the same as that the noun does in a sentence.
It may be functioning at any place in a sentence like the first person, second person, or third person, respectively.

It can function as a subject, object (direct/indirect), place, animal, thing, etc.

Some common pronouns used most commonly in a sentence are- He, She, It, They, We, Us, I, You, Them, anyone, Something, Nobody, etc.

Usage:

The naming word for representing any male person, and for first, second or third person, we use “He, his, him, himself” as a pronoun, 

For example, 

• James, Jonathan, Robert, Andrew, David, Dwane Johnson, etc. – He, his, him, himself respectively.

Similarly, for representing the naming word for a female person, and for the first, second, or third person, the “She, her, hers, herself” pronoun is used in a sentence.

For example,

• Sara, Stephney, Lisa, Malina, Agatha, Martha, Julia, Abella, Senorita, etc. – She, her, hers, herself respectively.

And for representing any objects or things like tea, coffee, box, chair, shoes, etc. – the pronoun “It, itself” is used in a sentence or a phrase or a clause.

For Plural words or common from gender, more number of persons, places, objects, first and third person, etc. pronouns like I, you, us, we, they, them, their, theirs, themself, themselves, etc. can be used in a sentence.

Examples:

Let us see the replacement of noun with the pronoun in the below example to understand clearly,

1. Andrew goes to school every morning with Andrew’s bicycle.

Andrew goes to school every morning with his bicycle.

He goes there every morning with his bicycle.

Here, in the above sentences, the noun Andrew (person)is replaced with “he”, and the school (place) replaced with “there”, and Andrew’s replaced with “his”. 

1. Clara, Jordan, and Elle are playing a carrom game together.

They are playing a carrom game together.

1. Is Robin coming to the party with Nora?

Is he coming there with her?

Types of pronoun:

There are eight sub types of pronoun,

1. Personal pronoun
2. Possessive pronoun
3. Reflexive / Intensive pronoun
4. Reciprocal pronoun
5. Demonstrative pronoun
6. Indefinite pronoun
7. Relative pronoun
8. Interrogative pronoun.

Let us see some short description of each subtype of the pronoun:

Personal pronoun:

Personal pronouns have various forms with respect to numbers (maybe in singular or plural), gender, things, person, animals, or formality.

In any sentence, if the personal pronoun and the subject of the sentence (maybe a person, place, thing, object) both are the same, then the pronoun is also called the Subject pronoun too.

• I, we, him, you, she, he, it, they, me, her, us, and them are all personal pronouns.

• For the person: represents a speaker in the sentence. (first-person “I”, second person “You”, or third person “He, She, It”).
• For the gender: represents the gender of the speaker in a sentence. (masculine or feminine or any object called neuter).
• For the number: represents the quantity or number of object, person (singular or plural).

Examples:

1. He needs to start upgrading himself.

Here, he is a subject pronoun as well as a personal pronoun. 

1. They have decorated the entire function within 2 hours.
2. I want you to come and play with us.
3. Somebody go and call them to come immediately and report on the ground.

Possessive pronouns:

The pronoun, which shows some relation or possession quality or direct relation with someone else, is called a possessive pronoun.

• mine, ours, yours, his, hers, its, theirs, etc. are possessive pronouns.

If it comes to a place of the person with respect to the singular and plural form.

Say the first person: Singular- My, mine.

          Plural- Our, ours.

For the second person: Your, yours.

For third person: Singular- His, hers, it’s.

    Plural- Their, theirs, Whose.

Examples, 

1. We had spent a lot of time with Jimmy and his sister.

Here, “His” is possessed for a person Jimmy in a sentence.

1. This is my personal matter. You better stay out of it.
2. This sports-car is mine.
3. Hey dude! What is your problem?

Reflexive pronoun:

The reflexive pronoun is a word that is identical to a pronoun or a reflection of a noun, pronoun, adjective, or adverb that reflects back to the subject in a sentence. These pronouns can be ended by the suffix ‘-self’ or ‘-selves’.

The intensive pronoun (also called emphatic pronoun) is the same as that of the reflexive pronoun, but it is used for other nouns or a pronoun present in a sentence to indicate that noun or pronoun separately.

• Ourselves (self), yourselves (self), themselves(self), myself, herself, himself, itself, etc. are reflexive pronouns.

For the first person: Singular- Myself.

         Plural- Ourselves.

For the second person: Yourself, Yourselves.

For the third person: Singular- Himself, Herself, Itself/Oneself.

          Plural- Themself/Themselves.

Examples,

1. He slapped himself in front of others.

Here, the reflexive pronoun “himself” introduces the speaker “He”.

1. Do not blame themselves for this huge loss.
2. I took myself inside the museum.
3. We don’t have to go to the party, we can enjoy ourselves. 

Reciprocal pronoun:

The reciprocal pronoun is used when there is more than one subject acting in the same way

towards each other.

• To one another (when referred to more than two people).
• To each other (when we refer two people).

Examples,

1. Cadets are wishing one another for their better future life at their farewell.

Here, the number of cadets is not mentioned in the sentence, and the reciprocal pronoun one another is used to represent all.

1. Seetha and Geetha caught talking to each other during the examination.
2. The kidnappers are blaming one another after their failure.
3. Both are like best friends, always supporting each other.

Demonstrative pronoun:

The pronoun which is used to demonstrate something specific or to improve nouns and pronouns in any sentence. This pronoun can be either singular or plural also, it can be used in place of a noun.

• This, that, these, those, etc. are demonstrative pronouns.

Examples,

1. You have never imagined this in your life.

Here, this refers to any incident that happened in life.

1. That bike looks like a Harley Davidson.
2. Can you share those pictures which we clicked last evening?
3. Each of these pictures is looking so funny.

Indefinite pronoun:

Indefinite pronouns are used to mention one or more unidentified objects, places, or persons because they do not specify any precise object, place or person.

• Any, other, either, nobody, some, someone, somebody, something, anyone, everything, all, both, several, much, whoever, whichever, anybody, nothing, none, no one, etc. are indefinite pronouns.

Examples,

1. All of you belong to the same place.

Here, all is representing a proper noun.

1. Somebody is absent in today’s class.
2. Nobody comes forward to save that woman who was caught in the road accident.
3. Either you answer my question and sit or get out of the classroom.

Relative pronoun:

A relative pronoun is a pronoun which is used to express the relation between corresponding persons, places, things in a phrase or a clause of any sentence.  

This pronoun can also operate as a possessive pronoun, which is useful in connecting two sentences.

• Whoever, whom, that, who, which, whose, what, where, when, etc. are relative pronouns.

Examples,

1. The bird which is sitting on a branch of that tree looks very big in size.

Here, the relative pronoun “which” relates a bird with a clause of the sentence.

1. The athlete who won the gold medal in the Olympics was trained hard.
2. The chicken grills that she baked yesterday on the barbecue were so delicious.
3. The selected players, whoever the committee selects, will report tomorrow morning on the ground.

Interrogative pronoun:

An interrogative pronoun is a pronoun that means to interrogate or to ask questions easily. It can also be used as relative pronouns sometimes or to ask an indirect question.

Most of the time, this pronoun comes at the starting point of the sentence.

• Who, whose, what, which, and whom, etc. are interrogative pronouns.

Examples,

1. Who is going to tell a story?

Here the answer is the noun of the sentence and is asked by “who”.

1. Whose Pendrive had lost yesterday?
2. What are you expecting from me?
3. Which people come from a powerful place?
4. You do not have any idea to whom you are talking?

In certain situations, rarely used interrogative pronouns end with a suffix- ever, and -soever. 

• Whoever, whomsoever, whatever, etc.

For example,

• Don’t harm any hostages; whatever you want, the government will provide you.