Pronouns

Word Classes (Parts of Speech)

1. Definition
Take the places of nouns in sentences.

2. Types of Pronouns
- Personal
- Possessive
- Reciprocal
- Reflexive
- Demonstrative
- Interrogative


Personal
- Indicates a person speaking, spoken to or spoken of.
- Each personal pronoun refers to specific individual or group
e.g I am too tired to drive.
You saw the meteor shower last weekend.
She taught the kids to speak Japanese.

Nominative Case
Singular Plural
First Person I we
Second Person You you
Third Person He, she, it they

Objective Case
Singular Plural
First Person me us
Second Person You you
Third Person him, her, it them

* Did you know?
Only the third person makes a distinction according to gender.

Which is correct?
Give it to us, you and I.
Give it to us, you and me.


Possessive
- to show possession.

Singular Plural
First Person my, mine our, ours
Second Person your, yours your, yours
Third Person his, hers, hers, its their, theirs

Please note that possessive pronouns are never written with apostrophes.

Reciprocal
There’s only two:
1. Each other – when the groups consists of just two people
e.g The two friends helped each other through tough times.

2. One another – when the group consists of more then two people, animals or things
e.g The four of us will help one another out of our current predicament.

Reflexive
- Reflects or refers back to the subject
e.g I gave myself the day off. (the pronouns are turning the action of the verb back to the subject of the sentence).

Singular Plural
First Person myself ourselves
Second Person yourself yourselves
Third Person himself, herself, itself themselves

Demonstrative
- Points to the nouns that they are replacing
- This and that (singular); these and those (plural).
- Use of this and these to refer to objects that are nearby in space.
e.g This is my ruler in my hand.
These are my crayons on my desk.

- Use of that and those of objects that are farther away in space and time.
e.g That is my ruler across the room.
Those are my crayons on the other desk.


Interrogative

- Are words of interrogation
- They ask questions
- They are who; which and what
- Their form stays constant across person, gender and number but who does change form with case:

Nominative who
Objective whom
Possessive whose

Who – refers strictly to people; general in terms of reference, referring to one or a few out of all possible people.
e.g Who stole my car?

Which – refer to people, animals or things, but is selective in its questioning.
e.g Which of you broke my window?

What – may apply to animals, people or things.
- for people, what asks for description
e.g What are they?

other links: http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/pronouns.html