What Are Pronouns? – Definition
Types, And Uses | Basic English Grammar
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What are pronouns?
Pronouns are how a person wants to be referred to in the third person. Examples of pronouns include, but are not limited to:
- he/him/his,
- she/her/hers,
- they/them/their,
- they/them/their and she/her/hers (used interchangeably)
- they/them/their and he/him/his (used interchangeably)
- ze/hir/hirs, and other gender-neutral pronouns.
Or
What is a pronoun?
- A pronoun is any word that can replace a noun or noun phrase (I, you, them).
- Pronouns refer specifically to people who are being talked about (he, she, him, his, her).
1) Personal Pronouns
“A pronoun is a word used instead of a Noun”. (I, we, you, he, she, it, they) are called personal pronouns because they stand for the three persons.
First Person
I
we
me
us
my, mine,
our, ours
Second Person
you
you
you, Yours
Third-person
he
she
it
they
him
her
it
them
his
her, hers
its
their, theirs
2) Subject and object pronouns
Subject and object pronouns are used in everyday language. However, it can be tricky to remember which is which. The subject always takes action. The object is part of the activity, but it does not do any acting.
Subject and object pronouns function in the same way
(i) Subject pronouns include I, you, he, she, it, they, we.
For Instance:
He makes me angry
(ii) Object pronouns include me, you, him, her, it, us, them.
For Instance:
Larry took him aside.
3) Possessive pronouns
Possessive pronouns show who owns something described in a sentence. They include mine, his, hers, its, ours, yours, their, and theirs.
For Instance:
The dog is mine.
4) Reflexive Pronoun
“Reflexive pronouns are those which are used to indicate a noun which has been used in an earlier part of the same sentence. They include myself, themselves, yourself, ourselves, herself, himself, itself.
For Instance:
She blamed herself for the accident.
5) Emphatic/ Intensive Pronoun
6) Demonstrative Pronoun
Demonstrative pronouns are used to show or identify one or a number of nouns that may be far or near in distance or time.
For Instance:
This is what he is charging. (This is used here in place of a number)
7) Indefinite Pronoun
Indefinite pronouns replace nouns that are not specified. They include all, another, any, anybody, anyone, anything, both, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, few, many, neither, nobody, none, no one, nothing, one, several, some, somebody, someone, and something.
For Instance:
Somebody stole my watch. (We don’t know to whom the word ‘somebody’ refers to. The word ‘somebody’ is an indefinite pronoun.
8) Distributive Pronoun
These Pronouns refer to individual elements in a group or a pair, one individual at a time.
For Instance:
Each of the boys gets a prize.
9) Reciprocal Pronoun
The brothers quarreled with each other.
They all gave evidence against one another.
10) Relative Pronoun
11) Interrogative Pronoun
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