Pronoun

A pronoun is a word used in place of one or more nouns.

We use pronouns to:

• Refer to a noun (called its antecedent) that usually comes before the pronoun
• Make our writing clearer, smoother, and less awkward

In the sentence, “Roney feels that he can win the race,” he is the pronoun, and Roberto is the antecedent.

In the sentence, “Tonny and Jim know that they are best friends,” they is the pronoun, and

“Terry and Jim” are the noun antecedents.

Types of Pronouns:

Types of Pronouns	Examples
Personal	I, you, they, we, he, she, etc
Interrogative	Who? What? Which? Etc
Distributive	Each, neither, either etc
Demonstrative	This, such, that etc
Relative	Who, what, which, that etc
Reciprocal	Each other, one another etc
Reflexive and Emphatic	Myself, yourself, herself etc
Indefinite	One, any, some etc

Discussion in Details:

Personal Pronoun: Personal pronoun is used in place of any name of person or thing.

Examples: I did it. You can do everything. They are students. (bold words are personal pronoun)

He did it (“it” is used for thing is done is also personal pronoun)

Personal Pronoun also kinds of three

(a)   Personal pronoun of the first person: I, we, my, me, our, us, ours, etc

(b)  Personal pronoun of the second person: you, your, yours, thou, they, thine, thee, etc

(c)   Personal pronoun of the third person: he, she, him, her, etc

 So here is detail to know more about characteristics of personal pronouns. Personal pronouns must be changed according to the change of number, person, and case. Have a look at the table

Case	First Person		Second Person		Third Person
Nominative	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
	I	We	You	you	He, she	They
Objective	Me	Us	Thou, you, thee	you	It, him, her	Them
Possessive	My, mine	Our, ours	Thine, thy, your, yours	Your, yours	It, his, her, hers, its	Their, theirs

Use of possessive pronoun: possessive pronoun has two forms which are different each other. Such as my, thy, her, its, our, their used as adjective before a noun.

Example – My                      pen

                Adjective           Noun

                   Their                table

              Adjective            Noun

On the other hand, mine, thine, hers, ours, yours, theirs used as pronoun (not adjective) and noun is not used after them but “of” is used before them.

Example – he is friend of mine.

Interrogative Pronouns: interrogative pronouns refer to “who, which, and what” are used to make question. The uses of three pronouns are given below –

Examples: Who are you? (Nominative)

                    Whom do you love? (Objective)

                    Whose pen is this? (Possessive)

Uses of “what, which, and who”.

(a)   “Who” is used as subject and object

1.      Who is he? (Singular)

2.      Who are they (Plural)

3.      Who (whom) do you want? (Singular)

4.      Who (whom) are you looking for? (Plural)

Note: in modern english “who” is always used as object in place of “whom”.

   

(b)  Which:

1.      Which pen do you want? (singular)

2.      Which of these books do you want? (plural)

Note: “which” is used to select one from many.

(c)   What:

“what” is used for thing such as “what will you eat” and “what are the factors that should be considered?”

“what” is used for occupation such as “what is he? “who is he?” “what is he?”

“what, which” also used as adjective such as “which pen is yours? (adjective) “what factors should be considered? (adjective)

“what” is also used to show exclamation such as “what! Has he failed? And what a fool you are!”

Distribute Pronouns: The pronoun that separates one person or things from a population of persons or things is called the distributive pronoun. Such as – each, either, neither, etc and see some examples of them.

(a)  Each of them went there.

(b)  Either of the two boys is talent.

(c)  There are two pens; neither is good.

Demonstrative Pronoun: Words such as this, that, these, those, such, so, the same, used instead of some noun to point to it or them, are called demonstrative pronouns. See some examples with them –

(a)  he went to market on foot and that/this made him tired

(b)  this book is more costly than that (=that book)

Relative Pronoun: The relative pronoun is that pronoun which refers to some noun or pronoun previously mentioned and at the same time joins two sentences. Now let me make you clear about the matter with an example given below –

“I know the man” “He lost his bag”

Joining two sentences we have got “I know the man who lost his bag”. In the example two sentences are joined with “who” that centers the relation between two sentences, called relative pronoun. So who, which, that, what, but, as is used as relative pronouns in the sentence. 

Reciprocal Pronoun:

 

Think that A is kicking B and B is also kicking A. In this way if any pronouns is used is called reciprocal pronoun. Such as –

The ten students love one another. (Use “one another” if there are more than two persons or things etc)

The two sisters help each other. (Use “each other” if there are less than two persons or things etc)

“each other” and “one another” are called reciprocal pronouns.

Reflexive and Emphatic Pronouns: A reflexive pronoun is one used in the objective case in which the meaning of the subject is reflected, indicating that the action of the sentence turns to the subject.

Examples: She killed herself, You fan yourself, He hurt himself

Person	Personal Pronoun	Reflexive Pronoun	Reflexive Pronoun
		Singular	Plural
First	I, we	Myself	Ourselves
Second	Thou You You	Thyself Yourself	Yourselves
Third	He She They It	Himself Herself Itself	Themselves

Infinite pronoun – one + self = oneself (reflexive pronoun)

Emphatic Pronouns: The pronoun that is used after a noun or pronoun to add an emphasis on it is called the emphatic pronoun.

Examples: I met the president himself, He himself did it etc

Indefinite Pronouns: Indefinite means uncertain. Here we can start with an example given below –

“Some say that Mr. Brown is a scientist”

In this sentence, “some” is an indefinite or uncertain because it does not make sense us who they are or what names of them. Therefore, many, any, they, none, some, other, and few are called indefinite pronouns.