Pronouns


In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a word that substitutes 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.

	Pronoun
	A word that takes the place of a noun.

Four types of pronouns

		(a)	Personal pronouns
		(b)	Possessive pronouns
		(c)	Demonstrative pronouns
		(d)	Interrogative pronoun

3.1

Personal Pronouns

	Personal pronoun
	A short word we use as a simple substitute for the proper name of a person.
	Examples: I, You, We, They, He, She, It, Him

Following are the examples showing how the pronouns are used:

(a)	Adam, Kamal, and Nabil are bus drivers. They ferry schoolchildren.
(b)	We are taking drawing lessons. It is up to us to choose the drawing tools.

3.2

Possessive Pronouns

	Possessive pronouns
	These pronouns are used to show who an object belongs to.
	Examples: Mine, Yours, Ours, Theirs

Following are the examples showing how the pronouns are used:

(a)	Her friend is here to see her. (Alya’s friend is here to see her.)
(b)	The kitten is hers. (The kitten belongs to her.)

There are two types of possessive words. A possessive adjective has a noun after it while a possessive pronoun does not. The table below shows the personal pronouns, possessive adjectives, and possessive pronouns.

Personal pronouns	Possessive adjectives	Possessive pronouns
I	my	mine
you	your	yours
he	his	his
she	her	hers
it	its	-
we	our	ours
they	their	theirs

The sentence in brackets means the same as the former sentence.

Example: This is my bag. (The bag is mine.)

Notice that there is the noun ‘bag’ after ‘my’. But there is no noun after ‘mine’.

3.3

Interrogative Pronouns

	Interrogative pronouns
	Used to ask about people, places, or things.
	Examples: Who, Whom, Which, What, and Where.

Following is the correct usage of the interrogative pronouns:

Who, Which, What, and Where	Used to ask about people, places, or things.
Whose	Used to ask who an object belongs to.
How	Used to ask the manner in which something is done.

Following are the examples showing how the pronouns are used:

(a)	Who is this man wearing the red shirt?
(b)	Which is your bag, the blue or red one?

3.4

Demonstrative Pronouns

	Demonstrative pronouns
	The pronouns represent nouns and express their position as near or far (including in time).
	Examples: This, That, These, and Those.

The table below shows the usage of each demonstrative pronoun.

Demonstrative Pronouns	Use
This and that	To describe singular nouns
These and those	To describe plural nouns
This and these	To refer to things that are near to us
That and those	To refer to things that are far away

3.5

Usage of Each

Each is used to refer to every single member of a group. It basically means ‘every’.
Each is used with countable nouns only.
Each takes singular verbs, nouns, and pronouns.
Example: Each teacher was given a beautiful planner from the new bookstore.

Quick Notes