Pronoun

Dear aspirants,

Pronouns can be tricky. There are so many of them plus they fall into different categories and have different purposes. To make things even more confusing certain pronouns can be used as other parts of speech.

Here we are with our fifth module of English Master Series. Hope this will surely help you with your English Language preparation. Here in this Module we will start The Pronoun.

The impossible journey is the one you never begin.

The Pronoun

A word used in place of Noun is called a Pronoun.

A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun in a sentence. Pronouns are used so that our language is not cumbersome with the same nouns being repeated over and over in a paragraph. Some examples of pronouns include I, me, mine, myself, she, her, hers, herself, we, us, ours and ourselves. You may have noticed that they tend to come in sets of four, all referring to the same person, group or thing.

• He, him, his and himself, for example, all refer to a male person or something belonging to him.
• They, them, theirs and themselves all refer to a group or something belonging to a group, and so on.
• The truth is that there are many different types of pronouns, each serving a different purpose in a sentence.

Types of Pronouns :

1. Personal pronouns :

Personal pronouns refer to a specific person or thing. Their form changes to indicate a person, number, gender, or case.

• Subjective personal pronouns are pronouns that act as the subject of a sentence. If you are learning English as a second language, remember that the subjective personal pronouns are I, you, she, he, it, we, you, and they. For example:

 I. “I walked directly to the party.”

II. “Youshowed up late; she was annoyed.”

III. “Hethought you had forgotten; we knew you were just behind.”

• Objective personal pronouns are pronouns that act as the object of a sentence. If you are learning English as a second language, remember that the objective personal pronouns are me, you, her, him, it, us, you, andthem. For example:

I.“The police officer told my brother and me to slow down.”

II. “He pointed to the pedestrians and said to be careful of them.”

III.“The police officer said there are a lot of speedy motorists like us.”

• Possessive personal pronounsare pronouns that show possession. They define a person, or a number of people, who owns a particular object. If you are learning English as a second language, remember that the possessive personal pronouns are mine, yours, hers, his, its, ours, and theirs. For example:

 I. “Is this book yoursor his?”

II. “All the books are mine.”

 III. “Nobody’s house has as many books as theirs, not evenours.”

2. Possessive Pronouns :

 A possessive pronoun is a part of speech that attributes ownership to someone or something. Like any other pronoun, it substitutes a noun phrase and can prevent its repetition. For example, in the phrase, “These glasses are mine, not yours”, the words “mine” and “yours” are possessive pronouns and stand for “my glasses” and “your glasses,” respectively. The possessive pronouns are hers, his, its, mine, ours, theirs, and yours.

• Take her spoon and put it by your

(These are both possessive adjectives.)

• Hisview is that it’s come to the end of its working life.

(These are both possessive adjectives.)

• Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined.

(This is a possessive adjective.)

• Humans are the only animals that have children on purpose with the exception of guppies, who like to eat theirs.

(This is an absolute possessive pronoun.)

3.  Demonstrative pronouns:

Demonstrative pronouns are those that identify or point to a thing or things and occasionally persons.

They can be both singular and plural and they refer to nouns that are either nearby or far away in time or space. What does that mean exactly?

First of all, there are only four demonstrative pronouns – this, that, these, those. This and that refer to singular nouns and these and those identify plural nouns.

The singular this and the plural these refer to a person or thing near the speaker.

The singular that and the plural those refer to a person or thing far away from the speaker.

Examples of Demonstrative Pronouns

• This is ridiculous. (This refers to an object or event close to the speaker.)
• That is ridiculous. (That refers to an object or event farther away in space or time.)
• These are ridiculous. (These refer to objects close to the speaker.)
• Those are ridiculous. (Those refer to objects farther away in space and time.)

NOTE: Demonstrative Pronouns vs Demonstrative Adjectives

Sometimes people tend to confuse demonstrative pronouns and demonstrative adjectives. After all, the words are identical. The difference is that a demonstrative pronoun can stand alone. A demonstrative adjective will always qualify a noun. Here are some examples:

• I wanted that. (Here that is used as a demonstrative pronoun that stands alone.)
• That cake tastes awesome. (In this case that is used as a demonstrative adjective that qualifies the noun cake.)

4. Distributive pronouns :

Each, either and neither are called distributive pronouns because they refer to persons or things one at a time. Note that a distributive pronoun is always singular and as such it should be followed by a singular noun and verb.

• Each new day is (NOT Each new days are different.)
• Either girl can do that. (NOT Either girls can do that.)
• Neither answer is (NOT Neither answers is correct.) (NOT Neither answers are correct.)

Note: Each of, neither of and either of are followed by plural nouns and singular verbs.

• Each of the answers is (NOT Each of the answer is correct.)
• Neither of the girls can do that. (NOT Either of the girl can do that.)

Either and neither should be used only in speaking of two persons or things. When more than two persons or things are spoken of,any, no one or none should be used.

• None of the three answers is correct. (NOT Neither of the three answers is correct.)
• We invited several friends, butnone  (NOT … but neither came.)
• You can take any of the three shirts. (NOT You can take either of the three shirts.)

5.  Reciprocal pronouns:

We use reciprocal pronouns when each of two or more subjects is acting in the same way towards the other. For example, A is talking to B, and B is talking to A. So we say:

• A and B are talking to each other.

The action is “reciprocated”. John talks to Mary and Mary talks to John. I give you a present and you give me a present. The dog bites the cat and the cat bites the dog.

There are only two reciprocal pronouns, and they are both two words:

• each other
• one another

When we use these reciprocal pronouns:

• there must be two or more people, things or groups involved (so we cannot use reciprocal pronouns with I, you [singular], he/she/it)
• they must be doing the same thing.

6.  Reflexive Pronouns:

We use a reflexive pronoun when we want to refer back to the subject of the sentence or clause. Reflexive pronouns end in “-self” (singular) or “-selves” (plural).

It is preceded by the adverb, adjective, pronoun, or noun to which it refers, so long as that antecedent is located within the same clause.

The singular reflexive pronouns are:

• Myself
• Yourself
• Himself, herself, itself

Plural reflexive pronouns include:

• Ourselves
• Yourselves
• Themselves

All of the above pronouns are used to rename the subjects of action verbs and function as different types of objects. If the reflexive pronoun is taken out of the sentence, it won’t make sense.

Examples of reflexive pronouns

The following sentences are examples of the correct and incorrect use of reflexive pronouns.

Non-reflexive: Adam e-mailed him a copy of the report.

In this sense the italicized words are not the same person. Him is not a reflection of Adam therefore it is not a reflexive pronoun.

Reflexive: Adam e-mailed himself a copy of the report.

7 . Emphatic pronouns:
When reflexive pronouns are used to put emphasis on a particular noun they are called emphatic pronouns.

• He himself told me this.
• I finished the job myself.
• They themselves admitted their mistake.
• We ourselves witnessed the accident.

Notes:

• The emphatic pronouns cannot be used as subjects. It is therefore wrong to say:
  John and myself went there.
  Herself swam in the river.
  I invited herself to tea.
• The correct sentences are as follows:
  John and I went there.
  She swam in the river.
  I invited her to tea.

Difference between reflective and emphatic pronounsA pronoun is a reflexive one if the action of the subject reflects upon the doer. Emphatic pronouns, on the other hand, are used to just emphasize the action of the subject.

He cut himself. (Reflexive: here the subject and object refer to the same person.)
He himself cut the cake. (Emphatic: here the emphatic pronoun himself merely puts emphasis on the noun he.)
I spoke to the principal myself. (Emphatic)
You must blame yourself for the loss. (Reflexive)

Note that an emphatic pronoun can be removed from the sentence and the core meaning would not be affected. A reflexive pronoun, on the other hand, is indispensable. The sentence wouldn’t make complete sense if you remove the reflexive pronoun.

8. Indefinite pronouns:

As the name suggests indefinite pronouns are pronouns that are not definite in meaning. In other words they are not specific in which noun they replace. They may be singular or plural, and must match the verb in number.

There are two categories of indefinite pronouns. The first category includes pronouns that refer to a nonspecific noun. These pronouns are:

• all, another, any, anybody/anyone, anything, each, everybody/everyone, everything, few, many, nobody, none, one, several, some, somebody/someone

• Example: Anything is possible if you believe.

The second category of indefinite pronouns are those that point to a specific noun whose meaning is easily understood only because it was previously mentioned or because the words that follow the indefinite pronoun make it clear. These pronouns are: all, another   any  both each  either  few  many  neither    one  some  several

Examples:

• Many are planning to attend the party. (In this case the identity of the group that is going to the party would have already been mentioned.)
• Would you like to try some of these cookies? (The word cookies makes it clear what some is referring to.)

9. Relative pronoun:

A relative pronoun is one which is used to refer to nouns mentioned previously, whether they are people, places, things, animals, or ideas. Relative pronouns can be used to join two sentences.

There are only a few relative pronouns in the English language. The most common are which, that, whose, whoever, whomever, who, and whom. In some situations, the words what , when, and where can also function as relative pronouns. Because there are only a few of them, there are also just a few rules for using relative pronouns. Keep them in mind as you write.

• Relative clauses are typically introduced by relative pronouns, and that the relative pronoun can function as a possessive pronoun, an object, or a subject.
• When relative pronouns introduce restrictive relative clauses, no comma is used to separate the restrictive clause from the main clause.

Ex :

• Spaghetti, which we eat at least twice a week, is one of my family’s favorite meals.
• The book, whenit was finally returned, was torn and stained.

10. Interrogative pronoun:

An interrogative pronoun is a pronoun which is used to make asking questions easy. There are five interrogative pronouns What, Which, Who, Whom, Whose. Interrogative pronouns can also be used as relative pronouns, which may be found in questions.

NOTE:  that whom is the correct form when the pronoun is the object of the verb, as in “Whom did you see?” (“I saw John.”) However, in normal, spoken English we rarely use whom. Most native speakers would say (or even write): “Who did you see?”

• Whoever would want to do such a nasty thing?
• Whatever did he say to make her cry like that?
• They’re all fantastic! Whichever will you choose?