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| 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. |
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Pronoun |
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A word that takes the place of a noun. |
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Four types of pronouns |
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(a) |
Personal pronouns |
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(b) |
Possessive pronouns |
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(c) |
Demonstrative pronouns |
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(d) |
Interrogative pronoun |
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Personal pronoun |
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A short word we use as a simple substitute for the proper name of a person. |
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Examples: I, You, We, They, He, She, It, Him |
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| Following are the examples showing how the pronouns are used: |
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| (a) |
Zac and Lucy are friends. He has known her for five years. |
| (b) |
Jenny has a puppy. She always feeds it fresh milk. |
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Possessive pronouns |
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These pronouns are used to show who an object belongs to. |
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Examples: Mine, Yours, Ours, Theirs |
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| Following are the examples showing how the pronouns are used: |
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| (a) |
The blue shirt is mine. (The blue shirt belongs to me.) |
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This jacket is yours. (This jacket belongs to you.) |
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- 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.
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Personal
pronouns
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Possessive
adjectives
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Possessive
pronouns
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| I |
my |
mine |
| you |
your |
yours |
| he |
his |
his |
| she |
her |
hers |
| it |
its |
- |
| we |
our |
ours |
| they |
their |
theirs |
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The sentence in brackets means the same as the former sentence.
Example: This is my pen. (The pen is mine.)
Notice that there is the noun ‘pen’ after ‘my’. But there is no noun after ‘mine’.
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| 3.3 |
Interrogative Pronouns |
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Interrogative pronouns |
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Used to ask about people, places, or things. |
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Examples: Who, Whom, Which, What, and Where. |
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| Following is the correct usage of the interrogative pronouns: |
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| 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. |
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| Following are the examples showing how the pronouns are used: |
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Who is this lady? |
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Whom did you give the file to? |
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| 3.4 |
Demonstrative Pronouns |
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Demonstrative pronouns |
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The pronouns represent nouns and express their position as near or far (including in time). |
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Examples: This, That, These, and Those. |
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| The table below shows the usage of each demonstrative pronoun. |
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| 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 |
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- 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 student was given a bottle of milk.
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