Pronouns

What are pronouns?

A pronoun is a word that can take the place of a noun or a noun phrase in a sentence, such as he, she, hers, me, them, etc.

For example

Nadal (noun) is a tennis player. He (pronoun) plays very well.

Now, in the second sentence we use the subject pronoun (he) instead of the word Nadal, which is a noun, to avoid repetition.

Kinds of pronouns

• Personal pronouns
• Possessive pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Reflexive pronouns
• Interrogative pronouns
• Relative pronouns

Personal pronouns

To start with, personal pronouns replace nouns in a sentence. They can play the role of a subject and an object.

Subject Pronouns

Obviously, you can notice that the sentences, above, include a subject and a verb, the subject goes before the verbs.

For example

She (Subject pronoun) speaks (verb) good English.

He (Subject pronoun) is (verb) busy all the tim!

Object of verb

An object pronoun can be used as: Object of the verb (direct/ indirect object)

Direct object

For example

What did Mariah study?

 Mariah studied Biology (direct object), last year. She enjoyed it (Biology).

The pronoun “it” replaces the word “Biology”, which is the direct object of this sentence.

 Indirect object

For example

Mariah gave them (IO) some money (DO).

In this sentence, we have two objects, one is indirect and the other one is direct.

Object of preposition

For example

I’ll wait for you to come.

Now, the pronoun “you” is an object of preposition “for”.

Possessive pronouns

What are possessive pronouns?

Possessive pronouns are used to substitute possessive adjectives+ nouns structure.

For example

Where is your car? (adjective+ noun)

Well, it’s in the garage. What about yours?

The possessive pronoun “yours” takes the place of the adjective pronoun” your”.

Possessive pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns

What are demonstrative pronouns?

Demonstrative pronouns are words used to point out someone or something.

We use the demonstrative pronoun “this” to point to a singular near person or thing.

For example

This is an empty room.

This is a smart boy.

We use “that” to point to a singular far person or thing.

For example

That runs fast.

That is expensive.

We use “these” to point to a plural near persons or things.

For example

These are my friends.

These look scary.

The demonstrative pronoun “those” is used to mention plural far persons or things.

For example

Are those, John and Mary?

Reflexive pronouns

What are reflexive pronouns?

Reflexive pronouns are the pronouns which indicate that the action of the verb is occurring to the doer of the action, the subject and the object are the same.

For example

Lucy (subject) burns herself (object).

They (subject) defend themselves (object) in the court.

I (subject) will throw it myself (object)!

Reflexive pronouns

Interrogative pronouns

What are interrogative pronouns?

Interrogative pronouns are question words used to form questions. 

Interrogative pronouns are: what/ which/ who/ whom/ whose.

For example

Who throw the rubbish, here?

Who can live alone?

Whom can I trust?

Whose are those boys?

Who as subject

The interrogative pronoun “who” refers to people. It plays the role of the subject of the sentence.

For example

Who asked you that question?

Who/whom as object

“Who” can be an object, too. Now, in day-to- day communication, people tend to use who instead of the formal “whom”.

For example

Whom/who do you visit most often?

Whose

The interrogative pronoun “whose” is used in questions to ask who something belongs to.

For example

Whose is this pen? 

It’s John’s pen. (the pen belongs to John)

 What

The pronoun “what” is used to talk about things. 

In a question, the word “what” can be a subject as well as an object.

As a subject

For example

What annoyed you?

The answer would be “loud music!”

Which

The pronoun “which” is used to talk about people and things. It can be a subject or an object.

For example

Which lasts longer? (subject)

The red can last longer.

 Which will you choose? (object)

I’ll choose the red.

 Relative pronouns

What are relative pronouns?

Relative pronouns used in relative clauses, restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses.

Relative pronouns are: who/ whom/ which/ that/ whose.

In relative clauses, we use the words who, which and that instead of subject pronouns (he, she, it and they).

We use who and that, mostly who, to refer to people.

For example

The boy who speaks seven languages is my cousin.

The man who/whom I met accidentally asked me some strange questions.

A nurse is someone who takes care of patients.

 As object, we use who/whom/that to refer to people.

For example

The woman whom you divorced got married again.

 We use which / that when we are talking about things.

For example

The watch that costs $1000 has been stolen.

 Whose: possession

We use whose to refer to people and to replace his, her, their.

For example

I spoke to a man whose accent sounds beautiful!

Laila, whose husband is German, has launched a new book.