All About Pronouns



All About Pronouns

(A Guide for Study and Usage)

A PRONOUN IS A WORD USED IN PLACE OF ONE OR MORE NOUNS.

PERSONAL PRONOUNS:

Subject pronouns

1st Person: (the person speaking)

2nd Person: (the person being spoken to)

3rd Person: (the person/thing being

spoken about)

Object pronouns

1st Person: (the person speaking)

2nd Person: (the person being spoken to)

3rd Person: (the person/thing being

spoken about)

POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS

(The possessive form of personal pronouns are sometimes called adjectives or pronominal adjectives)

REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS

(Reflects the action back to the noun or pronoun just named)

RELATIVE PRONOUNS

(Used to begin adjective clauses)

Example: The boy, who hasn’t been absent in years, has been sick for three days.

who whose whom which that

INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS

(Used in questions)

Who? Whose? Whom? Which? What?

DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS

(Points to a specific person, place, or thing)

Singular: this, that Plural: these, those

INDEFINITE PRONOUNS

(NOT referring to a specific person, place, or thing)

Example: The firefighters battled the blaze with courage but many of them

realized the building was doomed.

The pronoun “many” refers to the firefighters, but the pronoun does not tell you how many firefighters realized the building was doomed. That’s why it’s called an indefinite pronoun.

Singular indefinite pronouns

Another Neither

Anybody Nobody

Anyone No one

Anything One

Each Other

Either Somebody

Everybody Someone

Everyone Something

Everything

In short, all pronouns that end in –one, -body, and –thing.

Everybody are going to the game.

Everybody is going to the game.

The indefinite pronouns “any,” “none,” “all,” “more,” “most,” and “some” are either singular or plural depending on the meaning the writer wants to express.

Example: Is any of these solutions right? (any = any single one)

Are any of these solutions right? (any = some)

Acceptable in informal language but not suitable for written language:

Accepted (in speech) but wrong: Neither of my parents are home right now.

Correct way: Neither of my parents is home right now.

Accepted (in speech) but wrong: Either of the girls are sure to know.

Correct way: Either of the girls is sure to know.

Avoid errors with the pronouns “each,” “either,” or “neither” by mentally supplying the word “one” as the subject. Example: Neither (one) is right.

Many speakers tend to make the verb agree with the subjects plural sense (or the plural noun in the prepositional phrase directly before the verb), rather than its singular form.

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Plural

we

you

they

Singular

I

you

he, she, it

(masculine, feminine, neuter)

Plural

us

you

them

Singular

me

you

him, her, it

(masculine, feminine, neuter)

modifier pronoun

Singular Plural Singular Plural

1st Person My our mine ours

2nd Person your your yours yours

3rd Person his, her, it their his, hers, its theirs

Singular Plural

1st Person myself ourselves

2nd Person yourself yourself

3rd Person himself, herself, itself themselves

There is no such word as hisself or theirselves!

Plural indefinite pronouns

All

Both

Few

Many

Others

Several

Some

Which one sounds right?

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