A pronoun is a word used in place of one or more nouns.
We use pronouns to:
◗ Refer to a noun (called its antecedent) that usually comes before the pronoun
◗ Make our writing clearer, smoother, and less awkward
In the sentence, “Roberto feels that he can win the race,” he is the pronoun, and Roberto is
the antecedent.
In the sentence, “Terry and Jim know that they are best friends,” they is the pronoun, and
Terry and Jim are the noun antecedents.
There are several types of pronouns.
Personal pronouns refer to people and things. They are divided into three categories called
fi rst person (referring to the person who is speaking: I went to the mall), second person (referringto the person spoken to: Joey, can you see the bus?), and third person (referring to anyone or
anything else: Bob saw us do this assignment). The pronouns in the two example sentences
above are personal pronouns.
The following list shows these three categories of personal pronouns:
..................................................................................................................................................
First person Singular Plural
First person I, my, mine, me we, our, ours, us
(the person speaking)
Second person you, your, yours you, your, yours
(the person spoken to)
Third person he, his, him, she, her, they, their, theirs, them
(some other person hers, it, its
or thing)
.................................................................................................................................................
Pronouns (Continued)
In addition to personal pronouns, there are several other types of pronouns: refl exive pronouns,relative pronouns, interrogative pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, and indefi nite pronouns.
A reflexive pronoun is formed by adding - self or - selves to certain personal pronouns.
Examples of refl exive pronouns are myself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, themselves, yourself,
and yourselves. The sentence, “I found it myself,” contains the personal pronoun I and the
refl exive pronoun myself.
Hisself and theirselves are NOT real words.
An interrogative pronoun is used to ask a question. These pronouns are which, who,
whom, and whose.
A demonstrative pronoun is used to point out a specifi c person or thing. These pronouns
include this, that, these, and those. In the sentence, “Theresa, is this yours?” this is the demonstrative
pronoun, and yours is the personal pronoun.
An indefi nite pronoun often does not refer to a specifi c or defi nite person or thing. It
usually does not have a defi nite or specifi c antecedent as a personal pronoun does. In the
sentence, “ Everybody will select another to help with everything, ” the three italicized words are
all indefi nite pronouns since they take the place of a noun and do not refer to a specifi c or
defi nite person or thing.
These are all indefi nite pronouns:
.................................................................................................................................................
all each more one
another either most other
any everybody much several
anybody everyone neither some
anyone everything nobody somebody
anything few none someone
both many no one
........................................................................................................
WRITING TIP
Make sure that your pronouns are clear so that readers will not be confused. In the sentence, “John told Fred that he had been invited to Lucy’s party,” do we
know who he is? Not really! Set up the situation preceding that sentence so
that it is clear who he is.
Two at a Time (Pronouns)
Underline the two pronouns found in each sentence. Above each pronoun label its type using
these abbreviations: personal (PER), refl exive (REF), demonstrative (DEM), interrogative (INT),
or indefi nite (IND) pronoun
1. This is the way to do it.
2. He hurt himself during gym class.
3. Can you and they fi nish the cleaning by three o’clock?
4. Who is the person with her?
5. I held the door for them.
6. Please tell him that we said hello.
7. Ours is older than theirs.
8. Neither of them is the clear winner of the race as of now.
9. Will she watch someone while Sarah goes shopping?
10. Those are the best ones to buy.
11. Please bring yours to us.
12. After Jerry spotted the giraffe, he photographed it.
13. Everything has gone well for us.
14. Will they be able to move the belongings by themselves?
15. All of the students know both.
Naming the Pronouns
Circle ten different pronouns in this paragraph. For the total of ten pronouns, if a
pronoun appears more than once within the paragraph, count it only once.
paragraph
" I could not fall asleep last night. It felt as if somebody kept knocking on the window keeping
me up most of the night. This is pretty unusual. So I tried to calm myself down and
think about other things besides being unable to sleep. All of my work paid off when I
fi nally fell asleep."
..................................................................................................................................................
