A pronoun is a word that can be used in place of a noun, noun phrase, or (occasionally) a whole clause, to refer to someone or something. Pronouns are invaluable as a means of avoiding lengthy repetition of words already mentioned. As replacements for nouns, they behave exactly as nouns do, acting as subject, object, and complement to the verb as required.Types of PronounsPronouns can be subdivided into various categories. Personal pronouns are the largest and most important category of pronouns. They are used to refer to a specific person or thing and include such words as I, you, he, she, it, we, and they.The correct choice of pronoun in a given context depends firstly upon whether it is the subject or object of the sentence. If it is in the subject case, the correct choice depends next upon which person it represents.Personal pronouns can be subdivided into three persons. The first person is the speaker (singular or plural), who is represented by I or we. The second person is the person the speaker is directly addressing, represented by you (the same for both singular and plural). The third person is a person or object as discussed by the first and second persons and represented by he, she, it if singular, according to gender, and by they if plural:I spoke.
We agreed.
You failed.
It started.
They sat down. Note that the personal pronoun one, which is sometimes used in formal contexts where an impersonal tone is appropriate, behaves in much the same way as he, she, and it, taking a third person verb ending:One needs to be cautious when discussing such contentious issues. If a pronoun is serving as the object of a sentence, or if it follows a preposition, then it goes into the object case. The first person thus becomes me or, in the plural, us, while the second person remains you, and the third person becomes him or her, or, in the plural, them (it and you remain the same):Help me.
Don't tell us.
She hit you.
Look at them. Confusion often arises regarding personal pronouns when the writer is unclear about the rules surrounding the subject and object forms, specifically when a pronoun follows a preposition. The rule is that prepositions should always be followed by the object form of a personal pronoun, so with my husband and me, between you and me, and good-bye from Jim and me are correct (but with my husband and I, between you and I, and goodbye from Jim and I are not). Note that the rule stands regardless of the number of pronouns following the preposition.Reflexive pronouns are a smaller group of pronouns that refer to the subject of the clause or sentence within which it is placed, and indicating that the subject and object of the verb are one and the same. Reflexive pronouns are formed by adding -self (singular) or -selves (plural) to the objective or possessive form of the personal pronoun (myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, oneself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves):She prided herself on her sense of direction.
The cooker will turn itself off after three hours. Note that reflexive pronouns do not necessarily come immediately after the verb, but may follow a preposition:He was annoyed with himself for his cowardice.
You should be ashamed of yourself. Reflexive nouns feature in a number of widely familiar stock phrases:They were beside themselves with fear.
She isn't herself today.
He lives all by himself.
It's good to have the place all to ourselves. Mistakes commonly occur when a writer is tempted to replace a personal pronoun with a reflexive pronoun. Note that it is incorrect to replace a phrase such as Bob and I have to go with Bob and myself have to go. Note also that it would be incorrect to replace a sentence such as Father needed provisions, so I got some things for us and him with Father needed provisions, so I got some things for us and himself because Father is not the subject of the verb got.Possessive pronouns are personal pronouns that indicate possession (mine, his, hers, its, ours, theirs, yours). They can serve as either the subject or the complement of the verb, as required, and do not vary in form wherever they are placed:That seat is yours.
Mine is that house over there.
It ruined our holiday. Whose is the possessive form of who or whom:Whose are those shoes? Note that it is incorrect to render any version of the possessive pronoun with an 's ending; yours and theirs are the correct forms.Demonstrative pronouns such as this and that (singular) and these or those (plural) are used to distinguish between things being referred to:This is my hat; that is yours. The term demonstrative indicates the role of such pronouns in demonstrating which of several things are being referred to. Note that this and these usually refer to things close at hand, while that and those refer to things farther away:Come and look at this.
Let's go and have a look at those. Interrogative pronouns are used to introduce questions. Five in number, they all begin with wh- (what, which, who, whom, whose):What would you like to drink?
Which door leads outside? Interrogative pronouns do not change in form, whether singular or plural. They are closely related to such interrogative adverbs as how, when, where, and why.The one aspect of interrogative pronouns that sometimes causes problems is that relating to the use of who or whom. Who is the subject pronoun and is thus the correct form to use in such questions as who sings better? and who wrote that letter to him? Whom is the object pronoun and is thus correct in such phrases as whom should we tell? to whom should this message go? and whom are you waiting for? Note, however, that in everyday usage these distinctions are often ignored and who is frequently used in the place of whom without provoking much comment.Relative pronouns such as that, which, who, whom, or whose are used to introduce relative clauses (clauses that provide further information about the noun they follow). They vary slightly in use. Which and that are used with reference to things, although on occasion that may also be applied to people. Who and whom are reserved for people. Whose is applied to people or things:He hired the last horse that remained in the stable.
He is the one who denounced us.
She returned to me the old book, which is now in tatters from her man handling it.
He is the architect whose works you have been admiring. That and which should not be considered to be interchangeable. That is employed restrictively to focus the attention on a particular category or thing (the coat that you were buying; the course that she was taking), whereas which is used nonrestrictively to tack on additional information about something already mentioned (the house, which stood on the corner; she objected, which came as a surprise to no one). Note that that is not preceded by a comma, whereas which is preceded by a comma, parenthesis, or dash.Commonly the relative pronoun may appear with a preposition inserted immediately in front of it:This is the bag in which the box was found.
She is the woman with whom he made his escape. Note that when and where, which are more correctly relative adverbs, can also be used in a similar way at the beginning of a relative clause.Emphatic pronouns are reflexive pronouns used in order to add emphasis within a sentence:I myself have seen the ghost on a number of occasions.
This is not a criticism of the government itself, but of the policy it is enforcing. Emphatic pronouns are identical in form to reflexive pronouns (myself, himself, etc.). They are usually placed immediately after the noun or pronoun they refer to, although there are occasions when they may be placed farther away:She did not do the last of the jobs herself, but trusted her assistant to do it for her. Indefinite pronouns are pronouns that refer to a group of people or objects in general terms, without specifying more precisely who or what is meant (all; anybody; anyone; anything; both; each; either; everybody; everyone; everything; nobody; no one; none; nothing; one; some; somebody, something). Some indefinite pronouns (anybody, anyone, everybody, nobody, one, somebody, etc.) are reserved for references to people, while others (anything, everything, nothing, something, etc.) are only used of things. A third group of indefinite pronouns (all, none, some, etc.) may be freely applied to both people and inanimate objects.It is possible to subdivide indefinite pronouns into two groups, compound pronouns (anybody, everything, etc.) and pronouns that are followed by of (all, some, etc.). Compound pronouns can serve as the subject or object of a verb or may be placed after a preposition (everybody agreed; listen to something). Note that compound pronouns are always treated as singular, even though they may represent a number of people or things (everyone is coming). Pronouns that may be followed by of may generally be defined as expressions of quantity (all, most, etc.) and may be treated as singular when used with or in the place of a singular or uncountable noun, or as plural when used with or instead of a plural noun:All of the town is included/All is included.
All of the geese are dead/All are dead. The pronouns another, each, either, and neither are always treated as singular as they all refer to only one person or thing:Another has gone this morning.
Each has its advantages.
Neither is ideal. Conversely, the pronouns both, few, and many are always treated as plural as they necessarily refer to more than one person or thing:Both have gone missing.
Few are left now.
Many have died since then. Note that the pronouns less, least, little, and much are always singular, since they usually refer to uncountable nouns:Little is better than none at all.
Much remains to be discovered. The pronoun one operates both in the singular (one is mine, one is yours) and in the plural, in the form ones (which ones are mine?).Reciprocal pronouns are pronouns employed when there is some kind of mutual relationship between the persons or things being referred to. They take the form each other or one another and are always used with a plural subject:Her parents detest each other.
If we help one another we will soon get the job done. In choosing between each other and one another the convention is to use each other when referring to two people or things (the twins love each other) and one another when there are more parties involved (we must all look after one another). This rule is not set in concrete, however, and is often disregarded.Note that a reciprocal pronoun may serve as the object of a verb or may follow a preposition (salute one another, look at each other). In most circumstances, reciprocal pronouns refer to people or animals, but they can also be applied to inanimate things:The carriages bumped into each other.
The raindrops raced one another cross the windshield. Gender of PronounsThe same conventions that govern the attribution of gender to nouns also hold true for pronouns. The pronouns themselves only reflect gender, however, in their third person singular forms (he, she, it, himself, herself, itself). Masculine pronouns he and him are used in the place of masculine nouns, while feminine pronouns she and her are used as replacements for feminine nouns. Where the noun has no particular gender, it and its is usually employed as a replacement. It is also the usual choice of pronoun when the gender is unknown:The baby shook its rattle. Problems can arise when a pronoun is understood to refer to people of either sex in relation to a word such as anyone or someone, because there is no singular pronoun that is accepted as including both genders. This question is less of an issue in the plural, since they and themselves have no particular gender, but in the singular it is not always appropriate to opt for it as an impersonal alternative. One cannot say, for example, anyone is entitled to its opinion. Historically, the usual solution has been to treat such words as masculine and opt for he or his (anyone is entitled to his opinion), but in relatively recent times the chauvinism of such an assumption of masculinity has made such a solution contentious. Even in the example given above, the baby shook its rattle, a writer risks causing offense. Many writers on childcare now adopt the approach of assuming all babies to be female (the baby shook her rattle) when spoken of in general terms. Others switch between gender from one paragraph to the next.One alternative in non-gender-specific circumstances is to use he or she or his or her (anyone is entitled to his or her opinion), but this option can create clumsy constructions that do not bear regular repetition. This alternative is particularly awkward in terms of the reflexive pronoun (the mystery guest will reveal himself or herself to the audience at the end of the show). In practice, the more common solution in recent years has been to avoid the use of a singular noun in the first place and so keep everything in the plural:Citizens in a free state are all entitled to their opinion.
Her parents have indicated their opposition to the decision.
Members of the audience are on their feet. Some even have taken to treating general pronouns such as anyone or someone as plural in form to maintain gender neutrality (anyone is entitled to their opinion), although this is unacceptable to many.
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