1.5.4: Pronouns

Pronouns

Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns.  There are many different kinds of pronouns in English.  Pronouns can change depending on how and where they are used in a sentence.  For example, I can make a sentence using “my son” as the noun.  The pronouns for “my son” can be “he, him, his, and himself.”  In the following sentences, I will replace the noun “my son” with the appropriate pronoun.

My son ate dinner.      He ate dinner.

I spoke to my son.      I spoke to him.

I have my books and my son has his books.  I have mine and he has his.

My son ate breakfast alone.  He ate breakfast by himself.

       Pronouns can be a problem for non-native speakers of English because there are very many pronouns in English, and they all have different purposes.  Below is a list of all the pronouns in English.  However, in this book, we will study only some of the pronouns in English.

Types of Pronouns in English 

Pronouns are words that replace nouns in sentences.  Before using a pronoun in both writing and speaking, a person must establish whom or what the pronoun refers to (its antecedent).  There are many different kinds of pronouns in English, all with different uses: subject pronouns, object pronouns, reflexive pronouns, possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, relative pronouns, interrogative pronouns, and indefinite pronouns.  The following is a list of pronouns in English which gives the category of the pronouns and their usage.

Subject Pronouns

I
You
He
She
It
We
You
They

Subject pronouns (also called nominative pronouns) replace the subjects of sentences and clauses.  They always come before the verb of the sentences or clause.

Examples:

I have spoken English all my life because I was born in America.
I know that woman.  She is a housewife and mother.
They sell appliances in that store although they used to sell furniture.
My boys have graduated from university.  They are working now.
My house is a bluish gray color.  It is a nice house.  It has three bedrooms.

Object Pronouns

Me
You
Him
Her
It
Us
You
Them

Object pronouns can be objects of the verb in a sentence, objects of prepositions, objects of infinitives, or objects of gerunds.  Objects of the verb follow the verb in a sentence.  Objects of propositions follow prepositions.  Objects of infinitives follow infinitives.  Objects of gerunds follow gerunds.

Examples:

My sons love me and I love them.
I gave a present to my mother.  I gave it to her last week.
I enjoy reading books.  I enjoy reading them in my free time.
I liked to speak French with Roger and Guy.  I liked to speak it with them.

Subject and Object pronouns are the most common pronouns in English.  They can be confusing even to native speakers.  Many times native speakers use object pronouns as subjects and subject pronouns as objects.  When people do this, it is considered as very bad English.

Exercise 9:  Change the nouns in the following sentences to subject or object pronouns, please.

Example:  Bill spoke to his sister yesterday.     He spoke to her yesterday.

1.  John and Paul played football with Carlos and Juan.

2.  The girls eat lunch with their father every Saturday.

3.  The man lost his wife in the mall parking lot.

4.  My son drives his friends to school every morning.

5.  A man snag a song for his mother.

6.  Boys play differently than girls.

7.  The students waited for the teacher to come back into the classroom.

8.  The policeman stopped the people from crossing the street.

9.  The mother cooked dinner for her daughter.

10.  The old man helps his grandson to do his homework.

11.  Some students don’t like their teachers.

12.  Clerks help customers in stores.

13.  The boy spilled some coffee on his friend.

14.  The uncle gave the girl $20.00 for her birthday.

Reflexive Pronouns 

Myself
Yourself
Himself
Herself         (Remember the F Rule in spelling.)
Itself
Ourselves
Yourselves
Themselves

       Reflexive pronouns are used in two different ways. 

1.  They can be used as the object of the verb when they tell who or what received the action of the verb.  When they are used in this way, they always refer back to the subject of the sentence.  In other words, the subject both does the action of the verb and receives the action of the verb.

Examples:

He hurt himself while working.
My mother burned herself while she was ironing clothes.
I wash myself in the shower.
The lights turn themselves off at 9:00 PM automatically.

2.  Reflexive pronouns can also be used as intensifiers when they give added emphasis to a noun or another pronoun that comes before it in a sentence.  In this way, they can mean alone or without any help, especially if it is preceded by the preposition by.

Examples:

I built that table myself last year.
My son himself decided to study the Korean language after he learned Japanese.
The four-year-old boy wrote his name by himself.  (Nobody helped him.)
He ate dinner by himself.  (He was all alone.)

Possessive Adjectives and Possessive Pronouns

Both possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns show ownership.  Possessive adjectives must always be followed by the noun they own (possess); possessive pronouns standalone – they are never followed by the noun.  With possessive pronouns, the noun is understood already from the context of what comes before it.

Possessive Adjectives      Possessive Pronouns

My books                  Mine
Your house               Yours
His sister                   His
Her friends               Hers
Its handle                 Its
Our family                Ours
Your country            Yours
Their classes            Theirs

Your car is old, while mine is new.
Their classes are in Cascade Court, but ours are in Rainier Hall.
His country is hot and sunny all of the time, but hers is cold and cloudy.
My house is blue, and theirs is, too.

Demonstrative Pronouns

This (singular)    These (plural)

That (singular)   Those (plural)

Demonstrative pronouns point to definite nouns (persons, places, or things).  This and these point to nouns close to the speaker or writer.  That and those point to nouns away from the speaker or writer. 

Examples: 

This computer that I am using belongs to my wife.
These sentences that I am writing should help you understand pronouns better.
A car is parked across the street.  That car belongs to my neighbor
The people in the countries of South America speak Spanish or Portuguese.  Those countries are far away from Seattle.
This sweater that I am wearing today was given to me by an old friend.  That friend now lives in California.
I am at home now.  These books on my computer desk belong to my wife.  My English books are at school in my office.  Those books belong to me.

Relative Pronouns                                       Compound Relative Pronouns

Who             people   (subjects)                           whoever / whosoever
Whom          people   (objects)                             whomever / whomsoever
Which          things                                               whichever / whichsoever
That             people, places, things
Whose         possessive nouns and adjectives       whosever / whosesoever
Where         places                                              wherever / wheresoever
When           times                                               whenever / whensoever
Why             reasons                                            whyever / whysoever

Relative pronouns introduce relative clauses.  Another name for a relative clause is an adjective clause because, like adjectives, relative clauses modify nouns.  Relative pronouns generally come directly after the noun they modify.  (The noun they modify means the same as the relative pronoun.)  The compound relative pronouns with the  ­­–ever and –soever (rarely used anymore) suffixes added on to the relative pronoun intensify the meaning to cover any and all possibilities of the particular relative pronoun.  (Also, the words where, when, and why listed above are actually relative adverbs, but they are used exactly as relative pronouns.  Furthermore, the word whose is in fact a relative adjective, but it also is used exactly as a relative pronoun.)

Examples:

The person who stole my car left it parked on Aurora Avenue North.
My father, whom I loved dearly, died when he was 56 years old.
I gave the report to the girl whose father visited our class.
The reason why he came was to tell me a secret.
The man that I saw was standing on the east side of the street.
The book that I bought cost $28.00.
The city that I am thinking about is not very big.
The thieves whoever they are had better not try to sell the stolen goods.
The man whosoever she finally decides to marry had better be rich.

Interrogative Pronouns

Who              replaces people in the subject position
Whom           replaces people in the object position in formal English
Which           replaces a choice of more than one possibility
What             replaces things in the subject and object positions
Whose           replaces a possessive noun or possessive adjective
Where           replaces a place
When            replaces time
What time     asks for a specific time
Why              asks for a reason
How much     asks for a non-countable quantity
How many    asks for a countable quantity
How              asks for a method or means of doing something
What kind of asks for a description of something

Interrogative pronouns are often called WH words.  They are used to ask information questions.  The answer to the question (the information) is what the interrogative pronoun is asking for.  (The words whose, where, when, why, how much, how many, how, and what kinds of are not technically interrogative pronouns; however, they function in exactly the same way.)

Examples:

Where were my sons born?                      Answer:  Group Health Hospital in Seattle
Which holiday is my favorite?                   Answer:  Thanksgiving
Where did I live as a boy?                        Answer:  South Attleboro, Massachusetts
Whose car did I use yesterday?                Answer:  My car
How much money have I spent today?      Answer:  $23.50

Indefinite Pronouns

Singular Indefinite Pronouns

any, anybody, anyone, anything, each, each one, each other, either, either one, everybody, everyone, everything, another, another one, the other one, neither, neither one, nobody, no one, nothing, none, one, some, somebody, someone, something

Plural Indefinite Pronouns

all, both, few, a few, many, more, several, some, any, ones, others, the other ones, a lot of, lots of

Non-count Indefinite Pronouns

Little, a little, more, much, much more, a lot of, lots of, some, any, none, something, everything

Indefinite pronouns do not indicate a particular person, place, or thing.  They indicate that something exists, but whatever it is needs to have been identified before or needs further explanation after in order for people to understand what is being talked about.  (The lists above may not be complete lists.  I may have forgotten to include a few.)

Examples:

Something is on the floor.  It is a piece of paper.

Many people left the party; a few stayed late.

Most lakes are clean; some are dirty, however.

We have had some news.  Much more is needed, of course, before we know the truth.

A lot of food was taken, but some remains in the refrigerator.

Does anybody have any questions?  Yes, I have two questions for you.

He gave some money to somebody, but he doesn’t remember who exactly or how much.

Possessive Nouns and Possessive Adjectives

Possessive nouns and possessive adjectives show ownership.  That means that something belongs to someone.  Both possessive nouns and possessive adjectives come in front of the nouns they own.

Possessive Nouns

Possessive nouns are made by adding an ’S after a singular noun (or an irregular plural noun) and an S’after a regular plural noun.

Singular Nouns (and Irregular Plural Nouns)            Plural Nouns

The boy’s dog                                                      the boys’ dog

Tom’s father                                                        the students’ teacher

My son’s friend                                                    my sons’ friend

Bob and Tom’s sister                                            the ladies’ clothes

The man’s hat                                                     the dogs’ tails

The men’s department                                         the parents’ responsibility

The children’s room                                             the tenants’ landlord

Exercise 10:  Make the following nouns possessive, please.

Examples:

 Don  hat                Don’s hat                   the lady  shoes         the lady’s shoes

The child  toys         the child’s toys           the ladies shoes       the ladies’ shoes

The fathers   tools    the fathers’ tools        Wendy books          Wendy’s books

1.  My two sons room  --------------------          2.  The children  jobs --------------------

3.  Mary Ann car  --------------------                 4.  The workers bathroom  -------------------

5.  the student book  -------------------             6.  Blanca bag  --------------------

7.  the teacher sore back -------------------        8.  The employees rules  --------------------

9.  the doctor patient  --------------------           10.  The lawyers offices  --------------------

Exercise 11:  Fill in the blanks with a singular possessive noun, please.

Examples:

Mr. Bissonnette room is on the second floor.      Mr. Bissonnette’s room is on the second floor.

I picked up the student book.  I picked up the student’s book.

1.  Mr. Bourret brother is named Tommy.

2.  Mark wife is a doctor.

3.  I bought Tom old car last week.

4.  My student uncle died of a heart attack.

5.  I stepped on the dog tail by accident.

6.  My son pants are in the dryer.

7.  Roger father worked in a car factory.

8.  I saw the girl new car in her driveway.

9.  I took care of Tom children last Saturday evening.

10.  The lion roar scared a lot of people.

Exercise 12:  Fill in the blanks with a plural possessive noun, please.

Examples:

I put the teachers books on their desks.         I put the teachers’ books on their desks.

1.  The children school is on Myrtle Street.

2.  The women office is on the sixth floor.

3.  I put the babies clothes in their room.

4.  I saw the carpenters tools on the floor in the basement.

5.  I sent the lazy students homework papers to their parents.

6.  The nurses uniforms are in that closet over there.

7.  The students books are in the closet on the fourth floor.

8.  The boy saw his sisters new clothes.

The possessive adjectives are similar to pronouns in that they replace possessive nouns.  For example, I can say Don’s books or I can say my books.  “My” means the same thing as “Don’s.” The reason that they are called adjectives is because they must be followed by a noun.  The possessive adjectives are as follows:

My

Your

His

Her

Its          NOUN

Our

Your

Their

My office is in room 211.

Your teacher has a long beard.

His brother lives in Japan.

Her husband drives an old car.

Its color is gray.

Our room is CAS 210.

Your chairs are made of plastic.

Their native country is Vietnam.

Possessive adjectives with their accompanying nouns can come anywhere in a sentence that a noun can come.  As with other adjectives, possessive adjectives do not show plural by adding an “S.”  They never change.