Here, on this page, we can learn about pronouns and their types.
The pronoun is one of the parts of speech in English.
What is a Pronoun?
A pronoun is a word that is used to substitute the nouns in the sentence. It captures the place of a noun in a sentence.
Here is the chart of common pronouns that are used in our day-to-day life.
Other examples of Pronoun
- Somebody
- Everybody
- Anybody
- Each
- Few
- Many
- Who
- Whom
- Whoever
- That
- This
- Those
Example Sentence
- Elissa is my friend. Elissa is an intelligent girl.
In the above example, we are talking about Elissa. So there is no need to repeat her name. Instead of Elissa, we can use she which is a 3rd person singular (feminine) pronoun.
- Elissa is my friend. She is an intelligent girl.
Here, Elissa is a noun and she is a pronoun that replaced the noun, Elissa.
You can find the Pronoun Chart below to understand the types of pronouns.
Types of Pronoun
Pronouns can be categorized into several types. They are:
- Personal Pronoun
- Indefinite Pronoun
- Reflexive Pronoun
- Intensive Pronoun
- Reciprocal Pronoun
- Possessive Pronoun
- Demonstrative Pronoun
- Interrogative Pronoun
- Relative Pronoun
Personal Pronoun
This pronoun refers to the people in the sentence and is used instead of the people in the sentence. There are two types of personal pronouns. They are subject and object pronouns.
- Subject Pronoun
Subject Pronouns are used when the noun is considered as the subject of the sentence.
Example:
- I like to play cricket with my friends.
- He writes a letter to his friend.
2. Object Pronoun
The object pronoun is used when the noun acts as the object of the sentence.
Example:
- Ema likes him a lot.
- I helped her to solve the problem.
Indefinite Pronoun
Indefinite pronouns are used to replace the non-specific nouns i.e the indefinite person, place, or thing.
We use indefinite pronouns when we don’t say who or what is exactly mentioned in a sentence. We use pronouns ending in -body or -one to talk about an indefinite person in a sentence and we use pronouns ending in -thing to talk about indefinite things in the sentence.
Example
- none
- someone
- somebody
- something
- anybody
- anything
- anyone
- all
- several
- everyone
- everybody
- everything
Below you can find the chart of singular and plural indefinite pronouns.
Example
- I could see everything clearly.
- No one is in the room.
- Many are affected by natural disasters.
We use pronouns with –no to form negative clauses.
Example: Nobody wrote a letter.
We don’t use another negative word with the indefinite pronoun nobody, no one, or nothing to form a negative clause.
Example: No one came to the seminar. (NOT No one didn’t come to the seminar.)
We add -‘s with the indefinite pronoun to form possessive.
Example: Somebody‘s key is there.
We use -else with the indefinite pronoun to refer to other people or things in a sentence.
Example: If Peter can’t do this, no one else can do it.
Reflexive Pronoun
The reflexive pronoun is used as an object of a sentence when the object is the same as the subject of the verb in the sentence.
Reflexive pronouns are used at the end of the word.
Example
- Elissa is learning piano by herself.
Elissa is the subject of the verb learn and herself is the direct object of the sentence.
- He punished himself for the mistake.
He is the subject of the verb punish and himself is the object of the verb in the sentence.
We do not use reflexive pronouns with the verbs which describe the things that the subject does for themselves.
Example
- Ema dressed to go to school.
We use reflexive pronouns with these verbs when we emphasize them.
Example
Ema is old enough to dress herself to go to school.
Intensive Pronoun
Intensive pronouns are used to emphasize the subject of a clause. This is not the object of action in a sentence. They can be removed from the sentence and still gives meaning.
Example
- He caught the thief himself.
- I prepare the cake myself.
Reciprocal Pronoun
The reciprocal pronoun is used when an action is reciprocated which means when an action is repeated by two or more people.
One another and each other are reciprocal pronouns.
Example
- We love each other.
- Students help one another in their studies.
Possessive Pronoun
Possessive pronouns are used to indicate possession or ownership.
Example: mine, yours, hers, his
Possessive pronouns do not have an apostrophe.
Example: yours (Not your’s)
The table below shows the possessive pronouns
Example
The car is hers.
She is a sister of mine.
Demonstrative Pronoun
Demonstrative pronouns are used to indicate which nouns are being referred to in the sentence.
Example
This is a very expensive bangle.
That is Jame’s house.
These are made by my sister.
Those are her collections.
Interrogative Pronoun
Interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions. Who, whom, whose, what, and which are the interrogative pronouns used to ask the question.
Relative Pronoun
Relative pronouns are used to introduce a relative clause. It is used to give additional information about the sentence. Who, whom, whose, which, and that are common relative pronouns that are used in our daily life.
Example
- This is Mr John who has achieved a high score in the match.
- He is the scientist whom I met in the last meeting.
- She is the girl whose assignments are good in our faculty.
- A cheetah is an animal that runs fast.
- This is the place where I missed my ring.