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What is a pronoun in English grammar?
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Jan 16, 2024 · Pronouns are words (or phrases) you substitute for nouns when your reader or listener already knows which noun you’re referring to. For example, you might say, “I have a dog. She’s brown and white.” There’s no need to clarify that you’re describing your dog in the second sentence because you already mentioned her in the first.
- Reflexive Pronouns
Grammatical terms might seem complicated and a bit arbitrary...
- Personal Pronouns
A personal pronoun is a short word we use as a simple...
- Possessive Pronouns
As their names imply, both possessive adjectives and...
- Intensive Pronouns
The intensive/reflexive pronouns include myself, yourself,...
- Reflexive Pronouns
- How Are Pronouns Used in Sentences?
- Pronouns vs. Nouns
- Pronouns vs. Determiners
- Personal Pronouns
- Demonstrative Pronouns
- Interrogative Pronouns
- Relative Pronouns
- Indefinite Pronouns
- Reciprocal Pronouns
- Dummy Pronouns
The main function of pronouns is to replace nouns. Because of this, they are used in sentences in similar ways to nouns. Like nouns, pronouns commonly serve as the subject of a sentence, followed by a verb(a word expressing an action). A pronoun can also function as the object in a sentence—either a direct or indirect object: 1. The direct objectis...
While pronouns constitute a relatively small class of words that tends not to change over time, nouns are a much broader class that is constantly expanding. Like pronouns, nouns refer to things, people, places, and concepts, but they do so with much greater specificity. Like pronouns, nouns can function as the head of a noun phrase and as the objec...
Many pronouns are closely related to determiners, being spelledsimilarly (or identically) and expressing related meanings. For example, possessive pronouns like “yours” are closely related to possessive determiners like “your”; and demonstrative pronouns like “that” are identical to the demonstrative determiners. The grammatical distinction between...
Personal pronouns are words like “he” that refer to yourself, the person you’re addressing, or other people and things. They usually refer to an antecedentbut may occur without one when the reference is self-evident (e.g., “I” always refers to the person saying or writing it). Personal pronouns can change their form based on: 1. Person (first-, sec...
The four demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, and those) are used to indicate something previously mentioned or, in conversation, something that is clear from the context. For example, in the sentence “Take this,” “this” has no explicit antecedent, but it would be clear in context that it referred to whatever object you were being given. The ...
Interrogative pronounsare used (along with other types of interrogative words) to introduce questions. The interrogative pronouns are: 1. What and which, used to ask questions about things 2. Who and whom, used to ask about people 3. Whose, used to ask about ownership
A relative pronounis used to introduce a relative clause—a phrase that usually supplies more information about the preceding noun. They have a lot in common with interrogative pronouns. The relative pronouns are: 1. Which(ever), that, and what(ever), used in relation to things 2. Who(ever) and whom(ever), used in relation to people 3. Whose, used t...
Indefinite pronouns are words like “somebody” that refer to an unspecified person or thing. Many of them are formed using some combination of some-, any-, every-, or no- with -thing, -one, -where, or -body. There are also various indefinite pronouns used to describe quantity, such as “little,” “many,” “none,” and “enough.” And there are distributiv...
Reciprocal pronouns are used to indicate a reciprocal relationship between two people or things, where the members of a group each perform the same action relative to the other(s). The English reciprocal pronouns are each other andone another. Some writers claim that “each other” should only be used to refer to groups of two and “one another” to gr...
A dummy pronoun (also called an expletive) is a pronoun that doesn’t have any explicit meaning but is necessary to the sentence structure. Unlike other pronouns, dummy pronouns don’t actually replace a noun. The two words used as dummy pronouns in English are it and there. Note that both words can also fulfillother grammatical roles. Dummy pronouns...
Jul 26, 2022 · A pronoun is one of the eight main parts of speech. The word pronoun means “on behalf of a noun,” meaning that it stands in for a noun (the antecedent) to avoid repetitive nouns in writing. For example: Carson went for a walk. It started to rain, so Carson went back to Carson’s house. Carson went for a walk.
- Subject pronouns are used when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence. You can remember subject pronouns easily by filling in the blank subject space for a simple sentence.
- Subject pronouns are also used if they rename the subject. They will follow to be verbs, such as is, are, was, were, am, will be, had been, etc.
- This rule surprises even language watchers: when who refers to a personal pronoun (I, you, he, she, we, they), it takes the verb that agrees with that pronoun.
- In addition to subject pronouns, there are also object pronouns, known more specifically as direct object, indirect object, and object of a preposition (for more detail, see the definition of a verb in the Finding Nouns, Verbs, and Subjects section).
- Personal Pronouns. A personal pronoun takes the place of people or things. The personal pronouns are "I," "you," "he," "she," "it," "we," and "they."
- Possessive Pronouns. A possessive pronoun shows possession. The possessive pronouns are "mine," "yours," "his," "hers," "ours," and "theirs." I always check if the art across the street is better than mine.
- Relative Pronouns. A relative pronoun introduces a clause that describes a noun. (The clause is called an adjective clause.) The relative pronouns are "that," "which," "who," "whom," and "whose."
- Demonstrative Pronouns. The demonstrative pronouns are "this," "that," "these," and "those." A demonstrative pronoun can refer to something previously mentioned or to something in the speaker's surroundings (e.g., something being pointed at by the speaker).
May 4, 2019 · Pronoun examples: He, His, Him, Her, Hers, She, Them, etc. He went to the market. She is doing the laundry. It is important to them. … Number: Singular Pronouns – Where the pronoun is only referring to one specific noun. That book belongs to me. Plural Pronouns – Where the pronoun is used to refer to a number of nouns.
The most common ones are it, I, you, he, they, we, and she. A pronoun is an important part of speech. If you use it well, your writing will be richer and more concise. Pronouns still confuse many people, especially those who don’t understand the different types and the correct grammar rules.
