English Grammar: Pronouns and Adjectives

Types of Pronouns

• Personal Pronouns: Replace nouns that refer to people or things, e.g. I, you, he, she, it, we, they
• Possessive Pronouns: Show ownership or possession, e.g. mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs
• Reflexive Pronouns: Refer back to the subject, e.g. myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, themselves
• Demonstrative Pronouns: Point out which person or thing, e.g. this, that, these, those
• Interrogative Pronouns: Ask questions, e.g. who, what, which, whom, whose
• Indefinite Pronouns: Refer to non-specific people or things, e.g. someone, something, anyone, anything
• Reciprocal Pronouns: Express mutual action, e.g. each other, one another
• Distributive Pronouns: Refer to individual members of a group, e.g. each, every, either, neither

Adjective Formation

• Suffixes:
  • -ful (hopeful)
  • -less (helpless)
  • -ly (friendly)
  • -ous (famous)
  • -ive (creative)
• Prefixes:
  • un- (unhappy)
  • re- (redo)
  • non- (nonstop)
• Compounding: Combine two words to form an adjective (birthplace)

Identifying Antecedents

• An antecedent is the noun or pronoun that a pronoun replaces
• To identify an antecedent:
  1. Find the pronoun in the sentence
  2. Look for the noun or pronoun that the pronoun is replacing
  3. Check the context and meaning of the sentence

Comparing Adjectives

• Positive Form: The basic form of an adjective (e.g. big)
• Comparative Form: Used to compare two things (e.g. bigger)
• Superlative Form: Used to compare three or more things (e.g. biggest)
• Irregular Adjectives: Do not follow the usual -er/-est pattern (e.g. good, better, best)

Pronoun Agreement

• Subject-Verb Agreement: The subject and verb must agree in number (singular or plural)
• Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement: The pronoun and antecedent must agree in number, person, and gender
• Collective Nouns: Can be singular or plural, depending on the context (e.g. The team is/are playing well)