Pronouns PDF

# PRONOUNS ## 1. Personal Pronouns A personal pronoun is used as a simple substitute for proper nouns. Personal pronouns serve as stunt doubles of grammar; they replace names of people, places, animals, things, etc. They enable us to avoid too much repetition of proper nouns in passages. Personal...

# PRONOUNS ## 1. Personal Pronouns A personal pronoun is used as a simple substitute for proper nouns. Personal pronouns serve as stunt doubles of grammar; they replace names of people, places, animals, things, etc. They enable us to avoid too much repetition of proper nouns in passages. Personal pronouns have cases, number and person. To create a sentence, a subject and a verb must be present. Verb/s could be physical, mental, or abstract while the subject is a noun which could either be a person, place, thing, concept or idea. When nouns serve as subjects in a sentence or a passage, most likely they are often repeatedly used. That is why to reduce repetitiveness, pronouns may be used instead of the noun without losing grammatical sense and to allow variations in the choice of words. ### Gender The pronoun antecedent which refers to the noun that the pronoun replaces can be masculine, feminine or neutral. This pronoun antecedent determines which pronoun could be used to be used to replace the noun. To illustrate: Casey went to the peoples' park. She went to the park. ### Case Case refers the functions of a pronoun in a sentence; nominative, objective or possessive. Since nouns can function as both subject and object so can pronouns. To illustrate: She is an actress. The director called her. That house over there is ours. ### Number The number of a pronoun depends on its antecedent. If there is only one, a singular pronoun should be used and if there are more than one, a plural pronoun will be used to replace the noun. To illustrate: Sheena and Katrina Halili are both actresses. They are also cousins in real life. ### Person Person property refers to the point of view, or relationship of the speaker and the pronoun antecedent. First Person refers to the person that is speaking. I got caught doing mischief. Second Person refers to the person who is being spoken to. Did you just call me? Third Person refers to who or what is being spoken about. He got caught bullying his younger brother. | Person | Case | Number | Singular | Plural | Objective | Singular | Plural | Possessive | Singular | Plural | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | First Person | | | I | We | me | us | mine | Ours | | Second Person | | | You | You | you | you | yours | Yours | | Third Person | | | He, She, They | It | him, her, them | it | his, hers, its | theirs | ## 2. Reflexive Pronouns and Intensive Pronouns Reflexive pronouns tell us that the doer of the action in a sentence is also the receiving end of that action. It can be a direct object, indirect object or object of a preposition in a sentence. Reflexive pronouns are mostly compound personal pronouns. ### Compound Personal Pronouns | Person | Number | Singular | Plural | |---|---|---|---| | First | | myself | ourselves | | Second | | yourself | yourselves | | Third | | himself, herself. itself | themselves | ### Examples: - I secretly praised myself for doing a good job. - She gave herself a tap on the shoulder for doing a good job. - She got to the mountain top by herself. ## 3. Intensive/Emphatic: Pronouns Intensive pronouns precede the noun which is often the noun immediately before the pronoun. They are used for emphasis. ### Examples: - The actress received the awards herself. - The actress herself received the award. Herself means the actress, tells the reader/listener that it's a big deal that the actress received the award. Since intensive pronouns are used only for emphasis, they can be removed without affecting the meaning of the sentence. This is NOT true with reflexive pronouns because it will cause a change in meaning if you remove them in sentences. ## 4. Demonstrative Pronouns Demonstrative pronouns show, point or exhibit. These are this, that, these, those. ### Example: - These are the items I bought spending 3 hours in the grocery. - The items I bought after spending one hour in the grocery are these. ## 5. Indefinite Pronouns Indefinite pronouns refer to any person or thing specifically like few, some, all, none. ### Example: - Only few committed to attend the online meeting. ## 6. Interrogative Pronouns Interrogative pronouns are used to make questions. These are who, whose, what, which. ### Example: - Who were lucky enough to hit the jackpot? ## 7. Distributive Pronouns Distributive pronouns denote persons or things of group separately that's why they always become singular and followed by the singular verbs. They can be neither, either, each, everyone, any, none, no one, etc. ### Example: - Each student has to purchase an access card to the Millennium ball. ## 8. Reciprocal Pronouns These are pronouns which express mutual or reciprocated relationship such as each other and one another. When you want to refer to two people, most likely you use “each other.” When you refer to more than two people, you will likely use “one another.” ### Example: - We gave each other a hug after winning the dance competition. The students were excited to see one another after the summer break. ## 9. Relative Pronouns Pronouns which join to clauses and relate or refer back to their antecedent. These are who, which, that, what, as, but, etc. ### Example: - The man *who* claimed he can stop a calamity was mocked by the people. - The children, *whom* we cared for dearly, are now successful people. ## 10. Possessive Pronouns Pronouns which show possession or ownership such as his, their, her, my, our and their. ### Example: - Her health is her greatest wealth.