What is a Pronoun? Types of Pronouns and Examples

What is a Pronoun? Types of Pronouns and Examples

Instead of nouns in a sentence, pronouns are used.  It is used when something or a person has been mentioned before.

Example;

• I’ve lost my umbrella. I can’t find them anywhere.

They can be classified as subjective pronouns, objective pronouns, possessive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, indefinite pronouns, and reflexive pronouns.

Subject Pronouns

In the sentence, they are used in the subject position at the beginning of the verb, such as; I, you, he, she, it, we, you.

Example;

• She is the best basketball player in the team.

Object Pronouns

In the sentence, they are used in the object position after the verb. Me, you, her, him, it, us, you, them are object pronouns.  Pronouns objects are used as direct or indirect objects.

Example;

• Pease will you pass them that bottle?

Indirect and direct objects can be used in the same sentence as verbs that can take two objects.

Examples;

• The soldiers killed him.
• They killed him.

 

‘You’ and ‘they’ pronouns are used to generalize people.

Example;

• You can get a driving license, if you are 18.

 



The pronoun of ‘it’ is used when generalizing the weather, time and date.

Example;

• It will be sunny and very hot tomorrow.

 

Possessive Pronouns

These structures are expressions of ownership, they are used instead of the nouns.  That’s why they won’t get another noun after them.  This should be noted.  Mine, yours, his, hers, yours, are possessive pronouns.

Example;

• My skirt is pink, hers is blue.

Demonstrative Pronouns

There are four demonstrative pronouns;  These are the following.  This and that are used in singular, these and those are used in plural expressions.  These and this for things near us, and those and that for things far away us.

Example;

• This is a famous song.

Reflexive Pronouns

These expressions state that the subject and the object are the same person. ‘Self’ is used for singles and ‘selves’ is used for plural persons.

It shows that the subject is affected by his / her work again.

Example;

• I was talking to myself five minutes ago.

 

These pronouns also have a highlighting feature.

Example;

• I saw my mom clean the house myself.

 

When used with the ‘By’ suffix, it means two. It means that the person is alone.

Example;

• She was there for about two years by myself.

 

They say no help from others.

• I learnt Spanish by myself.

Indefinite Pronouns

Pronouns which are not known which nouns are used are called indefinite pronouns.  Anybody, everybody, nobody, anyone, anyone, anyone, no one, someone, anything, nothing, something indefinite pronouns.

Examples of some, any and no use;

• Nobody else offered to go out.
• There is nothing interesting in the book.
• No one believes them.
• Was there anyone you knew at the school?
• Would you like something to drink?
• Someone knows where she is.

Here is Pronouns Chart

	Subject Pronouns	Object Pronouns	Possessive Adjectives
1st person singular	I	Me	My
2nd person singular	You	You	Your
3rd person singular (male)	He	Him	His
3rd person singular (female)	She	Her	Her
3rd person	It	It	Its
1st person (plural)	We	Us	Our
2nd person (plural)	You	You	Your
3rd person (plural)	They	Them	Their

	Possessive Pronouns	Reflexive Pronouns
1st person singular	Mine	Myself
2nd person singular	Yours	Yourself
3rd person singular (male)	His	Himself
3rd person singular (female)	Hers	Herself
3rd person	Its	Itself
1st person (plural)	Ours	Ourselves
2nd person (plural)	Yours	Yourselves
3rd person (plural)	Theirs	themselves