Module VI the pronouns types of the pronouns

The pronoun is a part of speech which points out subjects and their qualities without naming them. In modern English all pronouns can be classified into the following groups: personal pronouns, possessive pronouns, reflexive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, indefinite pronouns, negative pronouns, defining pronouns, reciprocal pronouns, interrogative pronouns, relative pronouns, conjunctive pronouns.

Personal pronouns

The personal pronouns have the grammatical categories of person, case, number and (in the third person singular) gender.

The personal pronouns have two cases: the nominative case (I, he, she, it, we, you, they) and the objective case (me, him, her, it, us, you, them)

The personal pronouns have two numbers: singular (I, he, she, it) and plural (we, they). The second-person pronoun you is both singular and plural.

The pronouns of the third person singular he, she, it distinguish gender. He is used to refer to male beings (man, uncle, boy), she is used to refer to female beings (woman, mother, girl), it is used to refer to inanimate things (house, tree, cup).

Possessive pronouns

Possessive pronouns have the same grammatical categories of person, number and gender as personal pronouns. They have two forms: dependent form (my, his, her, its, our, your, their) and absolute form (mine, his, hers, ours, yours, theirs). The dependent form is used when the possessive pronoun comes before the noun; the absolute form is used when the pronoun doesn’t modify any noun:

This is my book. The book is mine.

Possessive pronouns are used in English with reference to parts of the body, personal belongings. In this case they are not translated into Russian:

She opened her eyes. - Она открыла глаза.

Reflexive and emphatic pronouns

Reflexive and emphatic pronouns have the categories of person, number and gender in the third person singular.

	Singular	Plural
1st person	myself	ourselves
2nd person	yourself	Yourselves
3rd person	himself herself itself	Themselves

Reflexive pronouns correspond to the Russian reflexive verb with the suffix –ся:

They enjoyed themselves at the party. – Они повеселились на вечеринке.

In modern English reflexive pronouns are not generally used with the verbs to wash, to dress, to bathe, to shave, to hide, to behave:

Do you like to bathe in the sea?

But the pronouns are used in the imperative sentences:

Wash yourself, you’re so dirty!

Emphatic pronouns correspond to the Russian pronoun сам, сама, сами:

He himself disliked the idea. – Ему самому не нравилась эта идея.

Emphatic pronouns are placed after the subject or at the end of the sentence if they modify the subject, and if they modify an object they’re placed after it:

I’ll do it myself.

They themselves went there.

They know much about his books but don’t know him himself.

The Russian pronoun «себя» doesn’t always have a corresponding pronoun in English, because of the difference in grammatical constructions and the meanings of the verbs:

Она чувствует себя плохо. – She feels bad. (‘feels bad’ is a compound nominal predicate where ‘feel’ is a link verb that cannot have an object).

Она ведёт себя как ребёнок. – She behaves like a child. (the meaning of the verb ‘to behave’ does not require reflexive pronouns).

Reciprocal pronouns

Reciprocal pronouns are each other and one another. The pronoun each other generally implies two persons, one another refers to more than two persons. They have two cases: the common case and the possessive case:

Now they hate each other. They often quarrelled with one another. They looked into each other’s face.

Demonstrative pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns are this, that, such, (the) same. The pronouns this and that have two numbers: this – these, that – those.

This is used to point at what is nearer in time or space; that points at what is father away in time and space. Both of them can point to things, persons, or situations:

This was my old dear car again.

Do you remember that?

The pronoun such points to a certain quality in things, persons, or situations:

I like such little towns as this.

He could not love her. Such was everyone’s verdict.

The pronoun same is always used with the definite article:

That day was the same as before.