Pronouns

A pronoun is a word which replaces a noun or noun phrase:

Mr. Smith was late for work. He had missed the train again. Look at this! (pointing to a newspaper headline) What has that child been eating? You only bought that because I've got one. John borrowed a pen because he'd forgotten his. Jane surprised herself.

The most important class of pronouns for students of English language are the personal pronouns. The table below classifies them according to these key concepts:

• Number: Singular (one) or plural (more than one).

• Person: First person = the speaker or writer.

• Second person = the addressee.

• Third person = third parties. Anyone other than the speaker or addressee.

• Function: Subject = the person doing the action.

• Object = the person receiving the action.

• Possessive = showing ownership, e.g. This is mine.

• Determiner = placed before a noun to identify which example is referred to.

• Reflexive = referring to a noun or another pronoun in the same statement.

Personal pronouns

Table 3

Pronouns
Personal pronouns		Possessive adjectives	Possessive pronouns (Absolute)	Reflexive-Emphatic pronouns
before verbs as subjects	after verbs as objects	followed by nouns	not followed by nouns
I	me	my	mine	myself
you	you	your	yours	yourself
he	him	his	his	himself
she	her	her	hers	herself
it	it	its	(its)	itself
we	us	our	ours	ourselves
you	you	your	yours	yourselves
they	them	their	theirs	themselves

To help you understand how the columns in the table are organized, try putting the pronouns into these sentences:

Subject xxx flew to Paris.

Object The receptionist asked XXX to wait.

Determiner Have you seen xxx new car?

Possessive Is that dog xxx?

Reflexive I/you/he/she/we/they scratched xxx.

Exercise 44. Use the appropriate personal pronouns in the following sentences:

1. … say there was a great earthquake in the Atlantic two days ago. 2. If … see an elephant once a year … remains a spectacle; if … see … daily … becomes part of the scenery. 3. “Susan’s married now”, said Mrs. Green. “… was in the ‘Times’.” 4. There was a lot of noise all around now, and amongst … … could hear a plane flying unusually low. 5. John soon made … clear that … did not want to stay there long. 6. He is dreadfully ugly. … must not start when … see …, or … will put … off. … doesn’t like … to feel sorry for … . 7. The “Fredrick Weber” was a freighter sailing from Hamburg to Colombo. … was rather dirty. 8. … was cold to sit on the terrace, pretending that … was really a summer evening. 9. “Our aim is to keep Italy out of the war until … is strong enough to come in on our side”, said the colonel. 10. We were climbing a steep hill and the car throbbed as if … were going to expire. 11. I got my hat and beat … . 12. It was my fault … got a bad mark.