Pronouns are divided into the following classes:
1. Personal Pronoun: I, we, you, he, she, it, they.
2. Possessive Pronoun: mine, ours, yours, his, hers, its, theirs.
3. Reflexive and Emphasizing Pronoun: this, that, these, those, such, same.
4. Interrogative Pronoun: Who? Which? What? Whose?
5. Relative Pronoun: who, which, that, what, whom, as, whoever, whichever, whatever, etc.
6.Indefinite Pronoun
one,any,each,some,all,none,nothing,anyone,something,somebody,etc.
7. Distributive Pronoun: each, either, neither, etc.
Note: A Pronoun stands alone. It is not used with a Noun. An Adjective is used with a Noun.
Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns stand for three persons:
1. The First Person or the person or persons speaking, e.g. I, we,
2. The Second Person or the person or persons spoken to, e.g. you.
3. The Third Person or the person or persons or thing spoken about, e.g. he, she, they, it.
Personal Pronouns may be:
1. In the Nominative Case (i.e. the Subject of a Verb.);
2. In the Objective Case (i.e. the Object of a Verb); or
3. In the Possessive Case (to show that something belongs to someone or something).
The Personal Pronoun must be of the same Number, Gender and Person as the Noun for which it stands. For example, if the Noun is in the Singular Number, the Pronoun also must be in the Singular Number. If the Noun is in the Feminine Gender, the Pronoun too must be in the Feminine Gender, and so on. Study the following carefully.
a) The boy is reading his book.
b) The boys are reading their books.
c) Rahim is a good boy; he does his work well.
d) His sister lives here; she is not very old.
Personal Pronouns used as Subjects of Verbs.
(The Nominative Case: Who? What?)
a) I made a cake.
b) We saw a bird.
c) You ran fast.
d) He went out
e) She read a book
f) It made a noise
g) They sang songs
Singular Plural
First Person: I we
Second Person: You You
Third Person: He They
She They
It They
Personal Pronouns used as Objects of Verbs.
(The Objective Case: Whom? What?)
a) Give me some money.
b) You told us some lies.
c) She gave you the book.
d) I told him the story.
e) Give her the pen
f) Give it some food.
g) We told them everything.
Singular Plural
First Person: Me Us
Second Person: You You
Third Person: Him Them
Her Them
It Them
The following sentences show how to use Personal Pronouns correctly:
a) He is older than I (am) (not me)
b) You are tall as I (am) (not me)
c) He is better than she (is) (not her)
d) You are no worse than he(is)(not him)
e) Who did it? Not I (not me)
f) It is telling you to go out(not me)
g) Let you and me go out(not I)
h) Let her and him do the work(not she and he)
i) He told Rahim and me to be here(not I)
j) Between you and me, there is no trouble (not I)
k) Is it me you wish to see(not I)
l) Was it her you saw (not she)?
m) It’s them I spoke to(not they)
Note: it is rule of good manners that we should say:
You and I (not I and You)
Tom and I (not I and Tom)
Possessive Pronouns
(The Possessive Case: Whose?)
a) That book is mine.
b) Are these pencils ours?
c) Is this house yours?
d) This pen is his?
e) That dress is hers.
f) This is this dog’s leg. This leg is also its.
g) That house if theirs.
Singular Plural
First Person: Mine Ours
Second Persons: Yours Yours
Third Person: His Theirs
Hers Theirs
Its Theirs
Possessive Pronouns and Possessive Adjectives
A Pronoun is used without a Noun. An Adjective is used with a Noun, e.g.
a) Take yours and give Pronouns “yours” and “mine”
Without Nouns).
b) Take yours book and give my book ( adjectives “ yours” without Nouns)
c) Give her pen and keep your pen (Adjectives “her” and “your” with the Noun, “pen”).
The Reflexive Pronoun is used for the sake of emphasis (i.e. to say something with force to show the importance of something):
a) He killed himself.
b) She lost herself.
c) They blamed themselves.
The Emphasizing Pronoun is used for the sake of emphasis (i.e. to say something with force to show the importance of something):
a) I myself saw it.
b) The headmaster himself gave away the prizes.
c) The thing itself is of little importance.
The Demonstrative Pronoun is used to point out a thing or a person. The words this, that, that which (the one), the same, when used alone, are Pronouns; but when used with Nouns they are Adjectives:
a) This is what he told me. (pronoun)
b) This house is mine. (Adjectives; used with the Noun, House)
c) That is right. (Pronoun)
d) That boy is good. (Adjectives; used with the Noun, boy)
The phrase “that which” is not in common use: it is more often replaced by the words “the one”:
Have you got the pen, the one I gave yesterday?
Interrogative Pronouns and Interrogative Adjectives.
Note the following:
a) Which is yours? (Interrogative Pronoun “which” without a Noun)
b) Which pencil is yours? (Interrogative Adjectives “which” with the Noun, “ pencil”)
c) What did you get?(Interrogative Pronoun “what” without a Noun)
d) What answer did you get?(Interrogative Adjective “what” with the Noun, ”answer”)
From the above examples, we note that an Adjective must go with a Noun. A Pronoun stands alone, and does not go with a Noun.
The Relative Pronoun
The Relative Pronoun does two things:
1) It takes the place of a Noun or Pronoun:
2) It joins two sentences, (i.e. does the work of a Conjunction).
Let us look at the following sentences:
Rahim is a good boy. He does not tell lies.
We may join the sentences in two ways:
a) Rahim is a good boy and he does not tell lies; or
b) Rahim is a good boy who does not tell lies.
We see clearly that the word “who” does the work of a Pronoun and of a Conjunction.
Indefinite Pronoun: First one, then another.
Indefinite Adjective: First one boy, then another boy came.
Distributive Pronoun: Each is three years old.
Either will do.
Distributive Adjective: Each house is three years old.
Either book will do.
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