PARTS OF SPEECH: PRONOUNS

 PRONOUNS

 

What is a Pronoun?

 

A pronoun can replace a noun or another pronoun. Pronoun avoids the repetition of a noun in the sentence. According to grammarians there are seven types of Pronouns and they are 1) Personal Pronouns, 2) Reflexive and emphasizing pronouns, 3) Demonstrative Pronouns, 4) Indefinite Pronouns, 5) Distributive Pronouns, 6) Interrogative Pronouns and 7) Relative Pronouns.

 

1.            Personal Pronouns:

 

·        The Pronoun which stands for the person or persons speaking are called Pronouns of the first person. Ex: I, we, me, us, mine, our.

 

·        The Pronouns which stand for the person or persons spoken to all are called Pronouns of the Second Person. Ex: You, your, thou, thee.

 

·        The Pronouns which stand for the person or thing spoken of all called Pronouns of the Third Person.

 

·        Ex: he, she, it, its, they, his, her, them, theirs.

2.            Reflexive and Emphasizing Pronouns:

 

·  This kind of Pronoun is used when subject and object in the sentence are same person. Ex: I hurt myself. They enjoyed themselves. You blame yourself for it. She cut herself. The pronouns myself, themselves, yourself, herself refer to the subjects of the verbs. Such Pronouns are called Reflexive Pronouns.

 

·  Look at the examples. I myself did it. He himself went there. The house itself fell. They themselves were present. She herself told me this. In these sentences the pronouns myself, himself, itself, themselves are used with a noun or pronoun for the sake of emphasis. Such pronouns are called Emphasizing Pronouns.

 

3.            Demonstrative Pronouns:

 

·  The Pronouns like this, that, these, those, it which point out certain objects are called demonstrative pronouns. Ex: This is a table. These are books. Please note that Demonstrative pronouns are not followed by nouns. These books are mine. In this sentence ‘these’ is not demonstrative pronoun as it followed by a noun books. In such cases it is called Demonstrative Adjective.

 

4.            Indefinite Pronouns:

 

·  Look at the following sentences: 1.All men are mortal. 2. Many were killed in the accident. 3. A few escaped from the fire accident. 4. Some people do not like lizards. 5. Somebody has stolen by pen. In the sentences the bold words refer to uncountable objects. These are called indefinite pronouns.

·  Ex: any, anyone, anything, everybody, nobody, something, nothing, none, one, one thing etc.

 

5.            Distributive Pronouns:

 

·  The Pronouns like each, either, neither, one, one of, or refer to persons or things to choose one out of two, that is one at a time. Such Pronouns are called Distributive Pronouns.

·  Ex: Each of the girls can receive a prize. Either of you can leave. Neither of these pen mine.

 

·  Distributive Pronouns are always singular and are followed by a verb in the singular.

 

 

 

6.            Interrogative Pronouns:

 

·  The Pronouns like what, who, why, which are used to ask questions about persons or things. Such pronouns are called interrogative pronouns. Ex: What is the matter? Why do you hate me? Which is your book? Who is that talking to you? In these sentences what, why, which, who are placed before a verb. So, they are called interrogative pronouns.

 

·  Who, whose, whom are used to asking questions about persons.

 

·  ‘What’ is used for asking questions about things.

 

·  ‘Which’ is used for asking questions about a particular person or thing.

 

 

o What question do you want to ask me? In this sentence what is placed before noun. When a interrogative pronouns is placed before a noun then it is called interrogative adjective.

 

7.            Relative Pronouns:

 

o Look at the pair of sentences.

1). I have lost the pen.  I bought the pen last week.

2). I met Keshav. Keshav had won a prize in Karate.

3) This is the house. My father built it.

o Each of the above pairs of sentences can be combined into a single sentence as;

1) I have lost the pen which I bought last week.

2) I met Keshav, who had won a prize in karate.

3) This is the house that my father built it.

o In sentence 1 and 2 which, who are used in the places of nouns pen, Keshav respectively. In sentence 3 that. All these which, who and that are used to combine the sentences. So they are called Conjunctions also. These are often called Relative Pronouns.

 

o A Relative Pronoun does the work of a Pronoun and a Conjunction.

 

o The noun to which a Relative Pronoun refers or relatives is called its Antecedent. In sentence 1, the antecedent of which is pen, in sentence 2, the antecedent of who is Keshav, in sentence 3, the antecedent of that is house.

 

o A Relative Pronoun always agrees with its antecedent in Number, gender and person.

o ‘Who’ refers to the persons only. It may refer to a Singular or a Plural Noun.

o ‘Which’ is used for animals or things without life.

o ‘That’ is used for persons animals or things.

 

Agreement Features (PRONOUNS):

 

·        Possessive, relative and demonstrative pronouns must be of the same number, person and gender etc.

 

o   One should not waste his energy over trifles (wrong)

 

o   One should not waste one’s energy over trifles (correct)

 

o   I am not one of those who imagine facts when, in fact, I haven’t any (wrong)

 

o   I am not one of those who imagine facts when, in fact, they haven’t any (correct).

 

·        The Pronoun is singular when two singular nouns are joined by ‘and’ are preceded by ‘each’ or ‘every’.

 

o   Every day and every night brings its own duty (correct)

 

·        The Pronoun is singular when two or more singular nouns are joined by ‘or’, ‘either….or’ or ‘neither…nor’. Thus-

 

o   The Headmaster or teacher is present at prayer.

 

o   Either Headmaster or teachers are present at the prayer

 

o   Either teachers or Headmaster is or present at the prayer

 

o   Neither Sheela nor Shabnam is on time.

 

·        The relative pronoun ‘who’ or ‘whom’; when it is used as the subject of a verb its form is ‘who’ and when used as object of a verb its form is ‘whom’.

 

o   There are many politicians who we know are out. (Who here is the subject and are is the verb)

 

o   When I entered the room, whom do you think I saw? (whom here is the object of the verb saw)

 

·        The compliment of the verb ‘to be’; when it is expressed by the pronoun, should be in nominative form e.g,

 

o   It was he. (It was him is the correct form)

 

o   He is taller than I. (He is taller than me is correct)

 

o   I love you as much as I love she. (I love you as much as I love her is correct)

 

·        When such verbs as, avail, absent, acquit, enjoy are used reflexively never omit the reflexive pronoun.

 

o   I shall avail my Casual Leave today (say I shall avail myself my casual leave)

 

o   She is absented from School. (Say She is absented herself from school)

 

o   Reflexive Pronoun cannot be used alone as the subject of a verb, it should be preceded by some other noun or pronoun. Ex. Myself and his sister were standing at the gate (wrong), say His sister and I were standing at the gate.

 

·        After ‘such’, use relative pronoun ‘as’ and not ‘who’ or ‘which’.

 

o   His answer was such as I had expected him to give.

 

·        A relative pronoun should agree with its antecedents in person and number.

·        Ex:

o   This is one of the most important things to be remembered

 

o   This is one of the most interesting novels that has appeared this year (Wrong. Change ‘has’ to ‘have’)

 

·        This is the only one of his short stories that are worth reading. (Wrong. Change ‘are’ to ‘is’ for her the antecedent of ‘that’)

 

·        A relative Pronoun or relative adverb should be placed as close to its antecedent as possible e.g,

 

·        I have read Plato’s writing, who was a disciple of Socrates (Wrong)

 

·        I have read the writings of Plato, who was a disciple of Socrates (correct)

 

 

·        Each other should be used in speaking of two persons or things, ‘one another’ in speaking of more than two. E.g.

 

o   When we two parted, we wished luck to each other.

 

o   We should love one another.

 

·        Either should be used in reference to two. When the reference is to more than two, we should use ‘any one’

 

o   Either of these two books will meet my purpose.

 

o   She is taller than any one of her five sisters.

 

·        ‘Which’ when used as a relative pronoun, must relate to some noun or Pronoun i.e., its antecedent previously mentioned. Using ‘which’ without an antecedent is wrong.

 

o   He completed his job in good time, which pleased his boss (wrong)

 

He completed his job in good time pleased his boss (correct).