Pronoun and its kinds

Pronoun:

A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun.

Monica is a brilliant girl. She is the favourite of all the teachers. All of them admire her.

In the example given above, the words she and her stand for the noun Monica. The word them stands for teachers. So she, her and them are pronouns.

Pronouns are of different kinds:

1.      Personal Pronouns:

There are three persons: first person, second person and third person. The first person is the person speaking, the second person is the person spoken to; and the third person is the person (or thing) spoken about. The various forms of personal pronouns are:

Person	Used as a subject	Used as an object	Possessive form	Reflexive or emphasizing form	Remarks
I (singular)   (plural)	I We	Me Us	Mine Ours	Myself Ourselves	Used for both masculine &  feminine
II (singular)     (plural)	You You	Yours Yours	Yourself Yourselves		Used for both masculine &  feminine
III (singular) (singular) (singular) (plural)	He She It They	Him Her It Them	His Hers Theirs	Himself Herself Itself Themselves	Masculine Feminine Neuter All genders

1.       I, we, he, she and they are used as subjects.

Me, us, him, her and them are used as objects.

They congratulated me. (they - subject; me - object)

He helped us. (he – subject; us – object)

2.      You and it may be used both as the subject and the object:

You should learn swimming. (you – subject)

You will enjoy it. (it – object)

Besides, it will keep you fit. (it – subject; you – object)

3.      After prepositions, we use the objective form of pronouns:

Between them and us; between her and me

For him; to her; from them; without us

4.      The verb let requires the objective form of the pronoun:

Let me try this problem.

Let us go for a walk.

5.      The form it is me is common in spoken English although the correct form is It is I.

Who is there? It is me. (spoken English)

Who is there? It is I. (formal)

Did Renu make this painting?

I’m not sure. It may be her. (spoken English)

I am not sure. It may be she. (formal)

2.      Reflexive Pronouns:

Pronouns which are objects of a verb but refer to the same person (subject of the verb). For example:

(a)    I am myself responsible for it.

(b)   We will go there ourselves.

(c)    You should talk about yourself.

(d)   Girls, you take care of yourselves.

(e)    He went for an inspection himself.

(f)    She has made this painting herself.

(g)   They put themselves into trouble.

(h)   The lion itself jumped into the well.

3.      Emphasizing Pronouns:

Pronouns which are used for showing emphasis on a noun/a pronoun are called Emphasizing Pronouns. For example:

(a)    He himself went there.

(b)   She herself will do it.

(c)    I myself did it.

(d)   We should do it ourselves.

(e)    You yourselves planned all this.

(f)    You yourself have to do it.

(g)   They themselves came forward.

(h)   The dog itself jumped from the wall.

4.      Demonstrative Pronouns:

These are used for pointing out a person or thing/persons or things like this, these, that, those and such.

This and these are used for person or thing/persons or things nearby.

That and those are used for person or thing/persons or things far off.

Such means – like

For example:

This pencil writes smoothly.

These pencils are of good quality.

That horse runs fast.

Those boys belong to fifth standard.

Such was the situation.

5.      Interrogative Pronouns:

These pronouns are used for asking questions.

For example:

(a)    Who broke this glass?

(b)   What happened?

(c)    Which is your pen?

(d)   Whose book is this?

(e)    Whom did you call?

6.      Possessive Pronouns:

These pronouns show possession.

For example:

These gloves are mine.

That suit is yours.

7.      Relative Pronouns:

Pronouns which relate are Relative Pronouns.

Who, whose, whom, which and that are the words most frequently used as relative pronouns. As is also sometimes used as a relative pronoun.

1.      As a rule, who, whose and whom is used for persons only. It has the same form whether it refers to a singular or a plural noun or a noun of masculine, feminine or common gender:

The farmer who was eager to work immediately started ploughing the field. (singular)

The shopkeepers who had closed their shops felt safe. (plural)

The Principal called the parents of those children whose result was poor. (common gender)

The girl narrated her story to an old lady whom she met on the way.

The use of whom needs a bit of care. Look at these two examples:

People who do not love others ……… (the relative pronoun as subject, hence who)

People whom others do not love ……. ( the relative pronoun as object, hence whom)

Sometimes whose may also be used for things without life:

The car whose headlights were on ………

Actually this sentence should have been written as:

The car the headlights of which were on ……..

But the first sentence looks more elegant.

2.      Which is used for things without life and for animals:

The house which had been lying vacant for a long time has been sold off.

The tiger which had turned a man-eater could not be located.

3.      That is used for both persons and things:

This is the man that I have been speaking of. (man-person)

I have lost the watch that my father had presented me. (watch-thing)

4.      More on the use of that

(a)    We use that after adjectives in the superlative degree:

Kapil is the best fast bowler that we have produced.

Even the most foolish person that ever lived could teach us something.

(b)   We use that after the words ‘all’, ‘same’, ‘any’, ‘none’, ‘nothing’, (the) ‘only’:

All that glitters is not gold.

Nothing that I did pleased my father.

(c)    Suppose in a sentence we have two nouns, one denoting a person and the other a thing. Which relative pronoun shall we use? We would naturally prefer to use that:

Both the car and its driver that now appeared looked shabby.

                 (thing)          (person)

5.      What refers to things only. Its antecedent is not expressed. It actually means that which or the thing which:

What cannot be cured must be endured. (=that which)

We have found what we have been looking for. (=the thing which)

6.      The word as is also sometimes used as a relative pronoun. It is used after the word such and sometimes after the word same:

He is such a leader as the country needs today.

His problem is the same as yours.

Omission of the relative pronoun:

We can often leave out the relative pronoun when it is in the objective case:

This is the pen with which I wrote the letter.

This is the pen I wrote the letter with.

(which is omitted and the position of the preposition with is changed.)

The man about whom you are enquiring is a friend of mine.

The man you are enquiring about is a friend of mine.

(whom is omitted and the position of the preposition about is changed.)

Where have you parked the car by which you came?

Where have you parked the car you came by?

(which is omitted and the position of the preposition by is changed)

Position of the relative pronouns:

The relative pronoun should be placed as near as possible to the noun or the pronoun it refers to; otherwise sometimes the sentences we write might look absurd. Look at this sentence:

Vijay was called by the Principal, who had cheated in the examination.

In this sentence, the relative pronoun who refers to Vijay, so it should have been placed quite close to the word Vijay. We should have written this sentence like this:

Vijay, who had cheated in the examination, was called by the Principal.

Take another example:

The manager warned the lazy clerk, who was very strict.

This sentence also does not make sense. We should have written:

The manager, who was very strict, warned the lazy clerk.

Joining sentences with relative pronouns:

We can use relative pronouns to join sentences. Look at these examples:

1.      I have found the purse. I had lost it.

I have found the purse which I had lost.

2.      An old lady looked after the child. I know the lady.

An old lady whom I know looked after the child

or

I know the old lady who looked after the child.