Definition
The word 'pronoun' is from the Latin 'pronomen' which means 'in place of a noun'.
The main use of pronouns for a writer is that they prevent the needless repetition of nouns.
Generally (but not always) pronouns
stand for (pro + noun) or refer to a noun, an individual or
individuals or thing or things (the pronoun's antecedent) whose identity is
made clear earlier in the text. For instance, we are bewildered by writers who
claim something like:
·
They say that eating beef is bad for you.
They is a pronoun referring to someone, but who are they? Cows? Whom do they represent?
Sloppy use of pronouns is unfair.
Not all pronouns will refer to an
antecedent, however.
·
Everyone here earns over a thousand dollars a day.
The word "everyone" has no antecedent.
This section will list and briefly
describe the several kinds of pronouns.
There are several kinds of pronouns:
Personal, Demonstrative, Indefinite, Relative, Reflexive, Intensive,
Interrogative, Reciprocal.
Personal Pronouns
Unlike English nouns, which usually do not change form except for the addition of an -s ending to
create the plural or the apostrophe + s to create the
possessive, personal pronouns (which stand for persons or things) change form
according to their various uses within a sentence. Thus I is
used as the subject of a sentence (I am happy.), me is used as
an object in various ways (He hit me. He gave me a book. Do this for me.), and my is
used as the possessive form (That's my car.) The same is true of the other
personal pronouns: the singular you and he/she/it and the plural we, you, and
they. These forms are called cases.
Personal pronouns can also be
characterized or distinguished by person. First person refers
to the speaker(s) or writer(s) ("I" for singular, "we" for
plural). Second person refers to the person or people being
spoken or written to ("you" for both singular and plural). Third
person refers to the person or people being spoken or written about
("he," "she," and "it" for singular,
"they" for plural). As you can see, each person can change form,
reflecting its use within a sentence. Thus, "I" becomes
"me" when used as an object ("She left me") and
"my" when used in its possessive role (That's my car");
"they" becomes "them" in object form ("I like them")
and "their" in possessive ("That's just their way").
When a personal
pronoun is connected by a conjunction to another noun or pronoun, its case does
not change. We would write "I am taking a course in Asian
history"; if Talitha is also taking that course, we would write "Talitha
and I are taking a course in Asian history." (Notice that Talitha
gets listed before "I" does. This is one of the few ways in which
English is a "polite" language.) The same is true when the object
form is called for: "Professor Vendetti gave all her books to me";
if Talitha also received some books, we'd write "Professor Vendetti gave
all her books to Talitha and me."
When a pronoun and a noun are combined
(which will happen with the plural first- and second-person pronouns), choose
the case of the pronoun that would be appropriate if the noun were not there.
·
We students are demanding
that the administration give us two hours for lunch.
·
The administration has managed to put us students in a bad
situation.
With the second person, we don't really have a problem because the
subject form is the same as the object form, "you":
·
"You students are demanding too much."
·
"We expect you students to behave like
adults."
Among the possessive pronoun forms,
there is also what is called the nominative possessive: mine,
yours, ours, theirs.
·
Look at those cars. Theirs is really ugly; ours is
beautiful.
·
This new car is mine.
·
Mine is newer than yours.
The family of demonstratives
(this/that/these/those/such) can behave either as pronouns or as determiners.
As pronouns, they identify or point to
nouns.
·
That is incredible! (referring to
something you just saw)
·
I will never forget this. (referring to a recent experience)
·
Such is my belief. (referring to an
explanation just made)
As determiners, the demonstratives adjectivally modify a noun that
follows. A sense of relative distance (in time and space) can be conveyed
through the choice of these pronouns/determiners:
·
These [pancakes sitting here now on my
plate] are delicious.
·
Those [pancakes that I had yesterday
morning] were even better.
·
This [book in my hand] is well
written;
·
That [book that I'm pointing to, over
there, on the table] is trash.
A sense of emotional distance or even
disdain can be conveyed with the demonstrative pronouns:
·
You're going to wear these?
·
This is the best you can do?
Pronouns used in this way would receive special stress in a spoken
sentence.
When used as subjects, the demonstratives,
in either singular or plural form, can be used to refer to objects as well as
persons.
·
This is my father.
·
That is my book.
In other roles, however, the reference
of demonstratives is non-personal. In other words, when referring to students,
say, we could write "Those were loitering near the entrance during the
fire drill" (as long as it is perfectly clear in context what
"those" refers to). But we would not write "The principal
suspended those for two days"; instead, we would have to use "those"
as a determiner and write "The principal suspended those students for
two days."
The relative pronouns (who/whoever/which/that)
relate groups of words to nouns or other pronouns (The student who studies
hardest usually does the best.). The word who connects or
relates the subject, student, to the verb within the dependent
clause (studies). Choosing correctly between which and that and
between who and whom leads to what are
probably the most Frequently Asked Questions about English grammar. For help
with which/that, refer to the Notorious Confusables article on those words (including the hyperlink to Michael Quinion's article on this usage and the links to relevant quizzes). Generally, we use "which" to introduce clauses that are parenthetical in nature (i.e., that can be removed from the sentence without changing the essential meaning of the sentence). For that reason, a "which clause" is often set off with a comma or a pair of commas. "That clauses," on the other hand, are usually deemed indispensable for the meaning of a sentence and are not set off with commas. The pronoun which refers to
things; who (and its forms) refers to people; that usually
refers to things, but it can also refer to people in a general kind of way.
The expanded form of
the relative pronouns — whoever, whomever, whatever — are
known as indefinite relative pronouns. A couple of sample sentences
should suffice to demonstrate why they are called "indefinite":
·
The coach will select whomever he pleases.
·
He seemed to say whatever came to mind.
·
Whoever crosses this line first will win
the race.
What is often an indefinite relative
pronoun:
·
She will tell you what you need to know.
The indefinite pronouns
(everybody/anybody/somebody/all/each/every/some/none/one) do not substitute for
specific nouns but function themselves as nouns (Everyone is
wondering if any is left.)
One of the chief difficulties we have
with the indefinite pronouns lies in the fact that "everybody" feels
as though it refers to more than one person, but it takes a singular verb.
(Everybody is accounted for.) If you think of this word as
meaning "every single body," the confusion usually disappears. The
indefinite pronoun none can be either singular or plural,
depending on its context. None is nearly always plural
(meaning "not any") except when something else in the sentence makes
us regard it as a singular (meaning "not one"), as in "None of
the food is fresh." Some can be singular or plural
depending on whether it refers to something countable or noncountable.
There are other indefinite pronouns,
words that double as Determiners:
enough, few, fewer,
less, little, many, much, several, more, most, all, both, every, each, any,
either, neither, none, some
·
Few will be chosen; fewer will finish.
·
Little is expected.
The intensive pronouns (such as myself,
yourself, herself, ourselves, themselves) consist of a personal pronoun plus self or selves and
emphasize a noun. (I myself don't know the answer.) It is
possible (but rather unusual) for an intensive pronoun to precede the noun it
refers to. (Myself, I don't believe a word he says.)
The reflexive pronouns (which have the
same forms as the intensive pronouns) indicate that the sentence subject also
receives the action of the verb. (Students who cheat on this quiz are only
hurting themselves. You paid yourself a million
dollars? She encouraged herself to do well.) What this means
is that whenever there is a reflexive pronoun in a sentence there must be a
person to whom that pronoun can "reflect." In other words, the
sentence "Please hand that book to myself" would be incorrect because
there is no "I" in that sentence for the "myself" to
reflect to (and we would use "me" instead of "myself"). A
sentence such as "I gave that book to myself for Christmas" might be
silly, but it would be correct.
Be alert to a tendency to use reflexive
pronoun forms (ending in -self) where they are neither appropriate nor necessary. The inappropriate
reflexive form has a wonderful name: the untriggered reflexive. "Myself" tends to sound weightier, more formal, than little ol' me or I, so it has a way of
sneaking into sentences where it doesn't belong.
·
Bob and myself I are responsible for this decision.
·
These decisions will be made by myself me.
·
If you have any questions, please contact myself me or
Bob Jones.
When pronouns are combined, the
reflexive will take either the first person
·
Juanita, Carlos, and I have deceived ourselves into
believing in my uncle.
or, when there is no first person, the second person:
·
You and Carlos have deceived yourselves.
The indefinite pronoun (see above) one has
its own reflexive form ("One must have faith in oneself."), but the other indefinite pronouns use eitherhimself or themselves as
reflexives. It is probably better to pluralize and avoid the clumsy himself
or herself construction.
·
No one here can blame himself or herself.
·
The people here cannot blame themselves.
The interrogative pronouns
(who/which/what) introduce questions. (What is that? Who will
help me? Which do you prefer?) Which is
generally used with more specific reference than what. If we're
taking a quiz and I ask "Which questions give you the most
trouble?", I am referring to specific questions on that quiz. If I ask
"What questions give you most trouble"? I could be asking
what kind of questions on that quiz (or what kind of question,
generically, in general) gives you trouble. The interrogative pronouns also act
as Determiners:
It doesn't matter which beer you buy. He doesn't know whose
car he hit. In this determiner role, they are sometimes called interrogative
adjectives.
Like the relative
pronouns, the interrogative pronouns introduce noun
clauses, and like the relative pronouns, the interrogative pronouns
play a subject role in the clauses they introduce:
·
We know who is guilty of this crime.
·
I already told the detective what I know
about it.
The reciprocal pronouns are each
other and one another. They are convenient forms for
combining ideas. If Bob gave Alicia a book for Christmas and Alicia gave Bob a
book for Christmas, we can say that they gave each other books
(or that they gave books to each other).
·
My mother and I give each other a hard time.
If more than two people are involved
(let's say a whole book club), we would say that they gave one another books.
This rule (if it is one) should be applied circumspectly. It's quite possible
for the exchange of books within this book club, for example, to be between
individuals, making "each other" just as appropriate as "one
another."
Reciprocal pronouns can also take
possessive forms:
·
They borrowed each other's ideas.
·
The scientists in this lab often use one another's equipment.
HOT TIPS FOR PRONOUNS:
Use 'which' for things, 'who' or 'whom' for people, and 'that' for things, or people in a group.
EXAMPLES:
He repeated the joke, which I didn't think was funny the first time.
The student who loves grammar is a rare species.
Mr Bornhoffen is someone whom I have known since childhood.
It was the tutors' expertise that attracted me to this college.
The students that took part in the demonstration had the teachers' support.
