Pronouns

Pronouns are the words that are used in place of nouns. Repetitive use of nouns in a sentence makes the writing or speaking redundant and grammatically wrong. Hence, we use pronouns in place of nouns to make writing look and sound good.

Look at the following sentences.
Rahul is the correct person for this post. Rahul is very smart and intelligent. Rahul can hold this responsibility. Rahul will complete this assignment efficiently.
In the above sentences, the noun ‘Rahul’ is repeated many times.

Now, look at the following sentences.
Rahul is the correct person for this post. He is very smart and intelligent. He can hold this responsibility. He will complete this assignment efficiently.
In these sentences, we have replaced ‘Rahul’ with ‘he’. So, ‘he’ is a pronoun.
He, she, it, I, you, they, etc. are the examples of pronouns.

Types of pronouns
• Personal pronoun: These pronouns include first person, second person and third person. E.g. I, you, he, she, him, etc.
• Relative pronoun: The pronouns that connect a phrase or clause to a noun or pronoun are called relative pronouns. E.g. who, which, that, etc.
• Reflexive pronoun: These pronouns are used when the subject and the object the verb refer to the same person. E.g. himself, myself, themselves, etc.
• Demonstrative pronoun: A demonstrative pronoun is a pronoun used to point something out. The demonstrative pronouns are this, that, these and those.
• Indefinite pronoun: Indefinite pronouns do not refer to a particular person, place or thing. E.g. anything, something, anyone, everyone.
• Distributive pronoun: A distributive pronoun is a pronoun that describes members of a group separately and not collectively. E.g. either, neither, etc.
• Possessive pronoun: A possessive pronoun is a word that replaces a noun (or a noun phrase) and shows ownership. E.g. mine, yours, hers, theirs, ours, etc.
• Interrogative pronoun: These pronouns are used to ask questions. E.g. what, who, whom, etc.

Exercise

Identify the type of underlined pronoun in the following sentences.

1. Unfortunately my legs aren’t as long as yours.
a. Demonstrative pronoun
b. Personal pronoun
c. Possessive pronoun
d. Relative pronoun

2. I met a man with whom I used to work.
a. Relative pronoun
b. Distributive pronoun
c. Interrogative pronoun
d. Reflexive pronoun

3. What is the number on the door?
a. Relative pronoun
b. Interrogative pronoun
c. Indefinite pronoun
d. Distributive pronoun

4. Does anyone else want to come?
a. Distributive pronoun
b. Personal pronoun
c. Relative pronoun
d. Indefinite pronoun

5. Neither of them has a car.
a. Demonstrative pronoun
b. Reflexive pronoun
c. Distributive pronoun
d. Indefinite pronoun

6. She picked up the hairbrush that she had left on the bed.
a. Relative pronoun
b. Reflexive pronoun
c. Personal pronoun
d. Interrogative pronoun

7. He cut himself on the broken glass.
a. Distributive pronoun
b. Reflexive pronoun
c. Relative pronoun
d. Demonstrative pronoun

8. Thanks again for everything you did for me.
a. Relative pronoun
b. Reflexive pronoun
c. Indefinite pronoun
d. Personal pronoun

9. That is a very good idea.
a. Possessive pronoun
b. Personal pronoun
c. Distributive pronoun
d. Demonstrative pronoun

10. She didn’t like the way he spoke to her.
a. Indefinite pronoun
b. Personal pronoun
c. Relative pronoun
d. Reflexive pronoun