A pronoun is a word that replaces or refers to a noun in a sentence.
Example: I, Me, He, She, His, Her, We, They, Who, That, and etc.
Why we use pronoun?
Just look at the following sentences without a pronoun:
John has always loved English. John told us that John wants to be an English teacher.
That’s sound very repetitive. As it keep saying “John”.
But, we could improve the sentence using pronouns.
John has always loved English. He told us that he wants to be an English teacher.
Here you can see we have used “he” as a pronoun, which refers to “John”.
Types of pronoun
These are the following types of pronouns in the English Language:
- Personal pronoun
- Possessive pronouns
- Demonstrative pronoun
- Relative pronoun
- Interrogative pronoun
- Distributive pronoun
- Reflexive pronoun
- Indefinite pronoun
- Reciprocal pronoun
Personal Pronoun
A Personal pronoun refers to a person or things, e.g. I, you, they, he, she, it, etc.
Personal pronouns may function as a subject of a verb (I like to eat chicken, but she does not.) or Object of a verb or preposition (Amit likes me but not her).
In English, there are three persons; (first, second, third) and two numbers; (singular and plural).
Personal pronoun has two cases subject and object.
With respect to the two cases, personal pronoun has different forms depending upon persons and numbers in the English Language.
Subject
| Singular | Plural | |
| 1st Person | I | We |
| 2nd Person | you | you |
| 3rd Person | he,she,it | they |
Object
| Singular | Plural | |
| 1st Person | me | us |
| 2nd Person | you | you |
| 3rd person | him,her,it | them |
Possessive Pronoun
Possessive pronoun indicates possession, it means, it refers to people or things that belong to someone, e.g. mine, ours, yours, his, hers, theirs, etc.
Example :
John has a scooter. This is his scooter.
Demonstrative Pronoun
Demonstrative pronoun (this, that, these, those) refers to a particular person or things and distinguish them from other nearby person or things.
Example :
I like to eat these.
This is a very good thing to do.
Relative Pronoun
A relative pronoun (that, which, who, whom, what, and whose) used to refer back to people previously used.
Example :
People who drive should maintain safety.
Interrogative Pronoun
Interrogative pronoun (what, which, who, whom, and whose) ask about which person or things it means.
Example :
Who was there?
Which book is the best?
Reflexive Pronoun
This pronoun (myself, herself, ourselves, and itself) used when a person or thing acts on itself.
Example :
I love myself.
She cut herself.
Indefinite Pronoun
Indefinite pronoun (anyone, everybody, either, neither, no one, none, something, etc.) is used to refer one or more than one unspecified/unidentified person or things.
Example :
Anyone has the ability to do that.
No one knows the answer to the question.
Distributive Pronoun
Distributive pronouns (each, any, either, neither and others) are used to particularly refer to a member of a group rather than the whole group.
Example :
Each student has their own way to learn English.
Any of them can answer the question.
Reciprocal Pronoun
Reciprocal pronoun (one another and each other) is used to state reciprocal relationship between two or many things.
Example :
They hate each other.
The two families knew one another.
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