Pronouns

A word that is used in place of a Noun is known as a Pronoun.

• Gayatri is my daughter. She is five years old.
• Harish and Pradeep are good friends. They are also business partners.

In the first example She is a Pronoun which is used in place of Noun Gayatri
In second example They is a Pronoun used in place of Harish and Pradeep the two Nouns.

• Types of Pronouns
  
  
  • Personal Pronouns - First Person, Second Person, Third Person
  • Reflexive Compound Personal Pronouns
  • Emphatic Compound Personal Pronouns
  • Demonstrative Pronouns
  • Indefinite Pronouns
  • Distributive Pronouns
  • Relative Pronouns
  • Compound Relative Pronouns
  • Interrogative Pronouns
    

• Pronouns Exercises

• Pronouns List

Classification of Pronouns

Pronouns can be further classified in various categories

1. Personal Pronouns

The pronouns that stands for three kinds of person that  I, You and He are known as personal pronouns. These can be further classified as

• First person Pronoun

The Pronouns that are used for the person who is speaking is known as First Person Pronoun.
Ex:- I , My, Me etc.

First person can be Masculine or Feminine in nature.

These can be further classified into three different form ie.

1. Nominative like I and We
2. Possessive like my, mine, our and ours and
3. Accusative me and us etc.

• Second person Pronoun

The pronouns that are used for the persons spoken to (to whom first person is talking) are known as second person pronouns.  Ex:- You, Your etc.

These can be further classified into three different form ie.

1. Nominative like you
2. Possessive like your, yours
3. Accusative like you

• Third Person Pronoun

The pronouns that are used for the persons spoken of (about whom first and second person are talking) are known as Third person pronouns. Ex:-He, she, it, That etc.           

These can be further classified into three different form i.e

1. Nominative like He, she, it, they etc.
2. Possessive like his, her, hers, its, their, theirs etc.
3. Accusative like him, her, it, them

The third person pronouns are also known as demonstrative pronouns.

2. Reflexive Compound Personal Pronouns

Those Personal Pronouns (also known as Compound Personal Pronouns) which shows the action done by subject turning back upon the subject are known as reflexive pronouns. Ex:- myself, ourselves etc are personal pronouns.

1. I hurt myself.
2.  We punished ourselves.
3.  The man burned himself.

In the above given examples the words in bolds are all reflexive pronouns.

3. Emphatic Compound Personal Pronouns

When the Compound personal pronouns are used for the sake of emphasizing they are termed as Emphatic compound personal pronouns.

• I will complete the task myself.
•  He himself commit so.

In the above given examples the words in bolds are emphatic compounds they are committing it themselves.

4. Demonstrative Pronouns

The pronouns that are used to point out the objects to which they refer are called Demonstrative Pronouns.

1. Both houses are good; but this is better than that.
2. That is the Taj Mahal.

In the above examples the words in bolds demonstrates the Noun thus are known as demonstrative pronouns.

5. Indefinite Pronouns

Those pronouns that refer to nouns in a general way rather than referring anyone in particular are known as Indefinite Pronouns.

1. Some are born greats.
2. Nobody was there to save the accident victim.

In the above examples the words in bolds are not pointing out some definite Noun thus are known as indefinite pronouns.

6. Distributive Pronouns

Those pronouns that refer to nouns one at a time are known as distributive pronouns. Ex. each, either or neither represents one noun at a time.

1. Either of you can do this work.
2. Neither of the allegations is true.

In the above examples the words in bolds are distributive pronouns.

7. Relative Pronouns

The pronouns that relates to some noun coming before in the sentence are known as relative pronouns. They are also known as conjunctive pronouns as they join two sentences.

1. I met Jaswinder who has just returned from Canada.
2. This is the book that I just lent you.

In the above example the words in bolds are relative pronouns.

8. Compound Relative Pronouns

The pronouns that are formed by adding ever, so or soever etc to who , which and what are called Compound Relative  Pronouns.

1. Whoever comes is welcomed in this home.
2. Whatever he does, he does with perfection.

In the above examples the words in bolds are Compound Relative Pronouns.

9. Interrogative Pronouns

The pronouns that are used for asking of the question are known as Interrogative Pronouns.

1. Who gave you that book?
2. What do you want?

In the above examples the words in bolds are used to ask questions thus Interrogative Pronouns.

Practice exercises of Pronouns

• Pronoun Exercise 1
• Pronoun Exercise 2
• Pronoun Exercise 3
• Pronoun Exercise 4
• Pronoun Exercise 5
• Pronoun Exercise 6