English Grammar/Basic Parts of Speech/Pronouns

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A pronoun replaces a noun in a sentence. The noun that is replaced is called an antecedent.

Pronouns can be classified in following different ways:

Types of Pronoun[edit]

Personal Pronoun[edit]

Type Nominative Possessive Objective Possessive Noun
Singular First Person I my me mine
Second Person you your you yours
Third Person he his him his
she her her hers
it its it its
Plural First Person we our us ours
Second Person you your you yours
Third Person they their them theirs
Interrogative who whose whom whose

Note: The possessive forms my, your, his, her, its, our and their function as adjectives when they modify a noun.

Cases of Personal Pronouns[edit]

  1. Nominative case - the pronoun is used as a subject or predicate nominative/subjective complement.
    I am beautiful.(subject)
    The winner is she.(predicate nominative/subjective complement)
  2. Objective case - the pronoun is used as a direct object, indirect object or object of the preposition.
    We met them in Florida. (direct object)
    You have to award him the medal. (indirect object)
    Are you finally going out with her? (object of the preposition)
  3. Possessive case - the pronoun is used to show ownership or possession.
    That folder is mine.
    These paintings are theirs.

Compound Personal Pronouns[edit]

Compound personal pronouns are formed by adding -self or -selves to some personal pronouns.

Reflexive Pronoun[edit]

Reflexive pronoun may be used as a direct object or indirect object. It usually comes after the verb.

Intensive Pronoun[edit]

Intensive pronoun is used to emphasize that the action is done by the antecedent.

List of Reflexive and Intensive Pronouns[edit]
Person Singular Plural
First Person myself ourselves
Second Person yourself yourselves
Third Person himself, herself, itself themselves

Relative Pronouns[edit]

Relative pronouns like that, which, who, whom and whose are used to introduce most adjective clauses and to connect them to the main clause.

  • That refers to either a person, animal or thing.
  • Which refers to animals or things.
  • Who refers to persons. It is usually used when the noun it refers to is the doer of the action or when the noun it refers to is the subject within the clause.
  • Whom refers to persons. It is usually used when the noun or pronoun it refers to is the receiver of the action or when the noun or pronoun is used as the object within the clause.
  • Whose refers to persons, animals or things. It is used to denote possession.

Demonstrative Pronouns[edit]

Demonstrative pronouns like this, that, these and those are used to point out specific persons or things.

Interrogative Pronouns[edit]

Interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions. They are who, whom, whose, which and what.

Indefinite Pronouns[edit]

Indefinite pronouns are pronouns that do not refer to a particular person or group of persons.

Singular Indefinite Pronouns[edit]

another either neither other
anybody everybody nobody somebody
anyone everyone no one someone
anything everything nothing something
each much one

Plural Indefinite Pronouns[edit]

both few many several

Singular or Plural Indefinite Pronouns[edit]

all enough most plenty
any more none some