Pronouns
There are different types of pronouns:
Subject pronouns
| I | You | He | She | It | We | You | They |
Subject pronouns substitute the subject of the sentence (the person or thing that does the action).
Example :
Mary is my sister. She is my sister.
My mother and father live in NY. They live in NY.
Note that we use he and she only for people. We use it for things and animals. If the animal is our pet, we can still use he/she.
Do the quiz here.
Object pronouns
| me | you | him | her | it | us | you | them |
Object pronouns substitute the object of the sentence.
Example:
John met Mary yesterday. John met her yesterday.
He told Anna and Chris to close the door. He told them to close the door.
Note that we use him and her only for people. We use it for things and animals. If the animal is our pet, we can still use him/her.
Do the quiz here.
Possessive adjectives
| my | your | his | her | its | our | your | their |
Possessive adjectives are used to show that somebody possesses, owns or has something. There is always a noun (a thing or a person) after the possessive adjectives.
Example:
This is my house.
Our car is blue.
Their children live in NY.
Do the quiz here.
Possessive pronouns
| mine | yours | his | hers | – | ours | yours | theirs |
Possessive pronouns are also used to show that somebody possesses, owns or has something. However, there isn’t a noun (a thing or a person) after them. The noun goes before the possessive pronoun, it can be substituted with a subject pronoun or it can be omitted.
Example:
This house is ours.
It is ours.
Whose house is this? Ours.
Do the quiz here.
Demonstrative pronouns
| singular | plural | |
| near | this | these |
| far | that | those |
Demonstrative pronouns are pronouns that point to a specific thing/things.
If the object/s are near us, we use this for singular and these for plural nouns.
If the object/s are further away, we use that for singular and those for plural nouns.
Indefinite pronouns
| type of sentence | person | person | thing |
| positive | somebody | someone | something |
| negative and interrogative | anybody | anyone | anything |
| with positive verb (negative meaning) | nobody | no one | nothing |
| positive and interrogative | everybody | everyone | everything |
We use indefinite pronouns to refer to people or things without saying who or what they are.
Examples:
There is somebody at the door.
Is there anybody at the door?
There isn’t anybody at the door.
There is no one at the door.
Everybody is ready.
Is everybody ready?
Note that something, somebody and something are used in interrogative sentences when they are offers or requests.
Example:
Can I have something to eat? (request)
Would you like something to drink? (offer)
Can somebody help me? (request)
Relative pronouns
| who/that | refers to people |
| which/that | refers to things |
| whose | shows possession |
We use relative pronouns to introduce relative clauses. A relative clause gives information about which person or thing the speaker is referring to.
Example:
The woman who made the cake is my friend.
The car which you saw in front of their house is very expensive.
The boy whose father is an architect lives up the street.
Reflexive pronouns
| myself | yourself | himself | herself | itself | ourselves | yourselves | themselves |
We use the reflexive pronouns:
When the subject and the object in the sentence are one and the same person/thing.
Example:
He hurt himself badly.
To emphasize the subject of the sentence.
Example:
The President himself visited the new gallery.
To show that we do something alone, without any help.
Example:
I painted the fence (by) myself.