What are pronouns ?
The words which are used in place of nouns , instead of using the them again and again are called Pronouns .
Or
Pronouns are the words that are used in place of nouns .
Pronouns means for noun .
Examples of pronouns :
Some of the common examples of Pronouns are – I , we , you , they , those
Read the following sentences :
Saniya Mirza is a sportsperson . Saniya plays tennis .
The tennis ball lying on the bench belongs to Saniya Mirza.
Instead of using the nouns again and again we can replace them with Pronouns and rewrite in the following manner :
Saniya Mirza is a sportsperson. She plays Tennis .
The tennis ball lying on the bench belongs to hers .
Here , Pronouns are she and hers
in the above sentences ,
The noun Saniya Mirza is the Antecedent of the pronouns she and hers .
What are Antecedent ?
In a sentence, the noun for which a pronoun stands is called it’s Antecedent i.e., the nouns for which Pronouns we used are Antecedent.
See above examples.
Kinds of Pronouns :
There are ten Kinds of Pronouns , which are discussed below :
1) Personal Pronouns:
The Pronouns which replaces names of persons or things are called Personal Pronouns.
Personal pronouns are I, me , we , us , you , he , him , she , her , it , they and them.
Example :
( a) Richa is a new employee . Earlier she was working in Mumbai.
Uses of Personal Pronouns :
The personal pronouns refers to three persons namely first , second and third person and genders namely Male(Masculine) , female(Feminine) and neuter.
First person – the person speaking example I , we
Second person – the person spoken to e.g. you
Third person – the person that the speaker is taking about .e.g. he , she , it , they
Masculine – he , him , his , himself
Feminine – she, hers , her , herself
Neuter – it , itself
Masculine and feminine – myself , ourselves , yourself , yourselves
All genders – they , them , theirs , themselves .
2) Possessive pronouns :
The Pronouns which shows possesion or ownership are called as Possessive pronouns.
Possessive pronouns are mine, ours , yours , his , hers and theirs .
Example:
•The magazines lying on the bench is mine and those on the desk are hers.
Here , mine and hers indicates possesion hence they are Possessive pronouns.
Usage :
Possessive pronouns indicates ownership or possesion.
3) Demonstrative Pronouns:
The Pronouns which are used to indicate the noun in a sentence are called as Demonstrative Pronouns. Latin word Demonstrate means , to show clearly.
Examples:
this pencil , that house, those apples , etc.
Usages of demonstrative pronouns :
• to point out to people or thing
•to separate a category
• when a statement or solution is referred.
4)Interrogative Pronouns :
The Pronouns that are used to ask the questions are called Interrogative Pronouns.
Some of them are – who , whom, whose, what , which .
Examples :
(a) Who is known as the Father of Nation (India) ?
(b) Whom are you visiting today?
Uses of Interrogative Pronouns:
• Who is used as a subject and the object of a verb or preposition.
• Whose is used to indicate possesion and used for persons and things
• Which is used for both persons or things ,when the person who will answer has to make a choice among different possibilities.
• What is used for a thing
5)Reflexive Pronouns :
Those pronouns which reflect upon or go back to the subject are are called Reflexive pronouns.
Example:
• She hurt herself accidentally
• They will inform you themselves
Usages of Reflexive pronouns :
• Reflexive pronouns are are most commonly used when the subject or object of the words are the same person or thing
• Reflexive pronouns are used after verbs with prepositions to clarify which person on thing we are talking about.
6) Emphatic pronouns :
Those pronouns are reflexive pronouns which are used for emphasis are called emphatic pronouns.
Example :
I made the pastry myself.
I myself cooked the lunch.
Usages of emphatic pronouns:
They are used for the nouns.
7) Relative pronouns :
The pronouns which are used to join a phrase or clause with one another in a sentence are called Relative pronouns.
Examples of relative pronouns :
Who , who, whom , whose , which and that are examples of relative pronouns.
Usages of relative pronouns :
• Who and whom are used for persons only
• Whose is used for both persons and things
• Which is used for things and animals
• That is used after both objects and persons and sometimes that comes after the words all only nothing and none .
8) Distributive pronouns :
Pronouns which are used to denote persons or things taken as single or in groups are called Distributive pronouns.
Examples:
Either , Neither ,every ,each , both and all are examples of distributive pronouns.
Usages of distributive pronouns :
For whole amounts – both , all
For separate items – Every, each , either , neither.
9) Reciprocal pronouns :
Those pronouns which refer to pronouns that indicate actions going in one direction and also in the opposite direction are called reciprocal pronouns.
Examples of reciprocal pronouns :
(a) The headmaster scolded Ritu and Aman since they were talking to each other.
(b) We should help one another in problems .
Usages of reciprocal pronouns :
• Each other is used when two people are involved.
• One another is used when more than two people are involved.
10) Indefinite pronouns :
The pronouns which refer to one or more unspecified beings , objects or places are called indefinite pronouns.
Example :
Sumit has bought everything he might need for the picnic.
Usages of Indefinite pronouns :
They are used for one or more unspecified objects or things.
