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Part of Speech (POS)
Part 2
Pronouns
A Pronun is a word that replaces a noun in a sentence. Pronouns are used so that our language is not cumbersome with the same nouns being repeated over and over in a paragraph.
Some examples of Pronouns include:
● I , me, mine, myself, she, her, hers, herself, we, us, ours and ourselves.
Pronouns tend to come in sets of four, all referring to the same person, group or thing.
Example: He, him, his, and himself. All refer to a male person or something belonging to him.
Avoid starting a sentence with the pronoun “This” or “That” unless it is followed by a noun or refers clearly and directly to a noun in the previous sentence.
There are many different types of pronuns, each serving a different purpose in a sentence.
This workshop will cover eleven types of pronouns.
1. Personal pronouns = A pronoun that is associated primarily with a particular person in the grammatical sense. e.g. – he, we, she, you, they etc.
2. Subject pronouns = What the sentence is about. It functions as the subject of a clause or sentence. e.g. – I, we, he, she, it, you, they. An example of a subject pronoun is : “Kamala really makes me laugh. She is so funny”.
3. Objective pronouns = What is affected by the action of the subject. Object pronouns are used instead of nouns, usually because we already know what the object is. It makes the sentence easier to read and understand and avoids repetition. Object pronouns are usually used after a verb or preposition. e.g. – She listens to them carefully. (Them = object pronoun).
4. Possessive pronouns = demonstrate ownership. Possessive pronouns include – my, mine, our, ours, its, his, her, hers, their, theirs, your, yours = all words that demonstrate ownership.
5. Indefinite pronouns = those referring to one or more unspecified objects, beings or places. They are called “indefinite” simply because they do not indicate the exact object, being, or place to which they refer.
Indefinite pronouns include partitives such as: any, anybody, anyone, either, neither, nobody, no, someone, and some; they also include universals such as: every, all, both, and each; finally they include quantifiers including: any, some several, enough, many, and much.
Example
● Somebody ate my sandwich.
● Somebody =indefinite pronoun
6. Relative pronouns = is one which is used to refer to nouns mentioned previously, whether they are people, places, things, animals or ideas. Relative pronouns can be used to join two sentences.
There are only a few relative pronouns in the english language. The most common are:
which, that, whose, whoever, whomever, who and whom.
7. Intensive pronouns = are used to add emphasis to the subject or antecedent of the sentence. Intensive pronoun is defined as a pronoun that ends in “self” or “selves”.
Example:
● I myself like a little stroll after dinner.
● myself = intensive pronoun
● We want to hear the man himself speak.
● himself = intensive pronoun
8. Demonstrative pronouns = a pronoun that is used to point to something specific within a sentence. These pronouns can indicate iteams in space or time, and they can be either singular or plural.
When used to represent a thing or things, demonstrative pronouns can be either near or far in distance or time.
● Near in time or distance = this, these
● Far in time or distance = that, those
9. Interrogative pronouns = a pronoun which is used to make asking questions easy.
The five interrogative pronouns are:
What, which, who, whom, and whose.
10. Reflective pronoun = type of pronoun that is preceded by the adverb, adjective, pronoun, or noun to which it refers, so long as that antecedent is located within the same clause e.g. – I was in a hurry, so I washed the car myself. (Myself) = reflective pronoun.
Reflexive pronouns end in -self or -selves. They refer back to the subject forms of personal pronouns. Example:
He didn’t cook it himself. Someone eles cooked it for him.
Subject pronoun e.g.,- reflexive pronoun e.g. –
I | myself
you singular | yourself
he | himself
she | herself
it | itself
one | oneself
we | ourselves
you (plural) | yourselves
they | themselves
11. Reciprocal Pronouns: are used for actions or feelings that are reciprocated. The two most common reciprocal pronouns are each other and one another.
e.g., – They like one another.
They talk to each other
like they’re babies.
For additional information about today’s online writing workshop, please feel free to email us at: