Pronouns: A Comprehensive Overview

Definition: A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun or noun phrase to avoid repetition and enhance the flow of a sentence. Pronouns play a crucial role in language by simplifying communication and improving sentence structure.

Types of Pronouns:

  1. Personal Pronouns:

    • Subject Pronouns: Perform the action in a sentence.
      • Examples: I, you, he, she, it, we, they.
    • Object Pronouns: Receive the action of the verb.
      • Examples: me, you, him, her, it, us, them.
    • Possessive Pronouns: Indicate ownership.
      • Examples: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs.

  1. Demonstrative Pronouns:

    • Point out specific items in a sentence.
    • Examples: this, that, these, those.

  2. Relative Pronouns:

    • Introduce relative clauses and connect them to a noun.
    • Examples: who, whom, whose, which, that.

  3. Interrogative Pronouns:

    • Used to ask questions.
    • Examples: who, whom, whose, which, what.

  4. Indefinite Pronouns:

    • Refer to nonspecific people or things.
    • Examples: all, another, any, anybody, each, nobody, several, someone.

  5. Reciprocal Pronouns:

    • Indicate mutual actions or feelings.
    • Examples: each other, one another.

  6. Reflexive Pronouns:

    • Reflect the action back onto the subject.
    • Examples: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.

  7. Intensive Pronouns:

    • Emphasize a preceding noun.
    • Examples: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.
 

Golden rules of Pronoun

  1. Words such as as good as, as well as, as soon as, as beautiful as, as intelligent as, etc are followed by
    nominative case.
    e.g. – When it comes to providing news, no one
    is as good as he.
    – In studies he is as good as he.
  2. 2, 3, 1 Rule The second person should come before
    the third and the third person before the first. This
    case applies to singular pronouns only.
    e.g. – I, You and He are good friends. (✗)
    – You, He and I are good friends.
  3. 1, 2, 3 Rule 2, 3, 1 becomes 1, 2, 3 when we are
    talking about plural pronouns.
    e.g. – We, You, and They will go to the party.
    – We, You and They will take dinner at
    our/ their / your house.
  4. The component of the verb to be (is, am, are, was, were,
    will, shall), when it is expressed by a pronoun, should be
    in the nominative case.
    To be means
    Is : He, She, It
    Am : I
    Are : We, You, They
    Was : I, He, She, It
    Were : We, You, They
    Will : You, He, She, It, They
    Shall : I, We
    e.g. – It is me / I.
    – It will be he / him who is going to win.
    – Was it her / she who did it for you.
  5. When a pronoun stands for a collective noun, it
    must be in the neuter gender. But if the collective
    noun denotes separation or division, the pronoun
    used is plural.
    e.g. – The jury gave its decision unanimously.
    – The jury were divided in their opinion.
  6. 9. When two or more nouns are joined by ‘and’, the
    pronoun used would be plural.
    e.g. – Ram and Mohan went to their school.
    – Suresh and members of his family have
    completed their work.
  7. When two or more singular nouns are joined by
    or, either-or or neither-nor, the pronoun and the
    verb should be singular.
    e.g. – Either Raj or Amar is doing his duty.
  8. Whenever one singular and one plural noun are
    used with either-or or neither-nor, the plural
    noun always comes second. In this case, the verb
    and the pronoun both become plural.
    e.g. – Neither Amit nor his friends was / were
    present in their house.
  9. While writing question tag, the subject and verb
    must be according to the main sentence.
    e.g. – Our minister is intelligent, isn’t he?
    – The boys are not enjoying themselves, are
    they?
    – They went to Delhi yesterday, didn’t
    they?
  10. One, if used in a sentence, always repeats itself.
    e.g. – One must respect his / one’s country for 
    one’s sake.
    – One must obey  one’s elders.
  11. When we are not talking specifically about females, only
    masculine gender is used.
    e.g. – Everyone was getting ready for his  show.
    – Everyone of the Miss India contestants was getting
    ready for her show.
  12. ‘Either’ is replaced by ‘anyone’ when we are talking about
    more than two persons or things. Same is the case with
    ‘none’ or ‘neither’.
    e.g. – I couldn’t contact  anyone of the three.
    – Anyone of the three can come in.
    – None  of his body parts is defective.
  13. ‘Each other’ should be used in speaking of two persons
    or things, ‘one another’ in speaking of more than two.
    e.g. – We should love one another.