Pronoun (Types and Examples)

The pronoun is used as a substitute for a noun. We do not like to say,

“Sarah is an intelligent girl. Sarah stood first in the college. Sarah is now planning for higher studies.”

Instead we prefer to say,

“Sarah is an intelligent girl. She stood first in the college. She is now planning for higher studies.”

You can notice that the pronoun ‘She’ in these sentences is substituting for the noun ‘Sarah’.

Types of Pronouns

The Kinds of Pronouns

There are following types of pronouns.

  1. Personal Pronoun
  2. Interrogative Pronoun
  3. Relative Pronoun
  4. Demonstrative Pronoun
  5. Indefinite Pronoun
  6. Reflexive Pronoun

1. Personal Pronoun

Personal nouns indicate —

  1. First Person —- the speaker (For example,  I, me, mine, my, myself,  we, us, our, ours, ourselves) 
  2. Second Person —- the person spoken to (You, your, yours, yourself)
  3. Third Person  —- the person spoken of (It, its, itself, they, them, their, theirs, themselves)

2. Interrogative Pronoun

Interrogative pronouns ask questions. They are who, whom, whose, which, what, for example, Who went with her?

3. Relative Pronoun

A relative pronoun refers to some noun going before and in doing so it joins two sentences together. Read the following sentences

“I met Johnson. Johnson had returned from France.”

These sentences can be joined together with the word ‘who’.

I met Johnson who had returned from France. The word ‘who’ is, therefore, a relative pronoun as it refers to some noun (here Johnson) going before.

4. Demonstrative Pronoun

Demonstrative pronouns point out the subjects to which they refer. They are: this, these, that, those. For example, Both computers are good but this is better than that. Here ‘this’ is a demonstrative pronoun.

5. Indefinite Pronoun

Indefinite pronouns do not refer to any person or thing in particular. They refer to them in a general way. For example, One should preserve one’s honor. Here ‘one’ does not refer to some particular person.

Examples of some commonly used indefinite pronouns are; one, none, any, anybody, everybody, everyone, such, someone, no one, others, some, neither, either etc.

6. Reflexive Pronoun

Reflexive pronouns are formed by adding ‘self’ to a personal pronoun; myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, itself, themselves. They are used for two purposes:

  1. To show that the person (or thing) does something to himself (or itself). e.g. 
  2. To make the pronouns more emphatic. e.g. I myself saw him.

Common Errors

INCORRECTCORRECT
You are taller than me.You are taller than I am.
She is as clever as him.She is as clever as he is.
One should keep his promises.One should keep one’s promises.
Each of these girls are talkative.Each of these girls is talkative.
I, you and he will help the poor.You, he and I will help the poor.
Let I play.Let me play.
We are learning his lesson.We are learning our lesson.
This is between you and they.This is between you and them.
They solve their problems ourselves.They solve their problems themselves.

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