Pronouns

What is a pronoun?

A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun. It saves us from repeating the same noun again and again.

Without pronouns: Meera said Meera would bring Meera’s book.

With pronouns: Meera said she would bring her book.

Antecedent: The noun a pronoun refers to is called its antecedent. In “Ravi lost his pen”, the antecedent of “his” is Ravi.

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns stand for persons or things. They change form by person, number, gender and case.

Person	Subject	Object	Example
1st (speaker)	I, we	me, us	I called them.
2nd (spoken to)	you	you	You helped me.
3rd (spoken about)	he, she, it, they	him, her, it, them	She met him.

Remember: Use a subject pronoun as the doer of the action (He runs) and an object pronoun as the receiver (Help him).

Possessive pronouns

Possessive pronouns show ownership and stand alone in place of a noun.

This pen is mine.

The red bag is hers, and the blue one is theirs.

Possessive pronoun or possessive adjective?

Possessive adjective (before a noun)	Possessive pronoun (stands alone)
my book	mine
your book	yours
his / her book	his / hers
our book	ours
their book	theirs

Spelling trap: Possessive pronouns never take an apostrophe. Write yours, hers, ours, theirs, not “your’s” or “her’s”.

Reflexive and emphatic pronouns

Both end in -self or -selves: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.

Reflexive pronoun

The action goes back to the doer. The sentence would be incomplete without it.

She hurt herself while playing.

Emphatic pronoun

It adds emphasis. The sentence still makes sense without it.

I myself saw the accident.

Avoid: There is no word “hisself” or “theirselves”. Use himself and themselves.

Demonstrative pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns point out a person or thing.

	Near	Far
Singular	this	that
Plural	these	those

This is my school.

Those are yours.

Quick test: If “this” or “that” comes before a noun (“this book”), it is an adjective. If it stands alone (“This is mine”), it is a pronoun.

Interrogative pronouns

Interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions.

Pronoun	Used for	Example
who	Person (subject)	Who broke the glass?
whom	Person (object)	Whom did you meet?
whose	Ownership	Whose bag is this?
what	Things	What is your name?
which	Choice from a set	Which do you prefer?

Relative pronouns

Relative pronouns join a clause to a noun or pronoun and refer back to it.

The girl who won the prize is my cousin.

This is the book that I told you about.

The man whose car was stolen called the police.

Pronoun	Refers to
who, whom, whose	People
which	Things and animals
that	People, animals and things

Remember: The interrogative “who” asks a question. The relative “who” joins two parts of a sentence.

Indefinite pronouns

Indefinite pronouns refer to people or things in general, not to a particular one.

About	Examples
People	someone, anyone, everyone, no one, nobody, somebody
Things	something, anything, everything, nothing
Quantity	all, some, any, none, few, many, several, both, each, either, neither

Everyone is welcome.

Nothing is impossible.

Both were late.

Agreement: Everyone, everybody, each, someone and nobody take a singular verb. Say “Everyone is here”, not “Everyone are here”.

Case, agreement and common mistakes

Case

Subject case: I, he, she, we, they, who
Object case: me, him, her, us, them, whom

Common mistakes

Wrong	Right	Why
Me and Ravi went home.	Ravi and I went home.	“I” is the subject.
This is between you and I.	This is between you and me.	After a preposition, use the object form.
The pen is your’s.	The pen is yours.	No apostrophe in possessive pronouns.
Everyone have finished.	Everyone has finished.	Everyone is singular.
He hurt hisself.	He hurt himself.	The word is “himself”.
Who did you invite?	Whom did you invite?	“Whom” is the object of “invite”.

Polite order: Put the other person first and yourself last: “Ravi and I”, “you and me”.

Check yourself

Name the kind of each underlined pronoun. Answers are below.

She is my teacher.
The house on the corner is ours.
He taught himself to swim.
Those are my shoes.
Who opened the window?
The boy who came first got a prize.
Everyone enjoyed the trip.

Show answers

1. Personal 2. Possessive 3. Reflexive 4. Demonstrative 5. Interrogative 6. Relative 7. Indefinite