ENGLISH:PRONOUN

I. Grammar 1.4: The Pronoun THE PRONOUN You have learned how to recognize and to use various kinds of nouns. You are now ready to learn about pronouns. PRONOUNS TO REMEMBER "personal pronoun" A pronoun that shows by its form the "person" of the noun it replaces. (We will explain the meaning of "person" later in this lesson.) Sentence: "I haven't seen him today. Have you seen him?" "I," "you," and "him" are personal pronouns. "possessive pronoun" A pronoun that indicates ownership or relationship. Sentence: "Adam and Eve were very happy in their garden home." "Their" is a possessive pronoun. "intensive pronoun" A "self" pronoun that intensifies another noun or pronoun. Sentence: "God, himself, spoke." "reflexive pronoun" A "self" pronoun that serves as a direct object or the object of a preposition. Sentence: "Cain felt sorry for himself." "Himself" reflects or refers back to Cain. OTHER WORDS TO REMEMBER "antecedent" (noun) The word or words that a pronoun replaces. Sentence: "Greg pitched the ball, and Rudy hit it out of the park." "Ball" is the antecedent of "it." "confront" (verb) To come face to face with; to oppose. Sentence: "God confronted Cain with his sin." "historical" (adjective) Based on the events of history. Sentence: "The historical account of Cain and Abel teaches us some important lessons." "irresponsible" (adjective) unreliable; unwilling to accept responsibility. Sentence: "Cain was irresponsible." "jealousy" (noun) Resentment of a rival. Sentence: "Cain's jealousy led him to kill his own brother." "majesty" (noun) The dignity, greatness, and authority of a ruler. Sentence: "Worship is our response to the majesty of God." "resentment" (noun) A feeling of displeasure and anger that comes from being injured or offended. Sentence: "Resentment is like poison to the soul." "trust" (verb) To believe in; to rely on; to depend on; to have confidence in. Sentence: "Abel trusted God and obeyed his commands." "worship" (verb) To show reverence, respect, and love for God. Sentence: "We worship God, not because he demands it, but because he deserves it. WHAT IS A PRONOUN? A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. We use pronouns rather than repeating nouns again and again. Notice how strange and awkward the following sentence sounds: "Dan took Dan's hammer and saw and put Dan's hammer and saw on Dan's workbench." And notice how much better the sentence sounds when pronouns are substituted for some of the nouns: "Dan took his hammer and saw and put them on his workbench." The words used in the place of "Dan's" and "hammer and saw" are called "pronouns." There are five major classes of pronouns: (1) personal, (2) indefinite, (3) relative, (4) interrogative, and (5) demonstrative. This lesson focuses on personal pronouns. We will examine the other four types in Lesson Five. WHAT IS A PERSONAL PRONOUN? A personal pronoun is a pronoun that shows by its form the "person" of the noun it replaces. What do we mean by "person"? A noun or pronoun is in the "first person" if it refers to the person speaking. It is in the "second person" if it refers to the person spoken to. It is in the "third person" if it refers to the person or thing spoken about. Example: "I speak. You whisper. He shouts." In these sentences, "I" is first person, "you" is second person, and "he" is third person. We have been using personal pronouns ever since we started speaking English. Three of our favorite words are "I," "me," and "my." These are "first person" pronouns. A personal pronoun also shows by its form the "case" of the noun it replaces. What do we mean by "case"? If a pronoun is used as a subject in a sentence*, it is in the "nominative case." If it is used as an **object in a sentence, it is in the "objective case." If it indicates ownership or relationship, it is in the "possessive case." Examples: "My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me." The pronoun "my" indicates ownership or relationship and is in the possessive case. The pronouns "I" and "they" are used as subjects in the sentence and are in the nominative case. The pronouns "them" and "me" are objects and are in the objective case. If a personal pronoun ends with "self" or "selves" and refers back to its antecedent, it is in the "reflexive case." Example: "I am writing this myself." Notice, in the following table the various forms that personal pronouns take, depending on their "person," "case," and "number." Person Case Singular Plural First Nominative I we " " Possessive my/mine our/ours " " Objective me us " " Reflexive myself ourselves Second Nominative you you " " Possessive your/yours your/yours " " Objective you you " " Reflexive yourself yourselves Third Nominative he/she/it they " " Possessive his/her/hers/its their/theirs " " Objective him/her/it them " " Reflexive himself/herself/itself themselves Practice making sentences with the above pronouns. Examples: "I go." "You go." "She goes." "It goes." "We go." "You go." "They go." "Please go with me." "He is going with us." "I, myself, am going." "You should go, too." "The decision is yours." "She hit the ball." "It flew over the fence." "They ran after it." "She said it was hers." "They said it was theirs." "They hit her." "She hit them." THE POSSESSIVE PRONOUN A possessive pronoun is a pronoun which shows ownership or relationship. Some possessive pronouns are used before nouns, while others are used alone. Possessive pronouns that are used before nouns are "my," "our," "your," "his," "her," "its," and "their." Sentence: "Is this your car?" (Possessive pronouns that come before nouns act as adjectives and are also called "possessive adjectives.") Possessive pronouns that cannot be used before nouns are as follows: "mine," "ours," "yours," "hers," and "theirs." These possessive pronouns stand alone. Sentences: "This car is not mine." "We sold ours." "Is it yours?" "No, it is hers." The possessive pronoun "his" can be used before a noun, as in, "This is his money." Or it can stand alone, as in, "The money is his." Possessive pronouns do not take an apostrophe ('). The possessive form of "who" is "whose," not "who's." Example: "Whose car is that?" People sometimes confuse possessive pronouns (whose, its, your, their) with pronoun- verb contractions (who's [who is], it's [it is], you're [you are], they're [they are]). You can avoid confusion by remembering one simple rule: "Possessive pronouns never take an apostrophe." SELF PRONOUNS Some pronouns end in "self" or "selves." myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, itself, and themselves. When a "self" pronoun emphasizes another noun or pronoun, it is an intensive pronoun. Example: "God, himself, confronted Cain." In this sentence, "himself" refers to God and emphasizes God. God is the subject, and Cain is the object. "Himself" stresses and intensifies God. When a "self" pronoun serves as the object of a preposition (such as "at," "by," "for," "in," or "on"), it is a reflexive pronoun. Example: "Cain felt sorry for himself." In this sentence, "himself" is the object of the preposition "for." Therefore, in this sentence, "himself" is a reflexive pronoun. Pronouns Must Agree with their Antecedents The word "antecedent" means "coming before." The antecedent of a pronoun is a word or group of words to which a pronoun refers. Example: "When Abel grew up, he became a keeper of sheep." "He" refers back to Abel. Therefore, "Abel" is the antecedent of "he." A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in gender, person, and number. In the example above, the antecedent "Abel" is masculine, third person, singular. Therefore, the pronoun must also be masculine, third person, and singular. It would be incorrect to say, "When Abel grew up, she became a keeper of sheep." It would also be incorrect to say that "Eve was not as happy as he has been in the garden of Eden." Copyright ©1990–2018 World English Institute, All Rights Reserved