PRONOUN

What is Pronoun –

A Pronoun is a word which is used instead of a noun.  Use of Pronouns  Compare the two groups of sentences:  (a) Sita is a good girl. Sita always comes first.  Sita obeys the teacher. Everybody praises Sita.  (b) Sita is a good girl. She always comes first.  She obeys the teacher. Everybody praises her.  You will note that the second sentence sounds better. She or her has  been used in place of noun Sita. She or her is a Pronoun. Pronoun  means 'for-a-noun.'  Kinds of Pronoun  Pronouns are of many kinds. Pronouns

Type of Pronoun –
there are different types of pronouns which are

1. Personal Pronouns
2. Reflexive Pronouns
3. Emphatic Pronouns
4. Demonstrative Pronouns
5. Indefinite Pronouns
6. Distributive Pronouns
7. Relative Pronouns
8. Interogative Pronoun

My son is an ardent fan of Amitabh Bachchan. He told me ‘dad… he is a great Actor. Amitabh is from Uttar Pradesh. Amitabh is called God of Acting. Amitabh won many awards.

You can see that the proper noun ‘Amitabh’ gets repeated in every sentence and this makes it sound odd. Instead of repeatedly using the proper noun we can use the something a pronoun. So let us transform the above sentence a bit and make it sound better.

He told me ‘dad… Amitabh is a great Actor. He is from Uttar pradesh. He is called God of Acting. He won many awards.

Here the word ‘he‘ is the pronoun used instead of ‘Amitabh’.

So come on let us discuss more!!!!

1.Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns are of three types. They are

First Person Pronoun
Second Person Pronoun
Third Person Pronoun

First Person Pronouns:

First person pronouns are common for both masculine and feminine.

The singular form of these pronouns are ‘Me’, ‘My’ and ‘Mine’.

The plural form of these pronouns are ‘we’, ‘our (or) ours’ and ‘us’.

Now look at Examples

Ex – My book is on the table.

In this sentence, the word ‘my’ is a pronoun and it is used to represent the ownership of the particular object in this case, a book.

Now look at this example,

Ex – Our Site have many unique features.

Here the word ‘our’ is a pronoun and it is used to represent a particular group of people who are involved in the project.

Second Person Pronouns:

These pronouns are used to represent both masculine and feminine.

Second person pronouns are ‘you’, ‘your’ and ‘yours’.

look at the following example,

Ex – You are very beautiful!

Here the word ‘you’ is a pronoun at it is used to represent the person opposite to you or next to you.

Third person pronouns:

There are different pronouns used for masculine, feminine and neuter gender.

Masculine Pronouns: He, Him, His

Feminine Pronouns: She, her, hers

Neutral: It, Its

Plural is the same for all genders.

Plural of third person pronouns are ‘they’, ‘their’, ‘theirs’ and ‘them‘.

look at this example,

Ex – They are going for a movie.

Here the word ‘they’ is the pronoun which is used to represent a group of people who are not next to you or not directly connected to a particular situation.

2. Reflexive Pronoun:

When the suffix -self is added to personal pronouns like my, your, them, it etc, we call them compound pronouns.

These compound pronouns are also known as reflexive pronouns if they are used in such a way that the action defined in the sentence turns back at the subject.

See the Example –

I hurt myself.

In this sentence, the word I is the subject and the word myself is a compound pronoun. The compound pronoun used here is reflexive in nature because it indicates the subject or in a simple way makes us go back to the subject.

Ex – The boys hid themselves.

In this sentence, the word boys is the subject and the word themselves is a compound pronoun. This compound pronoun is reflexive in nature because it try to indicate the subject or looks back at the subject.

3. Emphatic Pronoun:

The compound pronouns such as myself, themselves, itself, herself etc can act as emphatic pronouns.

In a sentence, if a compound pronoun used tries to emphasis on the subject it is known as emphatic pronoun.

Ex – I will do it myself.

In this sentence, the word I is the subject and the word myself is a compound pronoun. Here ‘I will do it’ is a complete sentence which makes us understand that the subject I will do the work. But, the word myself tries add more force to the subject.

Ex – I myself heard the remark.

In this sentence, the word I is the subject and the word myself is a compound pronoun. Here, ‘I heard the remark’ is a complete sentence but myself is used to add more force to the subject .

4. Demonstrative Pronoun:

Words such as ‘this’, ‘these’, ‘those’, ‘that’, ‘such’ etc which tries to point out an object are known as demonstrative pronouns.

Ex – I have heard your explanations. These are merely excuses.

In the above example, the word explanations is a noun and the word these is a pronoun. Here the word these is a demonstrative pronoun because it points out the noun.

5. Indefinite Pronoun:

Words which refer to a person or thing in a general way but not in particular are known as indefinite pronouns.

Some of indefinite pronouns are ‘one’, ‘none’, ‘somebody’, ‘nobody’, ‘few’, ‘many’, ‘others’, ‘any’, ‘anybody’, ‘everyone’ etc.

Ex – None of his poems are well known.

In the above sentence, the word poems is a noun and the word none is a pronoun. The word none tries to denote all the poems but in a general manner and does not point out any particular poem. Hence this is called indefinite pronoun.

6. Distributive Pronoun:

Words which refer to persons or things but one at a time are known as distributive pronouns.

Generally ‘each’, ‘either’, and ‘neither’ are called distributive pronouns.

Ex – Either of these roads leads to the railway station.

Here the word either is a pronoun and the word roads is a noun. This sentence tells us that there are two roads and both roads lead to the railway station. The word either is used to denote the noun roads which is in plural form. This pronoun points out the noun but one at a time. Hence it is known as distributive pronoun.

7. Relative Pronoun:

If a pronoun tries to relate to a noun which is mentioned earlier in a sentence (antecedent), then this pronoun is called relative pronoun.

Words like ‘who’, ‘whose’ and ‘whom’ are known as relative pronouns based on their usage in a sentence.

Ex – These are the boys whom all praise.

In this sentence, the word whom is a pronoun. It denotes a group or a set of boys. Hence it tries to relate or connect to a noun which is mentioned earlier in the sentence. So, it is called relative pronoun.

8. Interogative Pronouns

We use interrogative pronouns to ask questions. They are: who, which, whom, what and whose. These are also known as wh-words. Questions using these are called wh-questions:

Who called last night?

Which keys are yours?

Whom do I ask for at the desk?

What did you do when the electricity failed?

Whose watch is this?