Types of Pronouns

Types of Pronouns

A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun in a sentence. Pronouns are used so that our language is not cumbersome with the same nouns being repeated over and over in a paragraph. Some examples of pronouns include I, me, mine, myself, she, her, hers, herself, we, us, ours and ourselves. You may have noticed that they tend to come in sets of four, all referring to the same person, group or thing.

• He, him, his and himself, for example, all refer to a male person or something belonging to him
• They, them, theirs and themselves all refer to a group or something belonging to a group, and so on.

The truth is that there are many different types of pronouns, each serving a different purpose in a sentence.

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns can be the subject of a clause or sentence. They are: I, he, she, it, they, we, and you. Example: “They went to the store.”

Personal pronouns can also be objective, where they are the object of a verb, preposition, or infinitive phrase. They are: me, her, him, it, you, them, and us. Example: “David gave the gift to her.”

Possession can be shown by personal pronouns, like: mine, his, hers, ours, yours, its, and theirs. Example: “Is this mine or yours?”

Subject Pronouns

Subject pronouns are often (but not always) found at the beginning of a sentence. More precisely, the subject of a sentence is the person or thing that lives out the verb.

• I owe that bookie $3,000. – I am living out that debt. I is the subject pronoun.
• He and I had a fight. – This sentence has two subjects because he and I were both involved in the fight.
• He broke my kneecaps. – You get the idea.
• To him, I must now pay my children's college funds. – If you'll notice, the verb in this sentence – the action – is "pay." Although I is not at the beginning of the sentence, it is the person living out the action and is, therefore, the subject.

Object Pronouns

By contrast, objects and object pronouns indicate the recipient of an action or motion. They come after verbs and prepositions (to, with, for, at, on, beside, under, around, etc.).

• The bookie showed me a crowbar and told me to pay him immediately.
• I begged him for more time.
• He said he'd given me enough time already.
• I tried to dodge the crowbar, but he hit me with it anyway.
• Just then, the police arrived and arrested us.
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Possessive Adjectives vs. Possessive Pronouns

Pronominal possessive adjectives include the following: my, your, our, their, his, her and its. They are sort of pronouns in that they refer to an understood noun, showing possession by that noun of something. They are technically adjectives, though, because they modify a noun that follows them.

• My money is all gone.
• I gambled it all away on your race horse.
• His jockey was too fat.

In all of these examples, there is a noun (money, race horse, jockey) that has not been replaced with a pronoun. Instead, an adjective is there to show whose money, horse and jockey we’re talking about.

Possessive pronouns, on the other hand – mine, yours, ours, theirs, his, hers, its – are truly pronouns because they refer to a previously named or understood noun. They stand alone, not followed by any other noun. For comparison's sake, look at this sentence:

• You have your vices, and I have mine.

There are two types of pronouns here: subject (you/I) and possessive (mine). There's also a possessive adjective (your). We'll deal with the subject pronouns momentarily, but for now, just look at the others.

Your is followed by the noun, vices, so although we know that your refers to you, it is not the noun or the noun substitute (pronoun). Vices is the noun. In the second half of the sentence, however, the noun and the possessive adjective have both been replaced with one word – the pronoun, mine. Because it stands in the place of the noun, mine is a true pronoun whereas your is an adjective that must be followed by a noun.

Demonstrative Pronouns

There are five demonstrative pronouns: these, those, this, that, and such. They focus attention on the nouns that are replacing. Examples: “Such was his understanding.” “Those are totally awesome.”

Reflexive Pronouns

There is one more type of pronoun, and that is the reflexive pronoun. These are the ones that end in “self” or "selves." They are object pronouns that we use when the subject and the object are the same noun.

• I told myself not to bet all my money on one horse.
• The bookie hurt himself chasing me through the alley.

We also use them to emphasize the subject.

Usually, bookies send an employee to collect their money for them, but since I owed so much, he himself came to my house.