Pronouns replace nouns to keep sentences flowing. Personal pronouns can be confusing, but the subjective case is used for the subject and the objective case for the object. Other types of pronouns include demonstrative, relative, interrogative, indefinite, intensive, and reflexive. Pronouns are important, but it’s important to ensure clarity in their use.
A pronoun is a word used as a placeholder for a different noun, noun phrase, or pronoun. Pronouns are usually used in writing and speaking as a way to keep the flow of words flowing by reducing the repeated use of the entire subject or object word.
Pronouns usually come after the noun they are replacing, as in the sentence:
Lily smiled at him, and as she did her hair fell in front of her face.
In some regional speech and less formal writing, the pronoun may precede the noun it is replacing, but in this case it should be made very explicit which noun is being replaced. A dialectical example of a previous pronoun is:
She smiled at him, Lily did, her hair falling in front of her face.
It’s important to note that its instances in the examples above are not pronouns, especially possessive pronouns. Rather, they are possessive adjectives.
There are many different types of pronouns, but the most important ones include the personal, demonstrative, relative, interrogative, indefinite, intensive, and reflexive.
A personal pronoun replaces a specific thing or person, which can be the subject or object of the sentence. A personal pronoun can also indicate possession. The use of the personal subject pronoun and the personal object pronoun is one of the lessons many people have to learn when trying to speak grammatically, as exemplified in the I/me situation. The word I is used in situations where the first person personal pronoun replaces the subject of the sentence, while the word me is used when the first person personal pronoun replaces the object of the sentence.
The common confusion comes when another person is matched with the first person pronoun and speakers are uncertain whether to use I or me. For example: the sentence John and I went to the garden. is ungrammatical, because the pronoun in this case replaces the subject of the sentence — John and I went to the garden, the garden didn’t go to us. On the other hand, in a sentence like The waiter gave our food to me and John. the use of me is appropriate: in this case the waiter is the subject of the sentence, and both the food and the sentence John and I are objects.
For most pronouns, like we/we, people have no trouble determining when to use the objective case and when to use the subjective case – it would be really weird to hear someone say We went to the garden. The only other case that stumps most people is who/who, which has mostly been resolved by the acceptance of who for both subjective and objective cases.
In addition to personal pronouns, a pronoun can be used to replace many other types of nouns. Demonstrative pronouns, for example, are used to refer to nouns that are close or distant in space or time. The demonstrative pronouns are this and these for close nouns, and that and those for distant nouns.
The relative pronouns are the words who, who, which and that. They are used to join two different clauses or sentences, as in the sentence The most talented writer is not necessarily the published one.
Interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions. These pronouns are who, what, who and who. An example can be seen in the sentence Who is your favorite actor?
Indefinite pronouns are often actually indefinite adjectives, and the classification really depends on who you ask. The list of indefinite pronouns is quite long, but in essence they are pronouns that refer to a non-specific thing. An example would be in the sentence that John gave Glenda everything from the car.
Intensive pronouns are used to reinforce the noun or pronoun that follows. Intensive pronouns are not commonly used in modern writing or speech, except for formal occasions and speech. An example of an intensive pronoun is the sentence He himself did what was necessary.
Reflexive pronouns are used to explicitly refer to the object of the clause. They are words like himself, herself, yourself, yourself or myself, as in the phrase John remembered her fondly, later wondering where it all went wrong.
Pronouns are an important part of English, as they help keep sentences flowing without getting bogged down in verbiage. It is important to remember, however, that a pronoun is only as useful as it is easy to trace the noun origin. Sentences with multiple objects and repeated use of pronouns that could refer to any of the objects should be avoided: pronouns are meant to enhance understanding, not detract from it.
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