KINDS OF PRONOUNS

A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun in a sentence.

Peter is absent because he is ill.
Pronouns I, me, mine, myself, she, her, hers, herself, we, us, ours and ourselves are all referring
to the same person, group or thing.
He, him, his and himself, 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.

Subjective Pronoun Possessive Pronoun Objective Pronoun

I My/ mine me
We Our/ ours Us
You Your/ yours You
You Your/ yours You
He His Him
She Her/ hers Her
It its It
They Their/ theirs them
PERSONAL PRONOUNS:
They are pronouns which are used instead of persons or things.
Personal pronouns can be the subject of a clause or sentence. They are: I, he, she, it, they,
we, and you.
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.
David gave the gift to her.
Possession can be shown by personal pronouns, like: mine, his, hers, ours, yours,
its, and theirs.
Is this mine or yours?
(Impersonal pronoun– It). The rain is raining. It is raining. It is ten o’clock. It is winter etc.
POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS: It is used to show the possession belonging to somebody.
The forms of mine, ours, yours, his, hers and theirs are called possessive pronouns.
The pen is mine. This book is yours.
REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS: When the action done by the subject turns back upon the subject is
called reflexive pronoun.
The ‘self’ forms of personal pronouns such as myself, ourselves, yourself, himself, herself,
themselves and itself used as the object of a verb or preposition are called Reflexive
pronouns.
He looked himself in the mirror. They found themselves in great difficulties.
EMPHATIC PRONOUNS: It is used for the sake of emphasis.
When the ‘self’ pronoun is used to emphasize the nouns or pronouns they stand for, it is called
Emphatic pronoun.
The president himself congratulated the winners.
The president congratulated the winners himself.
DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS: Pronouns which stand for the things or persons pointed to are
called Demonstrative pronouns.
They are: This, that, these and those.
This is Mr. Peter’s car. That is his book. These are books written by me. Those books belong to
him.
INDEFINITE PRONOUNS: Pronouns which stand for no particular persons or things are called
indefinite pronouns.
Somebody, anybody, something, anything, no one, another, few, some, other etc.
PRONOUNS OF NUMBER AND QUANTITY:
Pronouns like all, many, much, few, little, and most. Few, a few, the few, little, a little, the little.
DISTRIBUTIVE PRONOUNS: They refer to persons or things one at a time.
Each, everyone, everybody, either, neither etc. stand for persons or things considered
individually. The distributive pronouns are singular in number and therefore take singular verbs.
Either of the students is capable of doing it. Each can come in different positions in a sentence.
They each got two pieces. They got two pieces each.
RELATIVE PRONOUNS:
Pronouns which stand for the nouns that precede them such as Who, Which, Whose, Whom,
That are called Relative Pronouns.(Who? / Whom? = Persons. Which? / That = Things. Where? =
Place. When? = Time. Whose? = Possession. What? / How? / Why? = Consider it as connective
word as we use it in Indirect Speech).
The boy who stood first in the SSLC examination is Jasmine’s brother.
The book which I borrowed from you is lost.
The Aircraft that arrived a minute ago came from London.
RECIPROCAL PRONOUNS:
Pronouns such as each other and one another expresses reciprocal relationship.
They sat two hours without talking to each other/ one another.
The people of the village helped one another.
INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS:
Who, Whom, Which, Whose, What. Which stands for the persons or things about which the
questions are asked are called Interrogative pronouns.
Who is your English teacher? Which is the way to the railway station?
What is paper made of?