PARTS OF SPEECH - PRONOUNS BY Samson Mwita

PRONOUNS

A pronoun is a word used to take the place of a noun, a noun phrase or other pronouns. Pronouns are useful parts of speech as they make it possible to avoid repeating nouns or noun word groups. Generally, a pronoun refers to a previously stated noun, which is called an antecedent.  For example;

Students were punished yesterday. They had come to class late.

A shining aluminium door was fixed at the entrance. It made the building look beautiful and attractive.

TYPES OF PRONOUNS

A pronoun is classified depending on its function in a sentence.

1.    Personal pronoun

This is a pronoun that stands for a noun or noun phrase that names a particular person, place or thing. People often use personal pronouns when they write or speak.  The form of the pronoun depends on the gender and number of the antecedent and whether the pronoun is a subject or an object. Therefore a personal pronoun changes its form depending upon its use in a sentence. The way a personal pronoun is used is technically called case.

These are pronouns used for three persons (first person – the person speaking, second person – the person spoken to, third person – the person or thing spoken about). 

ü  First person pronouns are I and we (subject), me and us (object).

ü  Second person pronouns are you in singular and you in plural in both subjective and objective case

ü  Third person pronouns are he, she, and it in singular and they in plural in subjective case him, her, it and them in objective case.

The following table summarises the personal pronouns.

Person		Personal
		Subjective	Objective
1st person	Singular	I	Me
	Plural	We	Us
2nd person	Singular	You	You
	Plural	You	You
3rd person	Singular	He	Him
		She	Her
		It	It
	Plural	They	Them

In most sentences the pronoun that is the actor in a sentence is in a subjective case. A pronoun that receives the action is in a sentence is in the objective case. A pronoun that shows possession or ownership is in the possessive case.

She told me everything. (Subjective)

I hit her in the face. (Objective)

He told me to come with a friend of mine (possessive)

Subjective case pronouns

I live in Dar-es-Salaam.

We go to church on Saturday.

You like going to cinema every Friday.

He behaves like a child.

She cooks well

It is a nice book to read.

They are coming back today

Objective case pronouns

He told me the whole story.

He never gave us a chance to explain.

I love you.

I saw him last year.

We gave her all our books.

She has found it.

I will address them tomorrow.

2.    Reflexive pronoun

A reflexive pronoun shows that someone or something in the sentence is acting for or on itself. It is used to refer back to the noun or another pronoun. Reflexive pronouns are myself, yourself, himself, herself, and itself. And their plural forms take –selves.

Singular	Plural
Myself	Ourselves
Yourself	Yourselves
Himself	Themselves
Herself	Themselves
Itself	Themselves

Examples

I trust myself.

Don’t deceive yourself.

He blamed himself for his failure.

She fell down and hurt herself.

We need to take care of ourselves.

You need to respect yourselves.

Birds feed themselves

3.    Emphatic pronoun

When a reflexive pronoun is used to show emphasis it is called emphatic pronoun or intensive pronoun. 

I myself told you this.

I told you this myself.

You yourself must bring it to me.

You must bring it to me yourself.

They themselves talked to the president.

They talked to the president themselves.

John himself gave me the letter.

John gave me the letter himself.

4.    Demonstrative pronoun

This is a pronoun used to point out the person or thing we talk about. They show whether what is being talked about is far or near. i.e. this, that, these, those and such. When used with nouns they are called demonstrative adjectives.

This is my book.

That is my brother’s wife.

These are going to be destroyed.

Those are now outdated.

I don’t like these.

We were second-class citizens and they treated us as such.

Such was a man I was about to marry.

5.    Possessive pronoun

This is a pronoun used to express possession or ownership. These are mine, his, hers, ours, theirs, its.

Note: my, our, your, his, her, its, their, are used before nouns because they are possessive adjectives or pronoun-adjective.

Possessive Adjectives	Possessive Pronouns
This is my bag.	It is mine
Those are our houses	They are ours.
Jane will be your wife	She will be yours.
That is his book.	It is his.
Those are her books.	They are hers.
The baby is playing with its toy.	It is its.

More examples.

ü He's a friend of mine (= one of my friends).

ü She wanted one like mine (= like I have).

ü Mine was a suggestion that we postpone the meeting.

ü Hers was rejected.

ü Yours is better than theirs.

6.    Reciprocal pronoun

This is a pronoun used to talk about mutual relationship. These are each other and one another. Usually, ‘each other’ is used when there are two subjects and ‘one another’ is used when there are more than two subjects.

Each other.

Is used as the object of a verb or preposition to show that each member of a group does something to or for the other members.

ü  Sam and Ney loved each other (he loved her and she loved him).

ü  They looked at each other and laughed.

ü  We can wear each other's clothes.

ü  Sam and Ney love each other.

One another

Is used when you are saying that each member of a group does something to or for the other people in the group.

We all try and help one another.

I think we've learned a lot about one another in this session.

The team members opposed one another.

The students cheated one another.

7.    Interrogative pronoun

This is a pronoun used to make a question. These are who, whom, whose, which and what.

ü  Who is that woman?

ü  Who are you phoning?

ü  Whom did they invite?

ü  To whom should I write?

ü  Whose is this hand-writing?

ü  Whose are these apples?

ü  Which is better exercise—swimming or tennis?

ü  Which of the applicants has got the job?

ü  What is your name?

ü  What do you want me to do for you?

8.        Relative pronoun

A relative pronoun substitutes for a noun already mentioned in the sentence and is used to introduce an adjective or noun clause. It is used to combine or relate two parts of a sentence or clauses together.

Who, and whom are used to refer to persons.

ü  The people who called yesterday want to buy the house.

ü  People who work hard succeed in life.

ü  The author whom you criticized in your review has written a reply.

ü  This is the man whom I gave your letter

Which and what are used for creatures and things.

ü  What you need is a good meal.

ü  Nobody knows what will happen next.

ü  I spent what little time I had with my family

ü  The book which you gave me is lost.

ü  I still remember the story which you told me.

Whose  (generally for persons) and that (generally for things) are used for persons, creatures and things.

ü  The bag whose colour is blue is mine.

ü  I saw the man whose wife passed away yesterday.

ü  The story that he wrote is very interesting.

ü  This is the teacher that I told you about.

9.    Relative compound pronoun

This is a relative pronoun that is compounded with the word ever. For examples;

Whoever/whosoever, the person or people who; any person who. It is used to say that it does not matter who, since the result will be the same.

ü  I don't want to see them, whoever they are.

Whichever, used to say that it does not matter which, as the result will be the same.

ü  Whichever of you gets here first will get the prize.

Whatever/whatsoever, any or every; anything or everything.

ü  Do whatever you like

Whomever/whomsoever, used in the object position.

ü  He was free to marry whomever he chose.

10. Indefinite pronoun

This is a pronoun without an antecedent; it serves as a general subject or object in a sentence. It refers to persons or things not definitely known. Because an indefinite pronoun can be singular or plural, choose the verb that agrees with the indefinite pronoun. Some common indefinite pronouns are listed here.

All, another, any, anybody, anyone, both, each, either, everybody, everything, few, many, more, most, much, neither, nobody, none, no one, one, others, several, some, somebody, someone, something, nothing, every, everyone, .

When used alone, each of these words is a pronoun. If it modifies a noun, it serves as pronoun-adjective. E.g. any man, several women, many people.

ü  He returned home without any of the others.

ü  I don't like this room. I'm going to ask for another.

ü  Did anyone see you?

ü  Anybody can use the pool—you don't need to be a member.

ü  She earns a lot more than I do.

ü  We have both seen the movie.

ü  Some disapprove of the idea.

ü  Somebody should have told me.

ü  You can't have one each. We haven't got many.

ü  There's something wrong with the TV.

ü  None was satisfied with what he said.

ü  Nothing is so important for students like reading books.

ü   

EXERCISE

Fill in the following gaps with the correct pronoun from the list below. a. I did not see _____ entering that room.        i.    Nyambari lost his pen so I gave him ________       ii.   Ghati bought _______ an expensive bracelet.     iii.   Debora and Monica are very intelligent. _____will pass the exam.     iv.   ______is singing in the chapel?       v.   The room sheltered _______ so _____ liked it.     vi.   Wambura promised to give me_______ book.   vii.   There's _______ at the door. viii.   You may take _________ you like.     ix.   Adam and Eve loved ______. Someone, whichever, His, Herself, each other, anybody, mine, who, they, them