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Lesson 6 Plenty of Pronouns:
There are several different types of pronouns. They all have a role to play in English. There
are Personal Pronouns (covered in Basic English, lesson 5), Compound Personal Pronouns,
Interrogative Pronouns, Demonstrative Pronouns, Indefinite Pronouns and Relative Pronouns. This
lesson will cover the last five types.
Compound Personal Pronouns:
Singular
myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself
Plural
ourselves, yourselves, themselves
The two uses for these Compound Personal Pronouns are as Reflexive Pronouns and as Intensive
Pronouns.
Reflexive Pronouns act as the object of the verb, but they reflect the action back to the subject. The
Reflexive Pronoun will always be the same person or thing as the Subject.
Examples:
I almost shot myself with the pistol.
You dressed yourself today, didn't you.
He threw himself onto the floor.
Sally prettied herself up for the dance.
The dirty stray dog constantly scratched itself.
Fred and I treated ourselves to a movie.
When the whole class is finished with the quiz, I
want you to grade yourselves.
Tom and Joe almost destroyed themselves when
they tried to jump the high fence.
NOTE: When you use a Reflexive Pronoun, there must ALWAYS be a word in the sentence that
refers to the same person or thing. In the sentences above, I and MYSELF are the same person;
SALLY and HERSELF are the same person; DOG and ITSELF are the same thing.
Ways in which one should NOT use reflexive pronouns:
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My brother and myself will be glad to help you. (The correct way is: My brother and I will be
glad ......)
The Mayor sent an invitation to Mr. Smith and ourselves. (Correct way: ......to Mr. Smith and
us.)
Intensive Pronouns simply add force or emphasis to a noun or pronoun that is already in the
sentence.
Examples:
I prepared the meal myself.
You yourself must deliver the package.
He tried to paint the house himself.
Jack and Jill themselves were unable to fetch a
pail of water.
Interrogative Pronouns:
As their name implies, these pronouns are used in asking questions. There are only three: WHO,
WHICH, WHAT. The first one, however, has three forms. WHO is the subject form; WHOSE is the
possessive form; WHOM is the object form. Each of these pronouns can serve as the subject of a
sentence, the object of the verb, or the object of a preposition. They are called pronouns because
they take the place of the noun in a sentence.
Examples:
Who is the owner of that car?
Which is the car you are referring to?
There are some keys on the
table. Whose are they?
To whom does the car belong?
What is the problem with my car?
kitchen I don't know what your problem is.
Demonstrative Pronouns:
These pronouns point out definite persons, places or things. There are only two, or four if you count
the plural forms separately: THIS, THESE, THAT, THOSE. What can often confuse a student of
English is the fact that these same words can also be used as adjectives. How can you tell the
difference? Demonstrative Pronouns are used in place ofnouns. Demonstrative Adjectives are
used with nouns.
Examples:
Demonstrative Pronouns
This is my coat. ( This is the subject of the
sentence.)
These used to fit me. (These is the subject of the
sentence.)
Did you see that? (that is the object of the verb
SEE.)
Two more of those would make me
sick. (those is the object of the preposition OF.)
Demonstrative Adjectives
This coat belongs to me. (This modifies the
subject COAT)
These shirts must have shrunk in the laundry.
(These modifies the subject SHIRT.)
Did you see that crazy driver? (that modifies the
object DRIVER.)
Two more of those greasy hot dogs would make
me sick. (those modifies the object of the
preposition, HOT DOGS.)
Indefinite Pronouns:
This large group of pronouns are called Indefinite because they do NOT point out particular persons,
places or things. They can all be used in place of nouns, which is why they are called pronouns, but
they are also a little vague, or INDEFINITE, about how many or which nouns they take the place
of. Here is a list of the most common Indefinite Pronouns.
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all
any
anybody
anything
both
each
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each one
each other
either
everybody
everyone
everything
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few
many
neither
nobody
none
no one
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nothing
one
one
another
ones
other
others
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several
some
somebody
someone
something
anyone
Here are several examples so you can get a sense of how they are used.
All were ready to leave the party It
is
impossible
by midnight.
satisfy everybody.
to If I can't have what I want, I would
rather have nothing.
Others may be allowed to stay
Sheila's purse could have been Everything will be all right in
out late, but you are not one of
taken by anybody.
time.
them.
Both tried to go through the Few were in the audience to see I was waiting for somebody,
doorway at the same time.
the horrible play.
but nobody came.
Each
one gave
their Many left during the first
condolences to the grieving intermission.
couple.
The flood victims tried to Neither of the skaters was able
help each other get to high to do the triple flip.
ground.
Something just flew over the
house. Did anybody see anything?
Most people waited in line
patiently, but several tried to push
through the door.
Relative Pronouns:
Here we have another case of certain words doing double duty. Relative Pronouns are who, which,
that and what , with who again having the possessive form, whose, and the object form, whom. Do
those words look familiar? Who, which and what were earlier in the lesson called Interrogative
Pronouns. That was called a Demonstrative Pronoun. Now we are calling them all Relative
Pronouns. How can you tell what the words are when you see them in a sentence? This is a good
place for a Word of Wisdom.
NOTE: The grammatical label attached to a word depends more on what job the word is doing in a
sentence than on what the word looks like. Examples: HIT looks like a verb. In fact, it can be a verb
if it is used like this: "The car went out of control and HIT a tree." But what about this sentence: "In
yesterday's baseball game, Don had three HITS." Now HITS is a noun. We know this because Don
had three of them, and only nouns can be counted. Next we have "Shirley just had to buy the group's
new HIT record." Now HIT is telling us what kind of record Shirley was buying, which is a job for an
Adjective. The same word, HIT, just had three different grammatical labels. The same can be true
for many words in English, including Who, Which, That and What. To determine what grammatical
label should be stuck on the words, you need to look closely at what position they are filling or what
job they are performing in the sentence.
Definition: A Relative Pronoun joins the clause which it introduces to its own antecedent, the noun or
pronoun to which it refers.
"Harry is the driver who won the stock car race." 'who won the stock car race' is an Adjectival Clause
which describes driver. who introduces the clause and also refers back to and means the same thing
as driver .
"Those magazines are the ones that we subscribe to." 'that we subscribe to' is another Adjectival
Clause, describing ones. that introduces the clause and means the same thing as ones.
Extra Note: WHO is used whenever the antecedent is a person. WHICH is used for anything except
a person, THAT is used for persons or things.
Here are some more examples:
This is the bolt which fits into Harry saw the man whom we Those
paper
hearts
are
the screen door latch.
visited last week.
exactly what is needed to finish
the decorations.
We
got
to
the
party
early, which turned out to be a
mistake.
There is another group of words called Compound Relative Pronouns which are used in the same
way:
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whoever
whomever
whatever
whosoever
whatsoever
whosesoever
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whichsoever
whomsoever
whichever
Examples:
Whoever left his umbrella here last night, please Whatever was your reason for sending that
take it home.
letter?
We will give it to whomever we please.
You may wear whichever you like.
Exercise A: Circle all of the pronouns in the following passage. Write above each pronoun what type
it is or how it is being used in the sentence.
possessive
possessive
compound personal
Example: John took (his) brother and (mine) to the store so they could buy candy for (themselves).
I felt terrible when I went to work last Friday. My back ached and my head ached so much that I told
myself I was crazy for going to work. Several guys were waiting near the time clock for the bell to
ring. They had already punched their time cards. For them, this was just another normal day.
When I made it to my department, my supervisor asked me which project I would prefer to start
with. She was so pleasant that I couldn't tell her that I didn't want to work on any of them. One of
my fellow workers offered to get the job set up for me. I said to her, "Thanks, but I would rather do it
myself." At the end of the morning, Sherry said to us all, "Who is going out for lunch?" Somebody
else asked, "Which place are you going to?" Sherry ignored the question and said, "Whoever is
going with me better be ready when the bell rings."
Exercise B: Circle the correct pronouns in the parentheses in the following sentences.
1. Mrs. Johnson took (his, her, hers) children with (her, herself, them) when (her, she, they) went to
the mall.
2. (Their, Them, They) behaved well for the first hour, but then the boredom began to affect (them,
themselves, they).
3. Rodney took off (his, her, their) own hat and left it with (those, these, them) he saw on a store rack.
4. (His, Him, Her) sister, Julia, decided to go shopping (himself, herself, herselves) and wandered
away.
5. (Nobody, Some, Someone) called to (her, herself, hers), "Are (we, you, your) lost, little girl?"
6. Julia pretended that (her, she, he) heard (anybody, nobody, none) and kept walking away.
7. Soon, Mrs. Johnson realized that Rodney had no hat and (they, she, we) had no daughter.
8. Without worrying what (nobody, everybody, several) would think, (she, herself, they) called out
loudly, "Julia! (Your, You, Yours) get (yourself, yourselves, you self) back here right now!."
Examination: Write the correct pronouns in the blank spaces in the following sentences.
1. __________ wish ____________ could go to the movies together without _________ little brother.
2. The taxi driver told _________ passenger that _____________ might be late getting to the airport
because ________ was the middle of rush hour.
3. Jerry said that __________ hit ______________ with a hammer the last time ____________ tried
to hang a picture.
4. Would ____________ believe that ______________ in the office likes the boss?
5. "___________ is the color _____________ want for the walls," Ms. Murphy told _________
decorator.
6. ________________ leaves the garage door open should be more careful.
7. " Are ____________ sure that ____________ told ________________ about the surprise party?"
Betty asked.
8. "__________ am sure that the job was done right," Herman stated, "because the owner did it
_________________."
9. Mary said _____________ was not going to take the blame for __________________ else's
mistakes.
10. "______________ of these sofas do ___________ prefer?" the salesman asked ____________
customer.