Download Guide to ARTICLES, PREPOSITIONS AND PRONOUNS

Guide to ARTICLES, PREPOSITIONS AND PRONOUNS
Articles, Prepositions and Pronouns are little words that
make up a large part of a sentence and help to string
the adjectives, adverbs, nouns and verbs together.
Article
An article is used with an noun to show whether the noun is a
specific thing in that class of noun, or any noun in the class
Examples: a/an/the/no/that
an apple/the apple/no apples/that apple
Preposition
Prepositions are use to show the position of objects spatially
in relation to each other
Examples: in/below/behind
the apple is in the tree/below the tree/behind the tree
Pronoun
Pronouns are used to avoid repeating a noun and they can
also show possession:
John would love an apple because John is really hungry and
John's dinner is not ready yet.
This sentence sounds better as...
John would love an apple because he is really hungry and his
dinner is not ready yet.
Guide to ARTICLES, PREPOSITIONS AND PRONOUNS
Fact 1 - Articles are used with a noun to show the type of reference being made by
the noun. The article comes in three forms – the definite, the indefinite and the
negative.
The definite article is ‘the’
Adding a definite article to a noun means that in all of the specimens of that noun,
you are referring to a particular one.
The cat played in the garden.
The indefinite article is ‘a’, or ‘an’ before a word ending in a vowel.
The use of the indefinite article implies that you are not referring to any particular
specimen in all the specimens of the noun.
A cat played in the garden
An older cat played in the garden
The negative article is ‘no’.
Some grammarians prefer to regard ‘no’ as a determiner, but it is also termed the
negative article. It implies that no specimen of that noun is involved in the action of
the verb, or that there is no specimen of that noun present/extant.
No dinosaurs now exist
There is no cat playing in the garden.
Determiners or demonstrative adjectives
These are parts of speech that function like an article. They define or emphasise the
noun, distinguishing it from other nouns of its kind. ‘Some’ and ‘any’ are also
examples of determiners.
This, that, these and those
These are more specific than the definite article
Give me a book (any book will do)
Give me the book (the specific one I asked for)
Give me this book (the one I am holding, the one over here)
Give me that book (the one you have, the one over there)
Give me these books (plural of ‘this’)
Give me those books (plural of ‘that’)
Guide to ARTICLES, PREPOSITIONS AND PRONOUNS
Fact 2 - Prepositions are useful parts of speech that do what it says on their label.
They define objects spatially in relation to each other. They say where things are.
Examples of prepositions
in, on, over, above, below, down, up, into, beneath, beside, between, with,
through, from, to, out,
Prepositional phrases
Most prepositions are found in prepositional phrases:
in the garden, through the wood, on the table, below the stairs, behind the
shed, over the mountain, into the cave
How prepositional phrases are used
Prepositional phrases are used to add information to a sentence. They can be used
adjectivally, to describe a noun, or adverbially, to describe a verb. As adjectival or
adverbial phrases, they are often part of clauses in complex sentences.
Put the book on the table
This is an adverbial phrase. It describes where you have to put the book
The book on the table
This is an adjectival phrase. It describes the book, which is not just any book, but the
one on the table.
Prepositions in clauses
Prepositions and prepositional phrases can be used in subordinate clauses of
complex sentences. Sometimes we use more that one prepositional phrase in a
complex sentence.
A complex sentence with a subordinate adverbial clause containing two prepositional
phrases (‘over the mountain’ ‘across the river’) and an adjectival relative clause
containing a prepositional phrase (‘in its depths’):
If we go over the mountain, across the river and into the cave we are sure
to catch the bear which is asleep in its depths.
A complex sentence with an adverbial phrase in the subordinate clause (‘through the
waterfall’), an adverbial phrase in the main clause (‘with the spray’) and an adjectival
phrase (‘from the water’) describing the noun ‘spray’:
Because we walked through the waterfall we got wet with the spray from
the water.
Most complex sentences contain several adverbial or adjectival phrases. Any of
them that contain a preposition are also prepositional phrases. We just call them
adjectival or adverbial phrases to show how they are functioning in the sentence.
Guide to ARTICLES, PREPOSITIONS AND PRONOUNS
Fact 3 - Pronouns are what we use so we don’t have to repeat the name of the
person we are talking to or about. They stand in for the noun.
Personal pronouns: number and person
Because pronouns are used with verbs, they have person and number:
Singular
Plural
1st person
I, me
we, us
2nd person
you
you
3rd person
he, she, it
they, them
him, her, it
Subject and predicate
The reason there are two forms of pronoun in some cases is because the pronoun
changes depending on what function it has in the sentence.
In the following sentence you see the pronoun used as the subject of the sentence
and also as the predicate. Look at how the form changes:
I want it. Give it to me.
She took it. Tell her to give it back.
He likes it. Let him have it.
It is a shy cat. Don’t scare it.
We don’t want to go to shopping. Please don’t make us.
You all need to be quiet. That’s not kind of you.
They are going to kick the ball through the window. Please stop them.
Notice that ‘it’ and ‘you’ do not change wherever you put them in a sentence.
Guide to ARTICLES, PREPOSITIONS AND PRONOUNS
Possessive pronouns
Some pronouns are used to denote possession. They describe the state of
belonging. Like personal pronouns they have person and number.
Singular
Plural
1st person
mine
ours
2nd person
yours
yours
3rd person
his, hers, its
theirs
Example:
The book is Laura’s. The book is hers. (Here ‘hers’ is replacing ‘Laura’s’)
A note on possessive adjectives:
Words such as ‘my’ and ‘our’ are often thought of as pronouns. However, the
position they take in the sentence (attributive rather than predicative) means that
they function as determiners of the noun, like adjectives do. They can be called
possessive adjectives, but are also known as possessive determiners.
Singular
Plural
1st person
my
our
2nd person
your
your
3rd person
his, her, its
their
Examples:
In the sentences ‘It is my book’ and ‘It is a red book’, the words ‘my’ and ‘red’ both
qualify the noun and are adjectives.
Reflexive pronouns:
Reflexive pronouns are used to refer to something that acts on itself. They also have
person and number:
Singular
Plural
1st person
myself
ourselves
2nd person
yourself
yourselves
3rd person
himself, herself, itself
themselves
English also used to use the impersonal pronoun ‘one’. This is now very oldfashioned, but pupils may still come across it. It is formed in a similar way to ‘him’:
One does not like to praise oneself.