Pronouns

Activity 9.4: Introducing Pronouns

Exercise A:  What is the definition of a pronoun?

Fill in the text box below with your answer.

Exercise B:  Test your definition below.  Try to put each pronoun from the list into each sentence.

(This exercise is in process of revision.)

Retype each sentence on the line using the pronouns. Multiple sentences may be made from each example, so experiment with which pronouns work in different positions. Click on the check button to assess your answer.

  Which pronouns work in which sentences and which ones don’t?  Why?

Most of us learn that a pronoun is a substitute for a noun.  It would actually be a little more accurate to say that a pronoun is a substitute for a noun phrase.  Also, when most of us learn about pronouns, we learn the personal pronouns, but there are others, too.  We will first review the personal pronouns and then move on to the other types of pronouns.

The personal pronouns are the pronouns that relate to the different persons in language: 1st person, 2nd person, and 3rd person.  When speakers talk about themselves, they don’t usually use their own names but instead use a substitute word: the 1st person pronouns.  When they talk about their listeners, they use the 2nd person pronouns, and when they talk others they may use the 3rd person pronouns.  So agreement is an important consideration with pronouns.  Pronouns must agree with their referents in person.  Pronouns must also agree with their referents in other respects, too.

The substitution exercise above should have made it noticeable that pronouns must agree with their referents not only in person but also in number.  If the referent is singular, the pronoun must be singular, too.  Finally, the pronoun must agree with the referent in case, or in grammatical role.  That is, if the referent is a subject, the pronoun must be a subject, too, but if the referent is an object, the pronoun must be in object form, too.  There are four grammatical roles that pronouns agree with: subject, object (which includes direct object, indirect object, and object of a preposition), and two possessive forms.  One of the possessive pronouns acts as a substitute only for the possessive noun itself.  The second acts as a substitute for the possessive noun and the head noun that it modifies, as well.  The pronoun diagram at the end of the chapter shows the personal pronouns in the lower left section of the page.

Similar to the personal pronouns are the reflexive and reciprocal pronouns.  The reflexive pronouns all agree in person and number with their referents, like the personal pronouns, but they do not have varying forms that agree with different cases.  The reflexive pronouns can only act as objects.  The reciprocal pronouns are even more limited than the reflexive pronouns; they can only substitute for 3rd person plural referents and act as objects.  Another set of pronouns that substitute for known referents is the relative pronouns.  These pronouns will be better discussed as parts of relative clauses rather than as parts of a simple sentence since that complex sentence type is the only situation they appear in.

Pronouns 2