Pronoun is a part of speech used in place of a noun. Pronouns include such words as I, you, they, which, and that. Such words provide variety in speaking and writing. The advantage of using pronouns can be seen in the following sentence: Sally told John that she had met his brother. Without the pronouns she and his, this sentence would have to be rephrased Sally told John that Sally had met John’s brother. The word that a pronoun refers to is called its antecedent. In the sentence about Sally and John, the antecedent of she is Sally, and the antecedent of he is John.
Pronouns may be classified according to their use into the following types: personal, intensive and reflexive, interrogative, relative, demonstrative, and indefinite. Several pronouns appear in more than one category.
Personal pronouns
refer to beings and objects. These pronouns have separate forms that show number, case, person, and gender. Number is shown by different forms for singular (I) and plural (we) pronouns. Cases include the subjective case (he), objective case (him), and possessive case (his). Person is indicated by separate forms for first person (I), second person (you), and third person (she). Genders of a personal pronoun include masculine (him), feminine (her), and neuter–which means neither masculine nor feminine–(it).
Personal pronouns must agree with their antecedents in number, person, and gender. However, the case of a pronoun is determined by its use and position in a sentence. In the sentence Jane liked her teacher, the pronoun her agrees with its antecedent Jane in number (singular), person (third), and gender (feminine). But it is in the possessive case, and modifies teacher. The table of personal pronouns below lists a complete set of the forms that show number, person, gender, and case.
Where there are two forms of the possessive case listed, the first is used when the noun that the possessive modifies immediately follows: (That is my book. Where is your book? ) The second is used when there is no noun that immediately follows: (That is yours. I don’t know where mine is. )
Intensive and reflexive pronouns,
such as myself and yourself, are formed by adding the suffix –self or –selves to certain forms of the personal pronoun. The suffixes are added to the possessive form of personal pronouns in the first person (my) and second person (your). The suffixes also combine with the objective form of the third-person pronouns, as in himself, herself, and themselves. The forms hisself and theirselves are considered incorrect according to standard grammar.
The intensive pronoun emphasizes the subject of a sentence: I did it myself. The reflexive pronoun helps to express an action that reflects upon the subject: He considered himself lucky to win. A reflexive pronoun should not be used as a substitute for the subject form of the pronoun. For example, My husband and I left the house is correct. My husband and myself left the house is incorrect according to standard grammar.
Interrogative pronouns
ask questions. The three interrogative pronouns are who, which, and what. Which and what have the same form in all three cases. Who has a separate form for each case: Who came? (subjective), Whom did you telephone? (objective), and Whose writing is this? (possessive).
Relative pronouns
—who, which, that, and what–introduce a clause and connect the clause to the word it modifies. The case of a relative pronoun is determined by its function in the clause it introduces:
The boy who is sitting there is my son (subjective). The boy whom you see is my son (objective). The boy whose head is turned is my son (possessive).
Many educated speakers accept relative clauses with who used in the objective case, except when it is the object of a preceding preposition. Thus:
The boy who you see is my son. The boy who you gave the book to is my son. The boy to whom you gave the book is my son.
But not
The boy to who you gave the book is my son.
The pronoun who refers to people and also sometimes refers to animals and objects, depending on the sense of the sentence. Which refers to animals and things. For example, Alice’s essay, which won first prize, was read to the class. The relative pronoun that refers to both beings and things. For example, Show me the bird that Judy gave you. The relative pronoun what is used in a neuter sense, as in See what the book says.
The choice between that and which may vary with the function of the clause. Clauses introduced by that are ordinarily restrictive–that is, they provide information essential to the meaning of the sentence. An example is The car that was totally wrecked was hauled away. Clauses introduced by which are ordinarily nonrestrictive. Such clauses add information but are not essential to the meaning of the sentence: I was able to drive my car, which was only slightly dented.
Demonstrative pronouns
—this and that–refer emphatically to particular things or actions, as in This is expensive or That is dangerous. The plural forms of these pronouns are these and those.
Indefinite pronouns
do not indicate a definite gender. Common indefinite pronouns include all, any, both, each, everybody, few, many, none, one, several, and some. Many of these combine with the suffixes –one, -body, and –thing to form compounds. Some compounds, together with the word else, form such pronouns as someone else or everything else.
Because of changing usage, special difficulty may occur in making verbs agree in number with indefinite pronouns. Problems may also arise in making pronouns agree in number with antecedents that are indefinite pronouns. Anything, each one, either, neither, nobody, one, and something are singular. For example, Something is happening outside. Both, few, many, and several are plural. For example, Many are willing to try. However, all, any, each, none, and some may be singular or plural, depending upon the meaning of the sentence. Examples include All was ready (singular) and All were present (plural). In informal usage, anybody, anyone, everybody, and everyone are often followed by plural pronouns, even though the verb may be singular. Everyone was in their place is informal usage. Everyone was in his place is formal.
Growing awareness of the status of women in society has affected usage in this area. According to traditional standards, the proper question, even to an all-woman audience, is: Would anyone who has lost his purse please come to the office? Many people now use his or her after indefinite pronouns: (Has anyone lost his or her pencil?) But not everyone accepts this as proper.
Other usage.
Standard usage calls for a subject form of a pronoun after a verb of being: It was she we elected, not It was her we elected. However, in informal usage, It’s me and It’s him can substitute for It is I and It is he. The selection of the appropriate form often depends on the formality of the occasion.
Expressions that use than or as often cause confusion about the proper case of the noun. In the sentence He handles a bicycle better than her, the objective case of the pronoun her may appear to be correct. But it can be seen to be incorrect in terms of standard grammar if the sentence is expanded to read He handles a bicycle better than she (handles a bicycle). She is the subject of the unexpressed verb handles.
