Helping English

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns refer to the one speaking, the one spoken to, or the one spoken about.

First Person:           I, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours

Second Person:      you, your, yours

Third person:          he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its, they, them, their, theirs

Reflexive and Intensive Pronouns

A reflexive pronoun refers to the subject of a sentence and functions as a complement or as an object of a preposition. E.g Jane entertained herself with a coffee and a piece of cake.

An intensive pronoun emphasizes its antecedent (       ) e.g Philip himself organized the school event.   

 First Person                myself, ourselves

Second Person           yourself, yourselves

Third Person               himself, herself, itself, themselves

 Demonstrative Pronoun: this, that, these, those

A demonstrative pronoun points out a specific person, place, thing, or idea.

This is my favorite film by Spielberg.

The books I selected were better than these.

Interrogative Pronouns are used to introduce a question.

 what, which, who, whom, whose

What is the author’s name?

Whose is this book?

 Relative Pronouns introduce a subordinate clause.

  that, which, who, whom, whose

The museum that we visited was built in the 18^th century.

He is the man who is running for mayor.

 Indefinite Pronouns

An indefinite pronoun refers to a person, a place, a thing, or an idea that  may or may not be specifically mentioned or named.

Indefinite Pronouns

 Has anyone seen my cell phone?

Someone has stolen my book.      

          Impersonal Pronoun: It 

                                When the pronoun 'it' does not refer to a particula person or thing is called an impersonal pronoun. E.g. It is all right., It is important to eat plenty of green vegetables.; It was raining.