What is Pronoun?
The words that are used as replacements of nouns or noun phrases are known as Pronouns. They in general act as nouns. Just like nouns, pronouns are also part of speech and are used to avoid unnecessary repetition of nouns in any sentence.
There is a rule regarding replacement of noun from pronoun which states that the pronoun which is used in place of a noun must be same quantity and gender as that of the noun for which it acts as a replacement.
Consider a sentence –
Example: John went to the market with John’s friends.
In the above sentence, ‘John’, a boy is a noun but here pronoun is not used and so this leads to the unnecessary usage of John again in the sentence and this is wrong. Using pronoun, the above sentence can be expressed as:
John went to the market with his friends.
John: Noun
His: Pronoun
To avoid using John again in the sentence we have used the pronoun ‘his’ for simplicity.
The noun in place of which a pronoun is used is called its antecedent.
It is to be noted here that sometimes a pronoun takes place of another pronoun.
Example: Liza left the home on time but she reached the office late because her car broke down in the midway.
Liza: Noun
She: Pronoun
Her: Pronoun
Types of Pronouns
The various types of pronouns are discussed below:
1. Personal Pronoun: It is used to indicate any person or thing and can be either singular or plural. Along with that the form of personal pronoun changes whenever in any sentence, the grammatical function requires the same. It can be nominative or objective.
Nominative personal pronouns act as subjects in any sentence. Such as I, you, we, he, she, it, they, etc.
Example: I will be coming there.
Objective personal pronoun acts as an object in any sentence. Like me, him, her, us, them, etc.
Example: Prince is running with the cat and me.
2. Reflexive Pronoun: Whenever in any sentence, pronouns are used to put extra emphasis on the subject over which the verb is acting then it is known as a reflexive pronoun. It intensifies the preceding nouns or pronouns and is generally combined with words like self or selves. Like myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.
Example: The running boy hurt himself.
3. Intensive Pronoun: Intensive pronouns are sometimes wrongly understood as reflexive ones as these are also used for emphasizing purpose. It is used to emphasize the subject but is not really associated with the action taking place in the sentence. These are always present adjacent to the subject they are emphasizing.
Example: You yourself have created this issue.
4. Possessive Pronoun: This type of pronoun is used to show possession or ownership over a person or thing. More simply it represents belongingness. Like my/mine, you/yours, her/hers, our/ours, their/theirs, his, etc.
Example: This is my seat.
5. Indefinite Pronoun: This pronoun is used to represent a non-specific or unknown person or thing more specifically, it is used in general considerations. Like everyone, everybody, anyone, anybody, some, none, few, both, all, etc.
Example: All of the necessary stuff is here.
6. Distributive Pronoun: The pronouns that are used to specify a single person or thing at a time then it is known as a distributive pronoun. Thus, are always in singular form and the associated verb will also be singular. Like each, either, neither.
Example: Either of you can play here.
7. Interrogative Pronoun: The pronouns that are used in reference to any question are known as interrogative pronouns. Such as what, who, whom, which, whose, etc.
Example: What is your favorite color?
8. Demonstrative Pronoun: The pronouns that are used in reference to pointing out people or things is known as a demonstrative pronoun. Like this, that, these, those, etc. The use of this and these are used for singular and plural reference to people or things while that and those are used to refer to people or things that are far away.
Example: That is my favorite corner of the house.
9. Relative Pronoun: The pronouns that link two sentences by introducing relative clauses are known as relative pronouns. Like where, which, that, who, whom, etc. These pronouns refer to the noun which appears exactly before them.
Example: This latest version of the phone is lacking the qualities that the company proposed.
10. Reciprocal Pronoun: Whenever there exists a need to refer to a mutual set of people in a sentence then reciprocal pronouns are used. Like each other, one another, each other’s, one another’s, etc.
Example: After the party, we exchanged gifts with one another.
So, these are the various kinds of pronouns.
