February 20, 2007

More About Pronouns

A word that takes the place of a noun is called a Pronoun. Examples are it, you, they, who and she. There are five kinds of pronouns: Personal, Relative, Indefinite, Demonstrative, and Interrogative. Let us discuss them one by one.

Personal Pronouns replace nouns. Examples are as follows:

Singular: I, you, he, she
Plural: We, us, you, they
Possessive: my, mine, her, hers, his, ours, your, yours, their, theirs.

Relative Pronouns connect words. The commonly used relative pronouns are who, whom, which, that, whose, what, whoever and whomever.

Indefinite Pronouns are vague. Examples are any, few, several, some, each, every, no one, everyone, somebody, something, nobody, nothing.

Demonstrative Pronouns point to people or things without actually naming them. Examples are this, that, these and those.

Note: When this, that, these and those precede a noun, they no longer remain pronouns. They become adjectives. Example: that book, those chairs.

Interrogative Pronouns ask questions: who, whom, which, what and whose.