I thought this was going to be an easy one, and it would just be an extension of nouns. However, it seems pronouns are just as complicated.
Pronouns are essentially words that take the place of nouns. And from my understanding, their only purpose is to make the text more interesting.
Instead of writing ‘Sam wants to be a lawyer, therefore, Sam needs to go to law school’.
Sam wants to be a lawyer, therefore, he needs to go to law school’.
There are many different categories of pronoun, there are: personal, relative, subject and object, demonstrative, indefinite, reflexive, intensive, possessive, reciprocal and lastly interrogative.
Personal pronouns
The personal pronouns are: I, me, you, he, she, her, him, it, we, us, they and them.
Despite the term ‘personal’ they do not have to refer to a person – what is it?
They are essentially the pronouns that are associated with ‘person’ in writing i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd.
Relative pronouns
These are used to connect relative clauses – which can be restrictive (provides essential information about the noun) and non-restrictive (can be left out without affecting the meaning of the clause) – to independent clauses. Relative clauses are used to identify the noun that came before them.
The relative pronouns are: which, that, whom, whose, who, when, what.
My writing, which is relatively poor, is improving.
Subject and object pronouns
Who and whom. When referring to a subject use the ‘who’ pronoun, and when referring to an object use whom. I will look at subject and object in another post. But in short, the object is acted upon by the subject.
To whom, should I send this letter?
Who will receive the letter?
Demonstrative pronouns
A demonstrative shows distance as I spoke about in this post.
The demonstrative pronouns are: that, this, these, those.
This is used for singular items that are nearby, whereas, these not those (over there) is used for many items that are close.
Indefinite pronouns
Are used when you need to refer to something unspecific, one, none, other, some, anybody, everybody and no one.
Reflexive and intensive pronouns
reflexive pronouns are used when both the subject and object of a verb refer to the same person or thing. They have self or selves on the end. Himself, themselves etc
The writer set himself the task of writing about pronouns.
Intensive pronouns are more unnecessary as a category in my opinion; they are similar to reflexive pronouns but they do a different thing, they add emphasis.
I wrote the blog post myself. The ‘myself’ is unnecessary but it adds emphasis.
Antecedent
Not technically a pronoun but it is important. The antecedent is the noun that the pronoun refers to.
My girlfriend (antecedent) bakes me cakes, I love her (pronoun) for that.
Possessive pronouns
its, his, her, our, their, My, your and whose
Seems obvious, and it is. Basically, they show possession
Absolute pronouns (mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs) can be substituted for the thing that belongs to the antecedent.
BloggerX is working on his blog post.
They are absolute because they stand alone and do not modify nouns.
Reciprocal pronouns
Reciprocal pronouns are each other and one another
each other refers to two things, one another refers to multiple things.
These are used when two or more things are acting in the same way towards the other.
The blogger and commenters are talking to one another.
Interrogative pronouns
These, as the name suggest are used in questioning: whose, who, what, which
who wants to leave a like and follow?
Thanks for this, I’m going to refer to it the next time my little cousin does her English homework.
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I hope it helps! I wish I had paid more attention to things like this when I was little.
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We weren’t to know, we were far too young to understand technical words (and let’s be honest, it really is).
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Me too!
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I’ve just had a snoop around your blog and I absolutely love it! What you’re doing is so great and it’s just brilliant to see someone using their platform in such a positive way! Keep it up 🙂 I’ve dropped you a follow 🙂
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For some reason, this was marked as spam which is why I didn’t see it! If you’re using a script to deliver these comments, where did you get it xD?
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No, no, no script ahaha. I’m no where near that intelligent!!
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Nice summary. Perhaps one day if you’d like to drive yourself crazy, you’d want to tackle pronoun agreement, and the myriad traps and problems possible:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/GRAMMAR/pronouns.htm
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Thanks Jack! I shall have a look at that, I am still getting to grips with the basics. I shall add the site you have linked to my resources
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The English language is very much a moving target, modified by usage from day to day. I take great liberties with it myself and have long forgotten the ‘rules’. Most bloggers literally ‘fire and forget’ but some few read their own guff before posting.
Sadly I can be of no help, I mix outright sarcasm with subtle snide commentary—but it is fun, sometimes, to mock the afflicted, no?
And if criticism (well intended though) doesn’t hurt, I think you meant ‘wage’ where you used ‘wedge’ in a recent post. Good luck!
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I think I got more on pronouns now than I did in secondary school
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Nice article and very helpful. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
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Thank you Kikis!
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I recommend a small, highly revered book The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White. It is the “go to” reference book for serious writers.
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We use these every day, but it’s oh so complex.
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Absolutely!
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