An Introduction To Pronouns In English

Pronouns are a very important part of the English language and are something you are going to see a lot of.

Basically they help us know who or what we are talking about throughout a sentence, so let’s look at what they are and how they work.  

What Are Pronouns?

The job of a pronoun is to take the place of a noun, so you don’t need to keep repeating the noun.

All sentences are going to have a subject, which will be the person, place or thing we are talking about. This is stated at the start, and then from there on a pronoun will be used instead.

Let’s look at an example as this will help it make more sense.

“Steve has a red car.  Steve like to drive the car”

This is totally correct grammar wise …but it doesn’t sound natural. The reality is that a pronoun would be used instead.

In this example “Steve” is the subject, we are talking about him. After we set up this context at the start, we don’t need to keep repeating “Steve” we can replace this noun with a pronoun, which would be “he”.

A more natural way to say this sentence would be: “Steve has a red car. He likes to drive it.”

If you are paying attention, I actually added another pronoun. In the first sentence I mentioned a “car” this is also a noun, and it can be replaced with a pronoun next time we talk about it, as the context has been set.

You can see it has become “Steve has a red car. He likes to drive it.”

You might be worried about having multiple pronouns in a sentence, but the context should help you make sense of things and it is pretty easy when you get used to it.

Different Types of Pronouns

Depending on the noun you are replacing, and the context of things, you will need to use different types of pronouns, so let’s look at these. 

I will try and keep things simple here as you can very quickly end up with a lot information as these pronouns can change depending on who or what you are talking about.

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns are usually used to replace names, and this can be both for people and things.

These are really common in English and you will see them everywhere.

They are: I, He, she, It, you

Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns are used to indicate something that has already been talked about and the context will make it clear what it is.

These are: This, that, these, those 

 ….I even used one here. Look at how I said “these are”. Form the sentence before you understand I am talking about “demonstrative pronouns” so you can understand the context of what “these” means.

Indefinite Pronouns

Indefinite pronouns are used when you refer to people, places or things, but it is not very specific.

These are words like: someone, something, somewhere

Reflexive Pronouns

Reflexive pronouns are used when the object and the subject are the same. This sounds very wordy, but you can see it as – reflecting back on yourself.

These will be words like: myself, yourself, himself, themselves

An easy way to spot these to look at the end, they all end in –self/-selves    

You will commonly see the mistake of “I wash me” when really it should be “I wash myself” you are both the subject …we are talking about washing you …and you are the object …you are the one being washed, so we use the reflexive pronoun in these instances.

Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns are used to show who owns something. These can look pretty similar to passive determiners, but they do work a little differently. That isn’t really too important at this stage, but just be aware you may have this cross over.

These are words like: mine, yours, ours, hers

Pronouns and Gender Identity

I think it is also important to mention that in this current world we live in, you will hear about “pronouns” in relation to gender identity.

While it is linked to the language/grammar we are talking about here, it is different and can cause a lot of confusion (especially for learners) so I just want to mention that this exists and you probably will hear about it as the current media is really into this.

If we take the example from the start – ““Steve has a red car. He likes to drive it” we can see that “Steve”, a very common mans name in English, has been replaced with the personal pronoun “he”. That follows all the correct grammar rules.

However, Steve, even if he has been born a man, may decide his gender is different than what we may perceive and would like to be called the personal pronoun “she”. He could even decide to use the plural “them”.

I’m not really going to go much into this here as it can really cause some controversy, but I think it is important to know this whole concept exists and it will confuse you as things will not match up with your grammar textbook and you might think you have made a mistake or misunderstood something, but you probably haven’t.

 Conclusion

I have really only scratched the surface here with pronouns, they can get very deep and complicated and to be honest I don’t think we need to get that far into things at this point.

Just being very comfortable with the basics is going to serve you well and get through 99% of situations.

Return to : Beginner English Main Menu