Pronouns

Pronouns

Many pronouns can be used as substitutes for nouns:

example:

David loves football. He supports Manchester United

Here, the pronoun he substitutes for the noun David, to which it refers back. Using the pronoun means that we can avoid repeating the noun.

The major subclasses of pronouns are:

Personal pronouns: I/me, he/him

Possessive pronouns: my/mine, your/yours

___________________ pronouns: myself, yourself

Personal pronouns

The personal pronouns exhibit contrasts for person (first person, second person, or third person), number (singular or plural), and case (subjective or objective).

In addition, the third-person singular pronouns he/she/it exhibit a contrast for gender (masculine, feminine or non-personal).

The ______________ forms of the personal pronouns are used when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence

The ___________ forms are used in all other positions. These positions are:

1 After a verb

David gave me a present.

I’ll see you soon.

The minister supports him/her/it.

The objective forms are used in all other positions. These positions are: After a ______________

example:

David gave it to me. I’ll probably get there before you.

There is no formal distinction between subjective _____ and objective _________:

Subjective:

You e-mailed me yesterday.

Objective:

I e-mailed you yesterday

Each possessive pronoun has two distinct forms, the dependent form and the independent form.

_____________ possessives are used before a noun:

example:

This is my car. I’ve borrowed your computer. She took his/her/its photograph.

• independent

• depend

• Dependent

___________________ possessives are used without a following noun.

They most commonly occur after of, in independent genitives :

a friend of mine this partner of yours a colleague of his/hers

• dependent

• dependency

• Independent

what is an example of reflexive pronouns:

The reflexive pronouns end in -self (singular) or -selves (plural) (
see Table 2, p. 58). They exhibit distinctions of person (first person, second person or third person), and number (singular or plural).

The third-person singular reflexives (himself/herself/itself) show distinctions of gender (masculine, feminine or non-personal).

• Michael was very badly injured and is now unable to feed himself

• The Chancellor mentioned tax cuts, but he is a good person.

• Somebody has left his coat behind.

The relative pronouns are: except:

, , , ,

• who

• whom

• whose

• which

• its

The pronoun it has two major uses:

choose the wrong one:

• As a personal pronoun it can replace a third-person singular noun with non-human reference:

• substitute the reflexive pronouns

• It is used in expressions relating to the weather and to time: