PRONOUNS: MEANING, TYPES + EXAMPLES & EXERCISES

Pronouns are words that used in the place of a noun or words that stand for noun. This means that in the place where Noun is supposed to be used, we put its representatives which are called the Pronoun.

KINDS OF PRONOUNS

1. Personal pronouns
2. Demonstrative pronouns
3. Interrogative pronouns
4. Reflexive pronouns
5. Relative pronouns

Personal pronouns

This is the kind of pronouns which indicates the persons which are first person, second person and third person. These include me, you, them, us, us, it, him, her, me, them, him, her etc.

Categories of personal pronouns

Subjective personal pronouns – it is the category of personal pronouns which stand in the place of the subject in the sentence. These are:

Persons	Singular	Plural
1st person	I	We
2nd person	You	You
3rd person	He/ She/ It	They

Examples:

• You took my mobile phone.
• We are waiting for dinner.
• I cook rice and meet.
• He kept the promise.

Objective personal pronouns – it is a category of personal pronouns which stand in the place of object or at the end of the sentence. These are:

Persons	Singular	Plural
1st person	me	us
2nd person	you	You
3rd person	him/her/it	Them

Examples:

• She insulted
• He told
• It threatened
• I warned

Demonstrative pronouns

This is the kind of pronoun that point out or show where something is or found. They are used to show if the object is in the far place or found at the nearest position. These include this, that, these and those.

This	Used to point near object or sometimes object which held by the speaker which is in singular forms
That	Used to show far object which is not held by the speaker which is in singular
These	Used to show near objects or sometimes held by the speaker which is in plural form
Those	Used to show far objects which is not held by the speaker which is in plural form and sometimes used to show things which existed in the past time

Examples:

• This student should be punished.
• That student should be punished.
• Thatpen is mine.
• These are my books.
• Those students remained.

PRONOUNS: MEANING, TYPES + EXAMPLES & EXERCISES

Relative pronouns

This is the kind of pronouns which indicate the relation between the nouns and their actions. These are who, which, whose, whom, where and that.

Who	It is used only for human being and it is used before an action in a sentence. Eg. –     This is a teacher who taught us English. –          A gentleman who preached in the church is coming. –          A man who speak French is my uncle
Which	It is used only for animal and things; it is placed before an action in a sentence but sometimes placed before subjective personal pronouns. Eg. –      A cat which drank my milk is not ours. –          The bees which you provoked are dangerous –          The flower which I told you
Whose	It is used for both things/animals and human being. It is placed immediately before nouns which are in sentence to show possession. E.g. –          A woman whose mobile phone was stolen has come. –          A cat whose tail has cut is ours. –          This is a boy whose sister went to America.
Whom	It is used on for human beings. It is also used immediately before subjective personal pronouns and a noun which is in place of a subject. E.g. –          A man whom we talk about has arrived. –          A boy whom a cat bit is my young brother. –          A girl whom I love has arrived.
Where	It is used only for places and it is also used before subjective personal pronouns and nouns which stand in place of the subject. E.g. –          The hotel where they hide is a safe place. –          The place where I was born is my native village.
When	It is used to indicate a time of an event and it is placed before subjective personal pronouns. E.g. –          You told me the story when we met –          The students will remain in the class when it is raining. –          That was the time when we met.
That	It used for all people, things and animals. It can be placed in the place of which, who, whom and where. It is normally used before subjective personal pronouns. E.g. –          The cat that I told you has died. –          The story that you told me it was funny. –          This is a teacher that taught us English

Interrogative pronouns

This is the kind of pronouns which are used to ask questions. These include what, where, which, when, why and how.

E.g.

• Who stole my pen?
• When did you arrive?
• Which is the best between orange and mangoes?
• What is your name?
• Where is your place of origin?
• Why are you making noise?
• How old are you?

Reflexive pronouns

It is the kinds of pronouns that refer back to the subject of the clause in which it is used. It is the one which returns back the action to the doer. These involve the use of possessive pronouns with the expression self if it is singular form and selves if it is in plural forms. These are involve herself, himself, itself, yourself, themselves, ourselves and yourselves.

E.g.

• It knocked the window and killed itself.
• You ate the food yourself.
• We elected our leader ourselves.

1. Possessive pronouns

This is the kind of pronouns which indicates possessions of a noun. It shows that somebody owns something or something owns something. These involve my, mine, your, yours, their, theirs, her, hers, his, its, our and ours. These divided into subjective possessive pronouns and objective possessive pronouns.

Subjective possessive pronouns
Persons	Singular	Plural
1st person	My	Our
2nd person	Your	Your
3rdperson	His/her/its	Their
Objective possessive pronouns
Persons	Singular	Plural
1st person	Mine	Ours
2nd person	Yours	Yours
3rd person	His/hers/its	Theirs

Example:

• My book is lost. It is
• Your house is burned. It is
• Their shop is nearby the garage. It is theirs
• Her mobile phone has been stolen. It is
• Its wings are transparent. It is