Pronoun

A pronoun is a word that is used instead of a noun.

(जो शब्द पुनरुक्ति दोष को हटाने के लिए किसी संज्ञा के बदले प्रयुक्त होकर उसके अर्थों को प्रकट करते हैं, उन्हें सर्वनाम कहते हैं)

For example:

You could say-

“Rita” is a nice girl

Then you could replace the noun with the word “She” and get the following sentence

She is a nice girl

Here “She” is a pronoun.

Kinds of Pronoun

(1) Personal Pronoun-

It refers to a specific person or thing and changes its form to indicate person, number, gender, and case.

(जिन नामों से बोलने वाले सुनने वाले अथवा जिसके विषय में कुछ कहा जा रहा हो उसे पुरुषवाचक सर्वनाम कहते हैं)

(a) Subjective Personal Pronouns:

A subjective personal pronoun indicates that the pronoun is acting as the  subject of the sentence.

The subjective personal are- “I”,”you”,”she”,”he”,”it”,”we”,”you”,”they”.

Examples:

(1) I have finished my work on time.

Here “I” is a subjective personal pronoun.

(2) You are surely the strangest child I have ever met.

“You” is a subjective personal pronoun.

(b) Objective Personal Pronoun:

An objective personal pronoun indicates that the pronoun is acting as an object.

The objective personal pronoun is:

“me”, “her”, “him”, “it”, “us”, and “them”.

Examples:

(1) Arun threw it into the garbage can.

“it” is the direct object of the verb “threw”.

(2) Our leader will address you in five minutes.

“you” is the direct object of the verb “address”.

(3) Give the list to me.

the objective personal pronoun “me” is the object of the preposition “to”.

(c) Possessive Personal Pronouns

It indicates that the pronoun is acting as a marker of possession and defines who owns a particular object or person.

The possessive personal pronouns are:

“mine”, “yours”, “hers”, “his”, “its”, “ours”, and “theirs”.

Examples:

The smallest gift is mine

Here the possessive personal pronouns “mine” functions as a subject complement.

(2) Demonstrative Pronouns:

A demonstrative pronoun points to and identifies a noun or a pronoun. “This” and “these” refer to things that are nearby either in space or in time, while “that” and “those” refer to things that are farther away in space or time.

The demonstrative pronouns are:

“this”, “that”, “these”, “those”.

“this”, “that”, are used to refer to a singular noun.

“these”, “those” are used to refer to a plural noun.

Examples:

Three customers wanted these.

“these” is the direct object of the verb “wanted”.

(3) Interrogative Pronoun

It is used to ask questions.

The interrogative pronouns are:

“who”, “whom”, and “what”.

“which”, or “what”, can also be used as an interrogative adjective, and that “who”, “whom”, or “which”, can also be used as a relative pronoun.

For example:

(1) Who wrote the novel Rockbound?

“Who” is an interrogative pronoun, here “Who” is the subject of the sentence.

(2) Whom do you think we should invite?

“Whom” is the object of the verb “invite”.

(4) Relative Pronouns:

You can use a relative pronoun which is used to link one phrase or clause to another phrase or clause.

The relative pronouns are

“who” , “whom”, “that”, and “which”.

The compounds “whoever”, “whomever”, and “whichever” are also the relative pronoun.

We can use the relative pronouns “Who”, and “whoever” to refer to the subject of the clause or sentence, and “whom”.

“who” and “whomever” refers to the objects of a verb or a preposition.

For example:

The candidate who wins the greatest popular vote is not always elected.

the relative pronoun is the subject of the verb “wins” and introduces the subordinate clause “wins the greatest popular vote”. This subordinate clause acts as an adjective modifying “candidate”.

Whoever broke the window will have to replace it.

“whoever” functions as the subject of the verb “broke”.

(5) Indefinite Verb

Pronoun referring to an identifiable but not specified person or thing.

An indefinite pronoun conveys the idea of all, any, none, or some.

The most common indefinite pronouns are

(1) “all”, “another”, “any”, “anybody”, “anyone”, “anything”,

(2) “each”, “everybody”, “everyone”, “everything”,

(3) “few”, “many”,

(4) “nobody”, “none”, “one”, “several”, “some”, “somebody” and “someone”.

For example:

Many were invited to lunch but only twelve showed up.

“many” acts as the subject of the compound by “were invited”.

(6) Reflexive pronoun

We can use a reflexive pronoun to refer back to the subject of the clause or sentence.

The reflexive pronouns are

“myself “, “Yourself”, ” herself”, ” itself”, “ourselves”, “yourselves”, “themselves”

For example

Diabetics give themselves insulin in shots several times a day.

(7) Emphatic pronoun:

It is used to emphasise its antecedent.

Emphatic pronouns are used after the subject of the sentence.

For example:

(1) I myself believe that honesty is the best policy.

“myself” is emphatic.

(2) They themselves promised to come to the party even though they had a final exam at the same time

“themselves” is emphatic.

Rules Of Pronouns

Rule 1:

Subjective pronouns are used when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence.

Examples:

I, you, he, she, it, we, and they all fit into the blank and are, therefore, subject pronouns.

Rule 2:

Subject pronouns are also used if they rename the subject. They follow to be verbs such as is, are, was, were, am, and, will be.

Examples:

It is he. It is we who are responsible for the decision to downsize.

Rule 3:

Objective pronouns are used everywhere else (direct object, indirect object, the object of the preposition).

Object pronouns are

me, you, him, her, it, us, and them.

Examples:

Jyoti talked to him.

Are you talking to me?

Rule 5:

To decide whether to use the subject or object pronoun after the words than or as, logically complete the sentence.

Example:

Zoya is taller than I/me.

If we have to complete that sentence logically then it’ll be like that-

Zoya is taller than I am.

Rule 6:

Possessive pronoun show ownership and never need apostrophes.

Possessive pronouns are:

mine, your, his, hers, ours, theirs.

The only time it’s has an apostrophe is when it is a contraction for it is or it has.

Example:

It’s a cold morning.

Rule 7:

Reflexive pronoun myself, Yourself, itself, themselves, ourselves, yourselves, yourself, should be used only when they referred back to another word in the sentence.

Correct- I worked myself on the project

Incorrect- My brother and myself did it.

The word myself does not refer back to another word.

Correct- My brother and I did it.

Incorrect- Please give it to Ramesh or myself.

Correct- Please give it to Ramesh or me.

Sometimes the pronoun one functions as a numerical expression:

(1) These are lovely dresses. I think I’ll buy one.

(2) One must work hard.

(3) One is purple, the other is green.

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