Pronouns

Many pronouns can be used as substitutes for nouns:

          

         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, etc.

    Possessive pronouns: my/mine, your/yours, etc.

    Reflexive pronouns: myself, yourself, etc.

As Table 2 shows, these three subclasses are closely related to each other.

We discuss each subclass in the following sections.

Personal pronouns

The personal pronouns exhibit contrasts for person

(first person, second person, or third person), number (singular or plural

Table2
Personal, possessive, and reflexive pronouns
Person	Number	Gender	Personal pronouns		Possessive pronouns			Reflexive
			Subjective Objective		Dependent Independent			pronouns
1st	Singular	–	I	me	my	mine		myself
2nd	Singular	–	you	you	your	yours		yourself
3rd	Singular	Masculine	he	him	his	his		himself
		Feminine	she	her	her	hers		herself
		Non-personal	it	it	its	–		itself
1st	Plural	–	we	us	our	ours		ourselves
2nd	Plural	–	you	you	your	yours		yourselves
3rd	Plural	–	they	them	their	theirs		themselves

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 subjective forms of the personal pronouns are used when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence :

          I gave David a present.

         You need a holiday, Sam.

         He/she/it needs medical help.

         We travelled by plane.

        You should all complete an application form.

        They enjoyed the film.

The objective 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.

                        Marie met us at the airport.

                        I’ll bring you a nice surprise.

                        Susan telephoned them.

2 After a preposition:

                     David gave it to me.

                     I’ll probably get there before you.

                    She arrived after him/her/it.

                    He’s not coming with us.

                     I’m tired talking to you people.

                    I’m writing a song for them.

There is no formal distinction between subjective you and objective you:

            Subjective: You e-mailed me yesterday.

            Objective: I e-mailed you yesterday.

Likewise, there is no formal distinction between singular you and plural you. When necessary, speakers and writers make the reference explicitly plural by expanding it, for instance by using both of you, you both, all of you, you people, you children, you guys (American English, informal).

    Possessive pronouns

The possessive pronouns  exhibit contrasts for person

 (first person, second person, or third person) and for number (singular or plural). Like the personal pronouns, possessive pronouns have gender-based contrasts (masculine, feminine or nonpersonal) in the third-person singular.

Each possessive pronoun has two distinct forms, the dependent form and the independent form. Dependent possessives are used before a noun:

        This is my car.

        I’ve borrowed your computer.

        She took his/her/its photograph.

       We’ve lost our way.

       They sold their house.

Independent possessives are used without a following noun. They mostcommonly occur after of, in independent genitives :

        a friend of mine

        this partner of yours

       a colleague of his/hers

       an uncle of ours

       that dog of yours

       a relative of theirs

Independent possessives also occur in other positions, especially when the context makes clear what the pronoun refers to:

John’s car is fast, but mine is cheaper to run.

(‘mine’ = ‘my car’)

You are in my address book, but am I in yours?

(‘yours’ = ‘your address book’)

The non-personal possessive pronoun its cannot be used independently.Compare:

        The blue ribbon is his.

        The red ribbon is hers.

      *The yellow ribbon is its.

Its can only be used dependently, before a noun:

       The horse shook its head.

Reflexive pronouns

The reflexive pronouns end in -self (singular) or -selves (plural). 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).

The reflexive pronouns are used to refer back to the subject of the same sentence:

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

Here, himself refers back to Michael, the subject of the sentence.

Less commonly, reflexive pronouns are used for emphasis:

                The Chancellor mentioned tax cuts, but he himself                             knowsthat the

  
                time is not right for reform.

Here, the reflexive himself co-occurs with the corresponding personal

pronoun (subjective case) he. Similarly:

               I myself                        we ourselves

               you yourself                they themselves

              she herself

   Gender-neutral pronouns

English lacks a gender-neutral pronoun in the singular. He is masculine,and she is feminine, but no pronoun exists to refer to people of unknown or unidentified sex (it can only be used to refer 

to objects and animals,not to people). Therefore a problem arises in sentences such as:

  Somebody has left his coat behind.

Clearly, the sex of ‘somebody’ is not known, so there is no way of

knowing whether to use his coat or her coat. Traditionally, the masculine his has been used in these circumstances, as in the example above.
However, the arbitrary choice of his over her is now felt by many people to be unacceptably sexist.

A common solution is to use his or her (or his/her):

      Somebody has left his or her coat behind.

Likewise, the subjective pronouns he or she, he/she (and even s/he) are sometimes used as gender-neutral pronouns:

       Encourage your child to read when he or she reaches the age of 3.

However, this can be stylistically irritating, especially when it is repeated:

    He or she has to satisfy the jury that he or she is right.

    A candidate who wishes to enter the school before his or
    her eighteenth birthday may be asked to write to state his or her reasons.

Recently, the plural pronouns their (possessive) and they (subjective) are increasingly being used:

 Somebody has left their coat behind.

 Encourage your child to read when they reach the age of three.

Demonstrative pronouns

The demonstrative pronouns are:

this, that, these, those

This and that are singular, and are used with singular nouns:

       Do you need this pen?

       I really like that plant.

These and those are plural, and are used with plural nouns:

         Who owns these pens?

         We should buy some of those plants.

The demonstrative pronouns may also be used independently, that is,without a following noun:

     This is a great film.

     That is the challenge we face.

     These are very good apples.

     Those are quite cheap.

Relative pronouns

The relative pronouns are:

who, whom, whose, which, that

Relative pronouns introduce a relative clause:

     That’s the man who lives beside us.

     That’s the man whom we met yesterday.

     The problem which we’re facing is very serious.

     The thing that worries me most is the overdraft.

Who and whom differ in case. Who is subjective:

      the man who lives beside us (cf. the man lives beside us)

Whom is objective:

the man whom we met (cf. we met the man)


In formal contexts, and especially in writing, whom is used after a preposition:

     the man on whom we rely

    the people with whom he used to work

    the person to whom it is addressed

In less formal contexts, including everyday speech, whom is often omitted altogether, and the preposition is moved to the end:

      the man we rely on

      the people he used to work with

      the person it is addressed to

Pronoun it

The pronoun it has two major uses:

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

               The car skidded on ice.           ~It skidded on ice.

               Paul left his coat at school.      ~Paul left it at school.

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

             It is very cold.

             It rained last night.

             It is four o’clock.

             It is getting late.


This is sometimes called ‘empty it’ or ‘dummy it’, because it does
not refer to anything in particular. Empty it is also used, with even
vaguer reference, in many other expressions, including:

            Hold it! (= ‘Stop’)

            Take it easy!

            Can you make it to my party tonight?

  Pronoun one

The pronoun one has two distinct uses:

1       Substitute one is used as a substitute for a noun that has been
         mentioned earlier:

            The black coat is nice but the green one is awful.

Here, the pronoun one substitutes for the noun coat (cf. the green
coat is awful). Further examples of substitute one include:

          The problem is a complex one. (one = ‘problem’)

          The house was not a modern one, but it was comfortable.
          (one = ‘house’)

           I need a scanner so I’ll just have to buy one.
          (one = ‘a scanner’)

 Substitute one has a plural form, ones:

              The black coats are nice but the green ones are awful.

2      Generic one carries a generic meaning corresponding                        to ‘people ingeneral’:                   

        One can’t expect miracles.

        One loses interest in everything when one has children.

Generic one has a genitive form one’s:

       When one is cold, one’s capillaries close to minimise heat       loss.

The corresponding reflexive pronoun is oneself:

      One could easily find oneself out of a job.

Generic one is largely confined to written English. It can often be
replaced by the less formal you:


      You could easily find yourself out of a job.