Table of Contents

Pronouns in English

Pronouns are words that replace nouns. We usually use pronouns instead of repeating the same noun in a series of sentences. Let’s take a look at the following example.

Without pronouns	With pronouns
Shaan is a student.	He is a student.
Shaan is from India.	He is from India.
Shaan has a car.	He has a car.
Shaan likes to play football.	He likes to play football.
Shaan is a good boy.	He is a good boy.
My mother is a Musician.	My mother is a Musician.
My mother is tall.	She is tall.
My mother has a car.	She has a car.
The car is red in colour.	It is red in colour.

As in above examples, pronouns provide substitutions for other nouns.

Noun	Substituting Pronoun
Shaan	He
My mother	She
The car	It

Different Pronouns in use

There are different pronouns which are used in common for different categories of nouns.

Category	Pronoun
1st person Pronoun	I, me, myself, mine We, us, our, ours, ourselves
2nd person Pronoun	You, your, yours, yourselves
3rd person – Masculine	He, his, him, himself
3rd person – Feminine	She, her, hers, herself
3rd person – Other Living things	It, Its, Itself
3rd Person Plural – both Masculine and Feminine	They, their, theirs, them, themselves

All the above pronouns are again categorized according to their different functions in sentences. Further, there are singular pronouns as well as plural pronouns. Each aspect of categorization will be dealt with separately in the following sections.

Subject Pronouns

Subject pronouns are those that replace the nouns which function as subjects in sentences.

Kate	is	a teacher.
Subject	verb
She	is	very kind.
Subject Pronoun	verb

“Kate” is the subject of this sentence.

We need to use a Subject Pronoun in order to replace a noun which functions as a subject in a sentence.

In the next sentence “Kate” is replaced by “She”.

Pronouns are number sensitive. There are singular pronouns and plural pronouns. Hence, Subject Pronouns are categorized based on their number as follows.

Subject Pronouns in example sentences

I, He, She, It, We, You, They

Singular	Plural
I Eg: I am Neil.	We Eg: We are happy.
You Eg: You are a good student.	You Eg: You are good students.
He Eg: He is a doctor.	They Eg: They are policemen.
She Eg: She is a nurse.
It Eg: It is a parrot.

Object Pronouns

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

Object pronouns are those which replace the nouns functioning as Objects in sentences.
Eg: -

The teacher	talked	to	the student.
Subject	verb		object
The teacher	talked	to	him.
Subject	verb		Object Pronoun

“the student” is the object of this sentence.

We need to use an Object Pronoun in order to replace a noun which functions as an Object in a sentence.

In the next sentence “The student” is replaced by the object pronoun “him”.

There are singular and plural object pronouns.

Categorization of corresponding Object Pronouns according to Number and Person

Object Pronouns in example sentences

Let’s see how Object pronouns are used in the following example sentences.

He is cleaning it.
She gave me a book.
I love her very much.
I love you.
I like it.
Our parents love us.
The school took us to see the museum.
I have a cat and a parrot as pets. I love them so much.
The dog is running after him.
I saw him yesterday.

Pronouns used as Possessive Adjectives

my, your, his, her, its, our, their.

Possessive Pronoun Adjectives of the work of an adjective. They come before a noun and provide further information about the noun.
Eg:

book
My book

Possessive Pronoun Adjectives talk about ownership.

This is Kate.
Mary is Kate’s best friend.

Instead of “Kate’s” in the second sentence, we can use the Possessive Pronoun Adjective “her”.

Mary is her best friend. (Kate’s)

They are not number sensitive. Same Possessive Adjective is used for both singular and plural nouns. Possessive Pronoun Adjectives are also called Possessive Determiners.
Eg:

This is my book. (book – singular)
These are my books. (books – plural)

Possessive Pronoun

Mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs.

A pronoun which directly indicates possession is a Possessive Pronoun. Possessive Pronouns talk about the ownership of something or someone by something or someone. A Possessive pronoun usually comes at the end of a sentence.

Eg: - This book is mine.

The Possessive Pronouns with their Corresponding Subject Pronouns are listed below with examples.

Let’s compare contrast the difference between the Possessive Pronoun Adjective and the Possessive Pronoun.

difference between the Possessive Pronoun Adjective and the Possessive Pronoun english

Reflexive Pronoun

Myself, yourself, herself, himself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.

Reflexive Pronouns refer black to another noun in the same sentence. Most of the time, the Reflexive Pronoun is used when the subject and the object of a sentence are the same. Usually, the reflexive pronoun wishes to highlight that something has been done by the same person / persons/ things. The purpose here is emphasis.
Eg:

I have done it myself.
You should write the essay yourself.
They have built a nice house themselves.

As you can see in the above examples, the subject and the verb should match with each other. This means, the Reflexive Pronoun used should be the one that is corresponding to the relevant subject pronoun.
Eg:

I have done it myself.
You should write the essay yourself.
They have built a nice house themselves.

There are 8 different Reflexive Pronouns in use according to number and person. They are listed below along with their corresponding Subject Pronoun.

Let’s summarize all types of Pronouns in one table.

Let’s analyze how all types of Pronouns are used in the following examples.

This is Daisy.
She is from Canada. (Subject Pronoun)
She is wearing a frock today. (Subject Pronoun)
It is pink in colour. (Subject Pronoun)
I like her. (Object Pronoun)
This is her room. (Possessive Adjective)
She cleans it herself. (Reflexive Pronoun)
This book is hers. (Possessive Pronoun)

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