Bela Septia Ardini : Pronouns

In grammar, a pronoun is defined as a word or phrase that may be substituted for a noun or noun phrase, which once replaced, is known as the pronoun’s antecedent. How is this possible? In a nutshell, it’s because pronouns can do everything that nouns can do. A pronoun can act as a subject, direct object, indirect object, object of the preposition, and more.

Without pronouns, we’d have to keep on repeating nouns, and that would make our speech and writing repetitive, not to mention cumbersome. Most pronouns are very short words. Examples include:

He
She
They
It
We
Who

As mentioned, pronouns are usually used to replace nouns, however they can also stand in for certainadverbs, adjectives, and other pronouns. Anytime you want to talk about a person, animal, place or thing, you can use pronouns to make your speech or writing flow better.

Types of Pronouns

Pronouns can be divided into numerous categories including:

Indefinite pronouns – those referring to one or more unspecified objects, beings, or places
Personal pronouns – those associated with a certain person, thing, or group; all except you have distinct forms that indicate singular or plural number
Reflexive pronouns – those preceded by the adverb, adjective, pronoun, or noun to which they refer, and ending in –self or –selves
Demonstrative pronouns – those used to point to something specific within a sentence
Possessive pronouns – those designating possession or ownership
Relative pronouns – those which refer to nouns mentioned previously, acting to introduce an adjective (relative) clause
Interrogative pronouns – those which introduce a question
Reciprocal pronouns – those expressing mutual actions or relationship; i.e. one another
Intensive pronouns – those ending in –self or –selves and that serve to emphasize their antecedents

Pronoun Rules

There are a few important rules for using pronouns. As you read through these rules and the examples in the next section, notice how the pronoun rules are followed. Soon you’ll see that pronouns are easy to work with.

Subject pronouns may be used to begin sentences. For example: We did a great job.
Subject pronouns may also be used to rename the subject. For example: It was she who decided we should go to Hawaii.
Indefinite pronouns don’t have antecedents. They are capable of standing on their own. For example: No one likes the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard.
Object pronouns are used as direct objects, indirect objects, and objects of prepositions. These include: you, me, him, her, us, them, and it. For example: David talked to her about the mistake.
Possessive pronouns show ownership. They do not need apostrophes. For example: The cat washed its whiskers.

Examples of Pronouns

In the following examples, the pronouns are italicized.