What is a Pronoun?
Pronouns are words used in place of noun.
Types of Pronoun
1. Personal Pronoun: It is made up of 1st person, 2nd person and 3rd person pronoun. They are in singular and phrasal form. E.g.
Singular Plural
I, We 1st person
You, You 2nd person
He, They
She, They 3rd person
It, They
1. First Person Pronoun: This refers to asset of pronouns and verb form that indicate the speaker and someone else. Words like I, we, me and us are all examples of the first person pronoun.
First person pronoun takes plural verbs. E.g. I have some clothes for sale. We have enough food in the house.
In personal pronoun under.
First person pronoun. I and we function as subjective form while me and us function in the objective form.
(ii) The Second Person Pronoun: This refers to pronoun or verb form used when addressing someone i.e. the person or group of persons you are speaking to. The word you is the only example of the second person pronoun. In this statement, you are good. Are is functioning as a verb in the second person. You is used for both singular and plural. A main verb placed after the second person you must be in its past or past participle tense. It should also be in its plural form. E.g You came very late.
You have done a good job.
You go to work very late.
In the first example above ‘came’ is a verb in its past tense. In the second example, ‘don’ is a verb in its past participle tense and in the third example ‘go’ is a verb in its plural form. The principles used above will help you know the proper use of main verb with the second person you.
(iii) Third Person Pronoun: This talks about the person spoken about. These are pronouns that someone used to refer to other people or things spoken about. He, she, it and they are examples of the third person pronoun. He, she and it, all fall under the third person singular pronoun while ‘they’ falls under the third person plural. In simple sentence formation, a main verb placed immediately after the third person singular pronoun must be in its singular form.
E.g. He comes here always. In the sentence given, He is a third person while comes is a singular verb because of the ending ‘s’. likewise a main verb that appears after the third person plural pronoun while came is a plural verb because there is no ending’s’.
2. Demonstrative Pronoun:- These are words which point to the person or things, they are referring to. They point to the distance of such a referent from the speaker. They aer in singular e.g. This , that and plural e.g. these, those.
This and these are used for things that are near while that and those are for things are far off. E.g across the road.
1. Those are my brothers standing across the road.
2. That house belongs to us.
3. These are my friends.
4. This is my bag.
3. Possessive Pronoun:- This group of pronoun shows ownership (possession). Examples: mine, our ours, your, yours, her, hers, his, their, its etc.
(i) The building is ours
(ii) The book is mine.
(iii) The biro is yours
(iv) The new car is hers.
(v) The clothes are theirs.
4. Interrogative Pronoun:- These pronouns are used to ask questions. They ae who, where, when, whose, whom, which.
(i) Who sent you on this dangerous journey?
(ii) Which of the buildings is yours?
5. Relative Pronoun: They are used to introduce relative clause. These include whom, who, which, whose, when, where, that etc.
(i) This is the house where I was born.
(ii) The dress which my husband bought for me suits my shape.
6. Reflexive Pronoun:- These pronouns make reference to the subject in the sentence. E.g. himself, themselves, ourselves, yourselves, myself, itself, herself.
(i) My mother washes her clothes herself.
(ii) The President himself visited the scene of the crisis.
(iii) We did the job ourselves.
7. Indefinite Pronoun:- This type of pronoun do not refer to a particular or specific people or things. E.g. someone, somebody, everybody, nobody, everything, many, few, several, more, much, both, either, neither etc. Eg.
(i) None of the student was present at his seminar.
(ii) Somebody is here to see this manager.
(iii) Everyone is free to go home now.
8. Reciprocal Pronoun:- This indicate an exchange of a actions between two or more people. E.g. each other, one another. Each other refers to two people while one another refers to more than two people. E.g.
(i) Dayo and Shola fought each other.
(ii) The students taught one another in the exam hall.
In summary, pronoun remains very important in English Grammar. We need to read and know them to help in good grammatical structures in our daily usage.