Types of Pronouns

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A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun in a sentence. Pronouns are used so that
our language is not cumbersome with the same nouns being repeated over and
over in a paragraph. Some examples of pronouns include I, me, mine, myself, she,
her, hers, herself, we, us, ours and ourselves. You may have noticed that they tend
to come in sets of four, all referring to the same person, group or thing.

He, him, his and himself, for example, all refer to a male person or something
belonging to him
They, them, theirs and themselves all refer to a group or something belonging to a
group, and so on.
The truth is that there are many different types of pronouns, each serving a
different purpose in a sentence.

Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns can be the subject of a clause or sentence. They are: I, he, she,
it, they, we, and you. Example: They went to the store.

Personal pronouns can also be objective, where they are the object of a verb,
preposition, or infinitive phrase. They are: me, her, him, it, you, them, and us.
Example: David gave the gift to her.

Possession can be shown by personal pronouns, like: mine, his, hers, ours, yours,
its, and theirs. Example: Is this mine or yours?

Subject Pronouns

Subject pronouns are often (but not always) found at the beginning of a sentence.
More precisely, the subject of a sentence is the person or thing that lives out the
verb.

I owe that person $3,000. I am living out that debt. I is the subject pronoun.
He and I had a fight. This sentence has two subjects because he and I were both
involved in the fight.
He broke my kneecaps. You get the idea.
To him, I must now pay my children's college funds. If you'll notice, the verb in this
sentence the action is "pay." Although I is not at the beginning of the sentence, it
is the person living out the action and is, therefore, the subject.
Object Pronouns
By contrast, objects and object pronouns indicate the recipient of an action or
motion. They come after verbs and prepositions (to, with, for, at, on, beside, under,
around, etc.).

The guy I borrowed money from showed me a crowbar and told me to pay him
immediately.
I begged him for more time.
He said he'd given me enough time already.
I tried to dodge the crowbar, but he hit me with it anyway.
Just then, the police arrived and arrested us.
Subject vs. Object Pronouns
There is often confusion over which pronouns you should use when you are one half
of a dual subject or object. For example, should you say:

"Me and him had a fight." or "He and I had a fight?"

"The police arrested me and him." or "The police arrested he and I?"
Some people will tell you that you should always put the other person first and refer
to yourself as "I" because it's more proper, but those people are wrong. You can put

the other person first out of politeness, but you should always use the correct
pronouns (subject or object) for the sentence.

A good test to decide which one you need is to try the sentence with one pronoun at
a time. Would you say, "Me had a fight?" Of course not. You'd say, "I had a fight."
What about, "Him had a fight?" No, you'd say, "He had a fight." So when you put the
two subjects together, you get, "He and I had a fight." The same rule applies to the
other example.

You wouldn't say, "The police arrested he," or, "The police arrested I."
You would use "him" and "me."
So the correct sentence is, "The police arrested him and me."

Possessive Adjectives vs. Possessive Pronouns

Pronominal possessive adjectives include the following: my, your, our, their, his, her
and its. They are sort of pronouns in that they refer to an understood noun, showing
possession by that noun of something. They are technically adjectives, though,
because they modify a noun that follows them.

My money is all gone.

I gambled it all away on your race horse.
His jockey was too fat.
In all of these examples, there is a noun (money, race horse, jockey) that has not
been replaced with a pronoun. Instead, an adjective is there to show whose money,
horse and jockey were talking about.

Possessive pronouns, on the other hand mine, yours, ours, theirs, his, hers, its
are truly pronouns because they refer to a previously named or understood noun.
They stand alone, not followed by any other noun. For comparison's sake, look at
this sentence:

You have your vices, and I have mine.

There are two types of pronouns here: subject (you/I) and possessive (mine).
There's also a possessive adjective (your). We'll deal with the subject pronouns
momentarily, but for now, just look at the others.

Your is followed by the noun, vices, so although we know that your refers to you, it
is not the noun or the noun substitute (pronoun). Vices is the noun. In the second
half of the sentence, however, the noun and the possessive adjective have both
been replaced with one word the pronoun, mine. Because it stands in the place of
the noun, mine is a true pronoun whereas your is an adjective that must be followed
by a noun.

Indefinite Pronouns
These pronouns do not point to any particular nouns, but refer to things or people in
general. Some of them are: few, everyone, all, some, anything, and nobody.
Example: Everyone is already here.

Relative Pronouns
These pronouns are used to connect a clause or phrase to a noun or pronoun. These
are: who, whom, which, whoever, whomever, whichever, and that. Example: The
driver who ran the stop sign was careless.

Intensive Pronouns
These pronouns are used to emphasize a noun or pronoun. These are: myself,
himself, herself, themselves, itself, yourself, yourselves, and ourselves. Example:
He himself is his worst critic.

Demonstrative Pronouns
There are five demonstrative pronouns: these, those, this, that, and such. They
focus attention on the nouns that are replacing. Examples: Such was his
understanding. Those are totally awesome.

Interrogative Pronouns
These pronouns are used to begin a question: who, whom, which, what, whoever,
whomever, whichever, and whatever. Example: Who will you bring to the party?

Reflexive Pronouns
There is one more type of pronoun, and that is the reflexive pronoun. These are the
ones that end in self or "selves." They are object pronouns that we use when the
subject and the object are the same noun.

I told myself not to bet all my money on one horse.

The robber hurt himself chasing me through the alley.
We also use them to emphasize the subject.

Usually, the guy I borrowed the money from will send an employee to collect the
money, but since I owed so much, he himself came to my house