The Pronoun
Pronoun – an independent part of speech that indicates a person, object, sign, quantity, but does not name them. Pronouns are often used to avoid repeating the nouns to which they refer. There are different types of pronouns in the English language (Personal Pronouns, Demonstrative Pronouns, Possessive Pronouns, Interrogative Pronouns, Reflexive Pronouns, Reciprocal Pronouns, Indefinite Pronouns, Relative Pronouns). You can read more about them here. However, it makes no sense for beginners to learn them all. In order to structure pronouns, consider a table that will give a basic idea of pronouns.
Table of English pronouns
| Subject Pronouns | Object Pronouns | Possessive Adjectives | Possessive Pronouns | Reflexive Pronouns | |
| 1st person singular | I | Me | My | Mine | Myself |
| 2nd person singular | You | You | Your | Yours | Yourself |
| 3rd person singular (male) | He | Him | His | His | Himself |
| 3rd person singular (female) | She | Her | Her | Hers | Herself |
| 3rd person | It | It | Its | Its | Itself |
| 1st person (plural) | We | Us | Our | Ours | Ourselves |
| 2nd person (plural) | You | You | Your | Yours | Yourselves |
| 3rd person (plural) | They | Them | Their | Theirs | Themselves |
In English, pronouns can perform the following roles:
- subject – the main member of the sentence that performs the action
- the direct object (complement) – what the action is aimed at
- indirect object (complement) – the one to whom or for whom the action is performed
- subject attachment – usually follows the word be (in various forms) in the sentence and gives additional information about the subject
- reflexive pronoun – to refer to a previously mentioned noun or pronoun
Examples:
- I like your dress
- Can you help me, please?
- Behave yourself!
Pronouns fall under the following groups:
- personal pronouns — I, he, she, it, we, you, they
- possessive pronouns — my, his, her, its, our, your, their; mine, his, hers, ours, yours, theirs
- reflexive pronouns — myself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourself (yourselves), themselves
- reciprocal pronouns — each other, one another
- demonstrative pronouns — this (these), that (those), such, (the) same
- interrogative pronouns — who, whose, what, which
- indefinite pronouns — some, any, somebody, anybody, something, anything, someone, anyone, one
- negative pronouns — no, none, neither, nobody, no one, nothing
- defining pronouns — each, every, everybody, everyone, everything, all, either, both, other, another
- relative pronouns — who, whose, which, that, as
- conjunctive pronouns — who, whose, which, what