English Pronouns
Types of Pronouns. List of Pronouns. Pronouns vs Adjectives. Examples. Quizzes.

What is a Pronoun?

A Pronoun is a word used in place of a Noun.

Usually pronouns refer to something that was already mentioned in previous sentence or understood by the listener or reader. They are very useful words because when you use them, you do not need to repeat nouns all the time.

Without pronouns
  • Alexander is my neighbor. Alexander says that Alexander likes to sleep.
With pronouns
  • Alexander is my neighbor. He says that he likes to sleep.
When a pronoun replaces a word (or a group of words), the word being replaced is called an antecedent. In the following sentence, president is antecedent of the pronoun who.
  • I wrote a letter to the president, who responded quickly.

A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in person, number, and gender.

The Types of Pronouns

The different kinds of pronouns are
Demonstrative Personal Indefinite Intensive Interrogative Reciprocal Reflexive Relative

Possessive Adjectives are a type of pronoun though they are technically an Adjectives because they modify a noun that follows them.

Pronouns vs Adjectives

Some words that function as pronouns may function as adjectives.

Pronouns vs Adjectives - Examine the following comparisons
Possessive Adjectives vs Possessive Pronouns, Demonstrative Adjectives vs Demonstrative Pronouns, Interrogative Adjectives vs Interrogative Pronouns, Indefinite Adjectives vs Indefinite Pronouns

English Pronouns List Alphabetical list of English pronouns with definitions and translations.

Practice - Pronoun Quizzes

Read the material on this page first. If you feel ready - take the quizzes!

Personal Pronouns
Quiz on Pronoun Usage. Personal, possessive, reflexive/intensive pronouns, and possessive adjectives.

The Types of Pronouns
Identify the type of a pronoun in each sentence. Personal, Demonstrative, Relative, Reflexive, Indefinite, etc.

Pronoun or Adjective
Identify the function of the word in the sentence. Demonstrative, Interrogative, and Indefinite pronouns acting as adjectives.

Pronouns Practice
Identify each pronoun in a sentence by clicking on it. Random sentences are given each time.

Pronoun: Who Whom Whose
Learn how to use subjective, objective, and possessive forms of the pronoun Who

Practice. Pronouns Spelling Test Practice spelling of English pronouns. You may choose only those pronouns that you have trouble with.



Personal Pronouns

In order to use personal pronouns, it is important to know about case (subject, object, and possessive), number (singular and plural), person (first, second, and third), and gender (male, female and neutral).

Table below shows the breakdown of the English personal pronouns along the four dimensions of case, number, person and gender.
It also lists Possessive Adjectives and Reflexive/Intensive Pronouns discussed later in corresponding sections.

Personal Pronouns Possessive
Adjectives 		Reflexive/Intensive
Pronouns
Subject Object Possessive
Singular
1st Person I me mine my myself
2nd Person you you yours your yourself
3rd Person (m-f-n) he she it him her it his hers its his her its himself herself itself
Plural
1st Person we us ours our ourselves
2nd Person you you yours your yourselves
3rd Person they them theirs their themselves

Subject Pronouns

I, you, she, he, it, we, they are used as a subject or subject complement.

She is a teacher. It was he who said that.

Object Pronouns

me, you, him, her, them, us, it are used as an indirect object, direct object, or object of a preposition.

She baked him a pie. I can hardly see it. They are going with us.

Possessive Pronouns

mine, yours, his, hers, theirs, ours, its take the place of possessive nouns.

If this isn’t ours, it must be theirs. Yours is much better then mine.

Case and Personal Pronouns

Always use subjective(nominative) case pronoun if pronoun is a part of the subject.
  • My sister and me went to the movie. (Incorrect)
  • My sister and I went to the movie. (Correct)
    • In example above the pronoun is a part of the subject so subject pronoun should be used.
Always use objective case pronoun if pronoun is part of the object.
  • My sister took a picture of him and I. (Incorrect)
  • My sister took a picture of him and me. (Correct)
    • In this example the pronoun is a direct object so object pronoun should be used.

Person and Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns are called personal because they indicate a person speaking, spoken to, or spoken about. Personal pronoun refers to a specific individual(singular) or a group(plural).

I saw you when she talked to them.

  • The pronoun I refers to the person speaking. - (1st person)
  • The pronoun you refers to the person spoken to. - (2nd Person)
  • The pronoun she and them refer to persons spoken about. - (3rd Person)

Number and Personal Pronouns

The number shows whether the pronoun refers to a single person or thing or more than one person or things. It tells what verb to use – singular or plural.

  • He is late. - using singular form of the verb: to be - is
  • We are late. - using plural form of the verb: to be - are
Remember that pronoun you, whether it is plural or singular, always takes a plural form of the verb to be
  • You is late. You was tired. (Incorrect)
  • You are late. You were tired. (Correct)

Gender and Personal Pronouns

Some of the personal pronouns have gender, which means that they are masculine (male), feminine (female) or neuter (neither male or female). Knowing the gender of antecedent, we can choose a pronoun with matching gender.

  • Alex is my brother. I like him.
  • This is Nancy. She is ten.
  • This is my watch. Give it to me.

Practice. Personal Pronouns - Quiz on Pronoun Usage. Personal, possessive, reflexive/intensive pronouns, and possessive adjectives.

Intensive Pronouns

Intensive pronouns (also called emphatic) end with self or selves and emphasize (intensify) a noun or another pronoun. They make you notice the nouns and pronouns they go with.

In this sentence, the pronoun is himself and it goes with the noun Instructor.
  • Instructor himself ordered this product.
In that sentence, the pronoun is ourselves and it goes with the pronoun We
  • We did all the work ourselves.

List of Intensive pronouns: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, oneself, ourselves, themselves, yourselves

See [Reflexive/Intensive Pronouns] column in Personal Pronouns table above on how intensive pronouns classified by gender, person and number.

Reflexive Pronouns

Reflexive pronouns are the same as intensive pronouns (see above) but they don’t intensify; they point back to the subject of the sentence.

  • He wanted to kick himself for even making that stupid comment.
  • I bought myself a new shirt.

Reflexive and intensive pronouns turn the action of the verb back to the subject of the sentence.
Never use a reflexive/intensive pronoun in place of a personal pronoun. They are correctly used only in reflexive or intensive roles.

The following sentences are incorrect.
  • Mary and myself went to the movie.
  • My father drove Mary and myself to the movie.
The following sentences are correct.
  • Mary and I went to the movie.
  • My father drove Mary and me to the movie.

List of reflexive pronouns: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, oneself, ourselves, themselves, yourselves

See [Reflexive/Intensive Pronouns] column in Personal Pronouns table above on how reflexive pronouns classified by gender, person and number.

Relative Pronouns

Relative Pronoun begins a subordinate clause and connects that clause to another noun that precedes it in the sentence.

List of relative pronouns: who, whom, whose, whoever, whomever, which, whichever, that, what, whatever.

  • It is a book that is difficult to ignore.
  • The dog, which is a terrier, is four years old.
  • I will consider renting or buying, whichever works out best.

All relative pronouns do not change the form with gender, person, or number. Only who changes form with case.

Subjective: who, Objective: whom, Possessive: whose

  • The girl who told me the story lives down the street.
  • The girl whom I chose will get a present.
  • I am not sure whose that is.

Practice. Pronoun: Who Whom Whose - Learn how to use subjective, objective, and possessive forms of the pronoun Who

Interrogative Pronouns

Interrogative pronouns are used to begin or introduce interrogative sentences.

They are similar to the Relative Pronouns; the difference is their use in the sentence.

List of interrogative pronouns who, whom, whose, what, and which.

  • Whom did you invite to the party?
  • Which did you prefer?
  • Who did what to whom?

Reciprocal Pronouns

Reciprocal Pronouns show a mutual relationship. They are each other and one another.

Each other is used when the group consists of just two people, animals or things.

One another is used when the groups consists of more than two people, animals or things.

  • John and Bob respect each other.
  • We are commanded to love one another.

Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative Pronouns point out a specific persons, animals, places, things or ideas.

List of Demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, those

  • That is his book. This is an excellent question.
  • I want to exchange this for that and these for those.

Indefinite pronouns

Indefinite pronouns do not refer to any particular persons or places or things. They replace nouns without specifying which noun they replace.

List of Indefinite Pronouns

Singular: another, anybody, anyone, anything, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, little, much, neither, nobody, no one, nothing, one, other, somebody, someone, something

Plural: both, few, many, others, several

Singular or plural: all, any, more, most, none, some

Hint: Indefinite pronouns that end in -one or -body are always singular. //except none//
These words include: anyone, everyone, someone, one, anybody, somebody, nobody.

Examples: Pronouns that are always singular
  • Everybody can do something, but nobody can do everything.
  • Either looks like a good option.
Examples: Pronouns that are always plural
  • Few were late for the meeting.
  • Many bought tickets to the show.
For indefinite pronouns that can be singular or plural, it depends on what the indefinite pronoun refers to.
  • There is a lot of furniture in the room; some is damaged.
    some refers to furniture, which is singular.
  • There are many books there; some are very interesting.
    some refers to books, which is plural.


Possessive Adjectives

Possessive adjectives (also called Possessive Determiners) always modify/describe a noun. They must be used together with nouns they are describing, and come in front of them.

List of possessive determiners: my, your, his, her, its, our, their.

  • His book is excellent.
  • Their house is new.

Highlighted words inform us to whom something belongs and their function is similar to those of adjectives.

See [Possessive Adjectives] column in Personal Pronouns table above on how possessive adjectives classified by gender, person and number.

Pronouns vs Adjectives

Some words that function as pronouns may function as adjectives because they tell something about the noun they modify rather than stand in for it.

Examine the following comparisons to see the different roles of some words and remember that adjective describes a noun and pronoun replaces a noun.

Possessive Adjectives vs Possessive Pronouns

  • My English is good. - vs - Mine is better.
  • I see your money. - vs - Yours are gone.
  • His girl is a student. - vs - I will take his.
  • I like her hair. - vs - It is hers.
  • It is our place. - vs - It is ours.
  • Their house is old. - vs - I do not want theirs.

Demonstrative Adjectives vs Demonstrative Pronouns

  • I like that story. - vs - I like that.
  • These quizzes are nice. - vs - These are nice quizzes.
  • Who did this work? - vs - Who did this?

Interrogative Adjectives vs Interrogative Pronouns

  • Which classes did you take? - vs - Which did you like?
  • Whose phone did you use? - vs - Whose did you break?
  • What kind of pronoun is it? - vs - What is a pronoun?

Indefinite Adjectives vs Indefinite Pronouns

  • Many children like ice cream. - vs - Many bought tickets to the show.
  • Do you want some bananas? - vs - Some are not fresh.
  • Is there any tea? - vs - No, there isn't any.
  • I need a few minutes. - vs - I have a few.

Practice. Pronoun or Adjective - Identify the function of the word in the sentence. Demonstrative, interrogative, and indefinite pronouns acting as adjectives.