Pronouns Part 2

Possessive pronouns A possessive pronoun such as mine indicates possession. Mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs Possessive case pronouns, such as its, are already possessive, and therefore do not have an apostrophe. Notice that there is a singular yours and a plural yours.

Possessive adjectives The words my, your, his her, its, are, your, and their are possessive adjectives, not possessive pronouns. They resemble possessive pronouns, but they only modify rather than substitute for nouns.

My book My is blue.

Its or it’s? The word its is a possessive pronoun or adjective. The word it’s is a contraction of it and is. The apostrophe replaces the missing i. It’s too late to lock its cage. Wrong: The dog lost it’s bone.

Interrogative pronouns Who, whose, whom, which, what? Who went to the piazza?

Demonstrative pronouns This, that, these, those This is the dog I like. This dog (demonstrative adjective)

Indefinite pronouns Someone, somebody, anyone, anybody, everyone, nobody Everyone is here. Nobody liked it. Indefinite pronouns ending in one or body are singular!

Relative pronouns A relative pronoun relates an adjective clause to a main clause. Who, whose, whom, which, that The man who followed you turned left. Who is a subject and whom is an object. The composer who wrote the Brandenburg Concerto was Bach. You asked whom?

Reflexive pronouns A reflexive pronoun is a –self or –selves pronoun that reflects back to a word used previously in the sentence. I found myself awash on a strange beach.

Intensive pronouns An intensive pronoun is also a –self or –selves pronoun, but it is used to intensify the emphasis on a preceding noun, usually the subject. I myself agree with him.

In summary Subject: I, you, he, she, it Object: me, you, him, her, it, us, them Possessive: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs Interrogative: who, whose, whom, which, that Demonstrative: this, that, these, those Indefinite: anyone, anybody, each, all, everybody, nobody, nothing, no one, one, etc. Relative: who, whose, whom, which, that Reflexive: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourself, etc. Intensive: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourself, etc.