Pronouns

Personal Pronouns A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun or nouns. Those words that refer to people or things are called personal pronouns. Examples: her, he, she, we, they, it, his, hers -they refer to the person speaking (1st person), the one spoken to (2nd person) OR the one spoken about (3rd person) -these pronouns can be either singular or plural

he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its Personal Pronouns Person Singular Plural First Person I, me, my, mine we, us, our, ours Second Person you, your, yours Third Person he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its they, them, their, theirs

Subject and Object Pronouns A subject pronoun is in the nominative case. It is the subject of the sentence. Example: I went to the store. We will go to town. An object pronoun is in the objective case, meaning it is the direct or indirect object of the verb. It will come after the verb. Example: Sarah read me the story.

Pronouns and Antecedents The word or group of words a pronoun refers to is known as the antecedent. The antecedent may or may not be in the same sentence as the pronoun. A sentence can have more than one pronoun and more than one antecedent Example: Tom said his mom had a new car. *his=pronoun & Tom=antecedent Kara and Mike will go to their aunts’ house today. *their=pronoun & Kara, Mike=antecedent Bobby is a middle school student. Next year he will be in high school. *he=pronoun & Bobby=antecedent

Possessive Pronouns Same as a possessive nouns, a possessive pronoun shows ownership. Example: The book is hers. However, possessive pronouns do NOT have an apostrophe. (it’s is not a pronoun) Sometimes pronouns are before the noun and sometimes they are used alone. Ex: A fable is a tale. Its characters are often animals. Aesop’s Fables are a favorite of mine.

Possessive Pronouns This table shows the possessive pronouns that are used alone and before nouns. Singular Plural Used Before Nouns my, your, her, his its our, your, their Used Alone mine, yours, hers, his, its ours, yours theirs

Indefinite Pronouns An indefinite pronoun does not refer to a particular person, place, thing, or idea. They too can be used alone or with nouns. They can be singular or plural. Indefinite pronouns that change their number are all, any, most, none, & some. Possessive pronouns sometimes have indefinite pronouns as their antecedents. In that case, the pronouns must agree in number.

Indefinite Pronouns Always SINGULAR Always PLURAL Another Anybody Anyone Anything Each either Everybody Everyone Everything Much Neither Nobody No one Nothing One Somebody Someone something Both Few Many Others several **Pronouns are not capitalized unless they are the beginning word in a sentence.**