Chapter 3

Pronouns
Grammar
Generally (but not always) pronouns stand for (pro + noun) or refer to a noun (an individual or individuals
or thing or things). What it refers to becomes the pronouns antecedent whose identity is made clear earlier
in the text.
Sheetal is a good girl. She does not hurt anyone.
But not always,
They say that eating beef is bad for you.
They is a pronoun referring to someone, but who are they? Cows? Whom do they represent? Sloppy use of
pronouns is when the antecedent is not made clear.
However, not all pronouns will refer to an antecedent. When the meaning is clear the use is not sloppy or
unfair.
Everyone here is appearing for CAT.
The pronoun everyone has no antecedent.
Kinds of Pronouns: Personal, Demonstrative; Indefinite; Relative; Reflexive; Intensive; Interrogative;
Reciprocal. There are a few more. We will look at them too.
Personal Pronouns
I, You, He/She, It - (Singular) We, You, They (Plural) are personal pronouns. Depending on their function in
a sentence they have case, as tabulated below. A noun cat is also shown for comparison.

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Usage Notes on Pronouns

Unlike English nouns, which usually do not change form except for the addition of an s ending to create
the plural or the apostrophe + s (Cats) to create the possessive, personal pronouns (which stand for persons
or things) change form according to their various uses in a sentence.
Thus I is used as the subject of a sentence (I am happy.), me is used as an object in various ways (He hit
me, He gave me a book, Do this for me), and my is used as the possessive form (Thats my car).
The same is true of the other personal pronouns: the singular you and he/she/it and the plural you, they, and
we. These forms are called cases.
Personal pronouns can also be characterized or distinguished by person. First person refers to the speaker(s)
or writer(s) (I for singular, we for plural). Second person refers to the person or people being spoken or
written to (you for both singular and plural). Third person refers to the person or people being spoken or
written about (he, she, and it for singular, they for plural).
The person of a pronoun is also demonstrated in the chart above Cases of the Personal Pronouns. As you
will see there, each person can change form, reflecting its use within a sentence. Thus, I becomes me
when used as an object (She left me) and my when used in its possessive role (Thats my car); they
becomes them in object form (I like them) and their in possessive (Thats just their way).
Subject and Object Pronouns
Object pronoun is used in two contexts:
1. As the object of a verb
2. As the object of a preposition.
As the object of the verb, which requires something else to complete its meaning. An example is:
He loves her.
(He loves what? The verb needs an object to complete its meaning. If a pronoun is used, the object form
is called for. The grammatical object is the answer to the question what? put to the verb.)
As the object of a preposition (which requires something else to complete its meaning and prepositions
will always require an object) an example is: