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Personal Pronouns

These are pronouns that refer mostly to human beings. However, the
word 'it' does not refer to human beings, but is a Personal Pronoun.
So, we have a more grammatical way of defining Personal Pronouns so
that we can include the hapless it in the Personal Pronoun family.
A Personal Pronoun is a pronoun which belongs to any of the three
grammatical persons.
The list of pronouns which belong to this group are: I, we, you, he, she,
it, and they.

Often you'll find Personal Pronouns divided into:

Subjective Pronouns (I, we, you, he, she, it, they)

Objective Pronouns (me, us, you, him, her, it, them)

Possessive Pronouns (mine, ours, yours, his, hers, its, theirs;


with also the following ones, which strictly speaking, are adjectives - my, our,
your, her, their).

Compound Personal Pronouns

There are two sub-types of these pronouns: Reflexive pronouns


and Intensivepronouns. These two sub-types have the same forms, but
different functions.
Same Forms

According to form, we can call these pronouns Compound Personal


Pronouns.
A list of pronouns of this kind are:
myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, itself, themselves.

Different Functions

Depending on the function, we divide the Compound Personals into the two
types we mentioned.
Reflexive Pronouns

These pronouns function as grammatical objects or complements


which mirrorthe subject, as in...

herselfShe blamed herself for the mishap.

himselfHe is himself today.

Intensive Pronouns

These pronouns act as appositives of nouns or pronouns for the sake of


emphasis, as in the examples below...

yourselfYou yourself wrote those words.

themselvesThis request came from the employees themselves.

Demonstrative Pronouns

These pronouns point out someone or something. They are identical in form
toDemonstrative Adjectives/Determiners.
The difference is that...

a Demonstrative Pronoun stands alone (because it is a substitute for a noun


or noun phrase),

but a Demonstrative Adjective is accompanied by the noun it modifies.

Here are two examples to show the difference:

She gave me this gift. (this - Demonstrative Adjective)

I like this. (this - Demonstrative Pronoun)

More examples of Demonstrative Pronouns:

these - These are my children.

that - That is a good idea.

those - The streets of Chennai are more crowded than those of Kodaikanal.

such - Such are the people whom you once trusted.

Indefinite Pronouns

These pronouns do stand for some person or thing, but we don't know for
exactly whom.
When we say, "Somebody stole my watch," we don't know to whom the
wordsomebody refers to. The word somebody is an Indefinite Pronoun.
A list of pronouns of this type are...

one - One should speak the truth.

somebody - Somebody immediately called the doctor.

anybody - Anybody can solve this problem.

nobody - Nobody was present.

many - Many are called, but few are chosen.

others - Do good to others.

you - You don't take coal to Newcastle, or coconuts to Kerala!

they - They say that a poor workman blames his tools.

Distributive Pronouns

These pronouns refer to individual elements in a group or a pair, one


individual at a time.
Here's a list of pronouns of this type...

each - "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

either - You may answer either of these (two) questions first.

neither - Neither of the answers is correct.

any - You may bring any of your friends.

none - None of our students failed last year.

Reciprocal Pronouns

These pronouns are found in pairs. They are really asubject-object pair
compressed. We'll find this if we expand the sentence in which they are
present, as in the first example below.
When one gives, the other member of the pair also gives in return. That's
what we mean by reciprocity...henceReciprocal Pronouns.
Examples:

each other - They love each other. (i.e. Each loves the other.)
Each (the subject) is used in a distributive sense; the other (the object)
automatically takes the reciprocal position. Each stands for both individuals,
one at a time.

one another - Good people help one another to succeed.

Relative Pronouns

These pronouns are very important words in the language. A Relative


Pronoun performs two functions:

It acts as a substitute for a noun (like any pronoun)

It also functions as a joining word for two clauses.

So, besides being a noun-substitute, it performs a function similar to that of a


subordinating conjunction.
Here's a list of pronouns that belong to this important category...

who - Give this to the boy who wins the race.

whose - This is Mohan, whose mobile phone was stolen last week.

whom - Rita, whom you praised in class yesterday, is my sister.

which - This is the problem, which we are struggling to solve.

that - This is the day that we have waited for so long.

what - Eat what is set before you.

You also have Compound Relative Pronouns.


They are: whoever, whatever, whichever, whosoever,
whatsoever, andwhichsoever.
Using any of the last three is old-fashioned.
Interrogative Pronouns

These look like Relative Pronouns, but have a different function. We use them
for asking questions. There are three of them:

who (with its other forms, whose and whom)


o

who - Who is that man?

Whose - Whose is this wallet?

Whom - Whom do you seek?

which - Which is your seat?

what - What is your name?

From this list of pronouns, I can tell you, that you will need more time to
studyPersonal Pronouns and Relative Pronouns, than any other. Their
study involves dealing with more language elements than the others.

List of Personal Pronouns


Personal pronouns take the place of specific nouns (the names of people, places
or things). Basically, they are used instead of a specific name to avoid repetition
and to help ease the flow of sentences.
We usually inject personal pronouns into a sentence when the name of the noun
has been previously mentioned, so that the reader will know what is being
referred to. For example:

Richard bought a new laptop three months ago. He absolutely loves it.

In the second sentence, there are two personal pronouns. The personal pronoun
"he" takes the place of "Richard" while the personal pronoun "it" takes the place
of "laptop."
In this article you can review a list of personal pronouns, as well as examples of
their various uses.

Types of Personal Pronouns


There are two types of personal pronouns: subject and object.

Subject Pronouns - Subject pronouns (I, You, He, She, It, They, We) replace
the name of the subject in the sentence. Example: Mrs. Yen did not come to
school yesterday. She had to go to the doctor. "Mrs. Yen" is the subject and
"she" is the subject pronoun.
Object Pronouns - Object pronouns (Me, You, Him, Her, It, Us, Them) take
the place of the object in the sentence (the noun that receives the action in
a sentence). Example: After Colleen bought a bike, it got stolen within a
week, "it" is the object pronoun used to replace "bike."

Selecting Personal Pronouns


Personal pronouns help us to avoid constantly repeating the same noun over
and over. The noun that is replaced is called the antecedent. Paying close
attention to the antecedent will help you choose the correct personal pronoun.

Example: President Obama delivered a speech on health care reform. He


spoke for more than an hour. "President Obama" is the antecedent to the
personal pronoun "he."

To avoid confusion in sentences, it is important to choose the right personal


pronoun that agrees in number (singular or plural), person (first, second, or third
person), gender (masculine, feminine, neuter), and case (subject, object,
possessive).

I or Me?
Another source of headache is the use of the subject pronoun "I" and the object
pronoun "me."

Example: Jennifer and I are meeting in San Francisco in July. Why not
Jennifer and me? Because "I" is part of the subject of the sentence.
Example: They gave the promotion to me. Why not I? Because "me" is the
object of the sentence.

Read more at http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/parts-of-speech/pronouns/list-of-personalpronouns.html#kAmRRwiW2dJMFr6g.99

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