Language Network Pronouns What is a Pronoun? Here’s the Idea Why It Matters Practice and Apply Pronouns.

Language Network

Pronouns

What is a Pronoun?

Here’s the Idea

Why It Matters

Practice and Apply

Pronouns

Pronoun

A pronoun is a word that is used in place of a noun or another pronoun.

Here’s the Idea

A pronoun can refer to a person, place, thing, or idea.

Here’s the Idea

REFERS TO

The word that a pronoun refers to is called its antecedent.

Ramon visited Death Valley, and he was impressed.

Here’s the Idea

Pronouns such as we, I, he, them and it are called personal pronouns.

Personal pronouns have a variety of forms to indicate different persons, numbers, and cases.

Here’s the Idea

There are first-person, second-person, and third-person personal pronouns, each having both singular and plural forms.

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Singular Plural

FIRST PERSON FIRST PERSON

SECOND PERSON SECOND PERSON

THIRD PERSON THIRD PERSON

I went out. We left early.

You left too. You are leaving.

He came by bus. They came by car.

Here’s the Idea

Each personal pronoun forms three cases: subject, object, and possessive.

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POSSESSIVE

OBJECT

SUBJECT

He read about Death Valley.

Julie asked him about the rocks.

Ramon bought his book.

Choose the pronoun form depending on the pronoun’s function in the sentence.

Here’s the Idea

Pronouns help you talk about people concisely when you’re telling a story.

Why It Matters

Write the personal pronoun in the sentence below.

Death Valley is famous for its strange moving boulders.

1.

Practice and Apply

Write the personal pronoun in the sentence below.

The rocks slide and leave long tracks behind them.

2.

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Write the personal pronoun in the sentence below.

Do you know why this happens?3.

Practice and Apply

Pronoun Agreement

Here’s the Idea

Why It Matters

Practice and Apply

Pronouns

Antecedent

The antecedent is the noun or pronoun that a pronoun replaces or refers to.

Here’s the Idea

Use a singular pronoun to refer to a singular antecedent.

One story has its setting in Egypt.story its

Here’s the Idea

Use a plural pronoun to refer to a plural antecedent.

The characters have their motives for murder.characters their

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The pronoun must agree in person with the antecedent.

Louis likes his mysteries to have surprise endings.Louis his

Here’s the Idea

The gender of the pronoun must be the same as the gender of its antecedent.

Here’s the Idea

Personal pronouns have three gender forms:

• masculine he, his, him

• feminine she, her, hers

• neuter it, its

Here’s the Idea

The hero has to use all his wits to solve the crime.

Agatha Christie sets many of her stories in England.Agatha Christie her

hero his

Here’s the Idea

In your writing, you will sometimes refer to several people or groups of people.

Correct pronoun-antecedent agreement will help your readers keep track of who is who in your writing.

Why It Matters

Write the pronouns and their antecedents in these sentences.

Agatha Christie loved real-life mysteries of the past. She helped to investigate them in the Middle East.

4.

Practice and Apply

Write the pronouns and their antecedents in this sentence.

Agatha Christie and her husband went on many archaeological trips and found them exciting.

5.

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Write the pronouns and their antecedents in this sentence.

A mystery writer may use exotic places and backgrounds for his or her stories.

6.

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Write the pronouns and their antecedents in this sentence.

Christie started Murder in Mesopotamia in the desert, but she finished it in England.

7.

Practice and Apply