Pronouns

Personal PronounsA pronoun is a word that takes the

place of one or more nouns.

The most frequently used pronouns are called personal pronouns. They refer to people or things.

Subject Pronouns

A subject pronoun is used as thesubject of a sentence.

She is my best friend.It is my dog.

Does he know the answer?You and I will meet Hamid later.

Object Pronouns

An object pronoun is used as thedirect/indirect object or the object

of a preposition.Give the book to me.

The teacher gave her a reprimand.I will tell you a story.

Ahmed read it to them.

List of Personal PronounsSingular PluralI weyou youhe, she, it they

Subject Pronouns

me usyou youhim, her, it them

Object Pronouns

PRACTICE 1• http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/answers.php?qui

z_id=73

• http://steckvaughn.hmhco.com/HA/correlations/pdf/l/LEe3_subjectobject.pdf

• http://www.k12reader.com/pronouns/Pronoun5_Pick_the_Pronoun.pdf

• http://a4esl.org/q/f/z/zy11mzs.htm

PRONOUNS AND ANTECEDENTS

Read the following sentences. Can you tell to whom the word She refers?

Marwa studies with Aisha. She is smarter than her.

The sentence is not clear because the word She could refer to either Marwa or Aisha. Sometimes you must repeat a noun or rewrite the sentence.

Marwa studies with Aisha. Marwa is smarter than her.

PRONOUNS AND ANTECEDENTS

When using pronouns, you must also make sure that they agree with their antecedents in number (singular or plural) and gender. The gender of a noun may be masculine (male), feminine (female), or neuter (referring to things). Notice how the pronouns on the next slide agree with their antecedents.

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PRONOUNS AND ANTECEDENTS

1. The story is interesting. I enjoyed it.

2. The students saw Fatima last weekend. They saw her at the mall.

In the first sentence, story is the antecedent of the pronoun it.

In the second sentence, students is the antecedent of They, and Fatima is the antecedent of her.

Indefinite PronounsAn indefinite pronoun is a pronoun that does not refer to a

particular person, place, or thing.

Does anyone know the story of Ali Baba?

Most indefinite pronouns are either singular or plural.

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Some Indefinite Pronouns

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Singular Pluralanother everybody no oneanybody everyone nothinganyone everything oneanything much somebodyeach neither someoneeither nobody something

bothfew

manyothersseveral

All, any, most, none and some can be singular or plural, depending on the phrase that follows them.

Some Indefinite Pronouns

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When an indefinite pronoun is used as the subject, the verb must agree with it in number.Everyone discusses the story. (singular)

Both talk about Shaikh Nahayan. (plural)

All of UAEU is in Al Ain. (singular)

All of the students are happy with their results. (plural)

Some Indefinite Pronouns

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Possessive pronouns often have indefinite pronouns as their antecedents. In such cases, the pronouns must agree in number. Note that in the first example the intervening prepositional phrase does not affect the agreement.

Each of the students has his or her idea.

Several students have not seen their teacher.

PRACTICE 2• http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame

.asp?id=1761

• http://www.quia.com/quiz/281066.html

• http://www.eflnet.com/grammar/indefpronoun.php

• http://www.autoenglish.org/gr.anythin.i.htm

Relative Pronouns

• WHO • WHICH• THAT• They introduce relative clauses. • A relative clause tells us which person or thing

the speaker means/ refers to.

Who / that: refer to people

• Those people live next door. They have 16 children.• The people who /that live next door have 16

children.

Which / that: refer to things

• A turtle is an animal. It lives in the sea.

• A turtle is an animal which / that lives in the sea.

Relative pronouns explain a noun in a sentence.

People are fined. (Which people?)People who /that speed are fined.(Which people? Those who speed)

. The film was boring (Which film?)The film (which/ that) I watched yesterday was

boring.(Which film? The one I watched yesterday)

PRACTICE 3• http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/tests/relative-clauses-

1

• http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=6122

• http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/relative-clauses-exercise-1.html

• http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/relative-clauses-exercise-2.html