Pronouns

Why Use Pronouns?Pronouns stand in for nouns, so you don’t have to repeat yourself.Restate the following sentence as if you were Jacob:

Jacob broke the window when Jacob hit the baseball with Jacob’s bat.

I broke the window when I hit the baseball with my bat.

3 Kinds of Personal Pronouns:Singular Plural

First Person I, me, my, mine we, us, our, ours

Second Person you, your, yours you, your, yours

Third Personhe, him, his

she, her, hersit, its

they, them, their, theirs

Identify the personal pronoun.When I turned on the lie detector, it told me it had a headache.“I can’t believe you ate thirty-nine kumquats,” said Tom to his brother.Gertrude threw the banana cream pie at the judge, but she later apologized.Alvin asked Tim to loan him his skateboard, but Tim said, “Buy your own!”

When I turned on the lie detector, it told me it had a headache.“I can’t believe you ate thirty-nine kumquats,” said Tom to his brother.Gertrude threw the banana cream pie at the judge, but she later apologized.Alvin asked Tim to loan him his skateboard, but Tim said, “Buy your own!”

Reflexive PronounsReflexive pronouns are pronouns which end with the suffix –self or –selvesThese pronouns name a person or thing that receives an action when that same person or thing is the one performing the action

Example: We laughed at ourselves.

Write your own example and share it with the class.

myself oneself himself herself itself yourself yourselves ourselves themselves

Miss Apple always says to the class, “Behave________ out there!”Beatrice considers _______ the roller blade champion of Junction City.If you worry _______ about the world too much, you will tie _________ in knots.The tornado blew ____ out before it reached Kansas.

Use a reflexive pronoun for each sentence.

Demonstrative PronounsDemonstrative pronouns help you demonstrate by pointing out a person, place, or thingThere are only four: this, that, these, those

This and these point to what is nearbyThat and those point to what is farther away

DEMONSTRATIVE Pronouns

thisthese

NEARBY

thatthose

FARTHER AWAY

Indefinite PronounsIndefinite pronouns refer to people, places, or things in a general way.When an indefinite pronoun is the subject of a sentence, the verb must agree in number with the pronoun.

Indefinite Pronouns

Singular Plural Singular or Plural

anybody neitheranything nobody each no oneeither nothingeverybody oneeveryone othereverything someonemuch somebody something

bothfewmanyothersseveral

allanymoremostnonesome

RememberIndefinite pronouns that are singular are used with singular verbs.

Everyone is smart.

Indefinite pronouns that are always plural are used with plural verbs.

Many of my presents are hidden beneath the bed.

On Your OwnWrite a sentence using a singular indefinite pronoun.Write a sentence using a plural indefinite pronoun.

Interrogative Pronounsa pronoun used in order to ask a questionoften it has no antecedent because the antecedent is unknown

Interrogative Pronouns- Example

What did you say?

Who said that?

Possessive PronounsUse possessive forms of personal pronouns to show ownershipSome possessive pronouns come before nouns

I left my homework on the bus.Other possessive pronouns are used by themselves to show ownership. These pronouns do not come before nouns.

These diamonds are mine.

Possessive PronounsUsed Before

NounsUsed by Themselves

my itsyour ourhis theirher

mine itsyours ourshis theirshers

AntecedentsAntecedent = the noun that the pronoun stands in forIn the following sentences, first identify the pronoun. Then identify the antecedent.

This is the pen he used to write the note.

The bat built its home in our attic.

Was that the road we were supposed to take?

This is the pen he used to write the note.This is the pen he used to write the note.

The bat built its home in our attic.The bat built its home in our attic.

Was that the road we were supposed to take?Was that the road we were supposed to take?

A Common Pronoun Dilemma . . .Singular or Plural??

Singular pronouns only replace singular nouns Kathy broke the vase. She was guilty!

Plural pronouns only replace plural nouns Mark and Kathy were playing ball in the house. They

disobeyed the rules!

Another Common Pronoun Dilemma . . .

I or me?? – when there are more than one person involved:

I will always be the subject – doing the action. Tom and I played chess last week.

Me will always be the noun receiving the action. Catherine let Tom and me play chess at her house.

Check your answer by taking out the other person’s name and reading the sentence with just the

pronoun to see if it’s correct!

• Use your pronoun shape notes as reference

• On each jigsaw puzzle that follows, if there is a word in

yellow, change it to the correct pronoun

• You must then identify the type of pronoun it is

Jared played goalie

for his

soccer team today.

What pronoun is

it??

Third Person

SingularJared

This is the

article

This

mentioned to you.

What pronoun is

it??Demonstrative I

Julia bought

ticketa

herself

to the movie.

What pronoun is

it??

Third Person

Singular Reflexive

Julia

the actors

The actors took

bowtheir

after the play.

What pronoun is

it??

Third Person Plural