1. The pronoun is a part of speech which points out objects and their qualities without naming them. A pronoun usually refers to something earlier in the text (its antecedent): When Sarah was fixing the car, she cut her hand. (Sarah is a noun. She is a pronoun that refers to the antecedent, Sarah.)
2. A pronoun REFERS BACK to a noun or TAKES THE PLACE OF that noun, that is why special attention should be paid to the use of the correct pronoun so that the reader clearly understands which noun our pronoun is referring to.
Pronouns should:
- refer clearly to a specific noun.
Not: Although the motorcycle hit the tree, it was not damaged. (Is "it" the motorcycle or the tree?)
Not: Vacation is coming soon, which is nice. (What is nice, the vacation or the fact that it is coming soon?)
Not: If you put this sheet in your notebook, you can refer to it. (What does "it" refer to, the sheet or your notebook?)
- agree in number;
If the pronoun takes the place of a singular noun, we use a singular pronoun: If a student parks a car on campus, he has to buy a parking sticker. (Not: If a student parks a car on campus, they have to buy a parking sticker.)
- agree in person;
If we are writing in the "third person" (he, she, it, they), we mustn’t switch to the "second person" (you) or "first person" (I): When a person comes to class, he should have his homework ready. (Not: When a person comes to class, you should have your homework ready.)
3. Pronouns can be divided into the following groups: personal, demonstrative, possessive, reflexive, reciprocal, interrogative, relative, defining, indefinite, and negative.
UNIT 2: PERSONAL PRONOUNS
1. The personal pronouns are: I, he, she, it, we, you, they. The personal pronouns have the categories of person, case, number, and gender (the 3rd person singular).
The personal pronouns in the nominative case are used as the subject in the sentence and are called subject pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, they): We are going there later. .
2. The personal pronouns in the objective case can be used as the direct or indirect object of a verb. They are called object pronouns (me, you, him, her, it, us, them): John showed him the book. Did you give it to them?
Object pronouns are used rather than subject pronouns after the verb be: Who is it?’ – ‘It’s me’.
3. It can be used as an impersonal subject in general statements that refer to the time, the date, or the weather: ‘What time is it?’ – ‘It is half past three.’ It is January 19th. It is rainy and cold today.
It refers to a person when we are identifying him or her: ‘Is that our waiter?’ – ‘No, it isn’t.’ (Not ‘No, he isn’t.’)
1. The demonstrative pronouns are: this, that, such, (the) same. The pronouns this and that have two numbers:
singular: this, that;
plural: these, those.
2. The demonstrative pronouns this, that, these, those are used:
- to point to physical objects (this and these refer to things close to the speaker, that and those refer to things which are more distant from the speaker, or not present.): This is a list of rules. Get that cat off the piano. ‘I brought you these,’ Adam held out a bag of grapes. All the time I was in that country I hated it.
- to identify or introduce people, or asking who they are: Who’s this? These are my children. Was that Patrick on the phone?
- to refer to things that have already been mentioned or are going to be mentioned: That was an interesting word to use it just now. This is what I want to say: it wasn’t my idea
3. They say this one, that one, these ones and those ones: I like this one better. We’ll have those ones, thank you.
Which one or Which ones are used in questions: ‘Which one do you prefer?’ Which ones were damaged?’
4. The pronoun such is often used with a noun: such + (adjective) noun. Note that the indefinite article a/an is used after such: It is such an interesting book!
Such is not generally used demonstratively to refer to things in the present situations: Where can I get trousers like those? (Not: … such trousers?)
1. Possessive pronouns have the same categories of person, number, and gender as personal pronouns. Possessive pronouns have two forms: proper and absolute:
possessive proper pronouns: my, your, his, her, its, our, their;
possessive absolute pronouns: mine, yours, his, hers ,ours, theirs.
2. Possessive proper pronouns my, our, your, her, his, their are followed by a noun: My hands are cold. Ann gave me her umbrella.
Possessive absolute pronouns mine, ours, yours, hers, his, theirs, its are used without a noun: It’s her problem, not ours. It’s a nice camera. Is it his?
They say: ‘a friend of mine’, ‘that house of theirs’, etc.; A friend of mine is coming to see us.
‘He is my friend’ may give the idea that the speaker has only one friend. A speaker would normally say ‘He is one of my friends or He is a friend of mine.’
3. After a possessive proper pronoun, they may add own for emphasis: His own answer may be unacceptable.
On my own = alone: I like living on my own (without company).
On my own = by myself: Don’t help him. Let him do it on his own (without help).
4. Numbers and adjectives are used after a possessive proper pronoun and in front of the noun: Their two small children were playing outside.
All and both are used before possessive pronouns: All my pencils are in that box. Both my brothers live in London.
With personal pronouns all of + object form is used: all of us/ you/ them: All of us can come tomorrow. (Not: All we …). She’s invited all of you.
1. Reflexive pronouns end in ~self or ~selves, they may have singular and plural forms.
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Person
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Singular
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Plural
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1st
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myself
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ourselves
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2nd
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yourself
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yourselves
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3rd
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himself
herself
itself
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themselves
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oneself
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2. Reflexive pronouns are used when the subject and the object in a sentence refer to the same person: I saw myself in the mirror. The men formed themselves in a line.
Verbs that describe actions that people do to themselves do not take reflexive pronouns in English: I usually shave before breakfast. She washed very quickly and rushed downstairs.
However, reflexives can be used if it is necessary to make it clear who does the action: The barber shaves all the people in the town who don’t shave themselves. She’s old enough now to dress herself.
Reflexive pronouns can be used as indirect objects: They were making fools of themselves. Tell me about yourself.
By + a reflexive pronoun = alone: Greg lives by himself.
By + a reflexive pronoun = without any help from other people: She was certain she could manage by herself.
Reflexive pronouns can be used for emphasis: I myself have never read this book. The town itself was so small that it didn’t have a bank.
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3. Verbs and phrases commonly followed by a reflexive pronoun.
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believe in yourself
be proud of yourself
blame yourself
cut yourself
enjoy yourself
feel sorry for yourself
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help yourself
hurt yourself
give yourself smth
introduce yourself
kill yourself
trouble yourself
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take care of yourself
talk to yourself
teach yourself
tell yourself
work for yourself
wish yourself (luck)
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1. Reciprocal pronouns are each other and one another. They express mutual action in which there is physical contact between people or relation. The subject to which they refer must be in the plural. Each other generally implies only two, and one another two or more than two persons: Tom looked at Ann and Ann looked at Tom. They looked at each other. There were three ladies sitting close to one another.
But it must be mentioned that this distinction is not always strictly observed:
We embraced each other. It was the first time they had touched one another.
2. Reciprocal pronouns have two case forms (the common case and the genitive case): They looked at the feet of each other / each other’s feet.
3. Reciprocal pronouns preceded by a preposition are used as a prepositional indirect object: They parted from each other after only two weeks. We talk to one another as often as possible. Many countries compete with each other. Did you compete against each other in yesterday’s race? We agree with each other sometimes.
1. Interrogative pronouns are used in inquiry, to form special questions. They are: who, whose, what, which.
2. The interrogative pronoun who refers to human beings: Who won – Smith or Fitzgibbon? Who are your close friends? –Naomi and Bridget. It has the category of case: the nominative case is who, the objective case whom. Whom isn’t often used in informal English: Who did they arrest?(informal) Whom did they arrest? (formal) With whom did you go? (very formal)
3. What usually refers to things or animals, but it may be applied to people when one asks about their occupation: What are you looking for? What lives in those little holes? – Rabbits (do). What is he? - A painter.
4. Which has a selective meaning: it corresponds to the Russian ‘’который из нас’’ (an individual of the group). It may refer to people and things: We’ve got white and brown bread. Which will you have? Which of your teachers do you like best? Which of these coats is yours?
When the speaker is not thinking of a limited number of choices, what can be used: What language do they speak in Greenland? What is your telephone number?
5. The questions Who is he? What is he? differ in their meaning. The first question is about the name of a person: Who is working tomorrow? – Phil and Lucy (are working tomorrow). The second question inquiries about the occupation of the person: What’s Paula? – She’s a secretary.
6. In the sentence, interrogative pronouns may have various functions – those of subject, predicative, object, attribute. Who came to see me? (subject) What has happened? (subject) Who is that boy? (predicative) What was her father? (predicative) With what did you cut it? (object) To whom is he married? (object) Whose cars are those outside? (attribute) Whose garden do you think looks best? (attribute) Which day should we go there? (attribute)
UNIT 8: RELATIVE PRONOUNS
1. Relative pronouns (who, whose, which, that, as) point to a noun or a pronoun mentioned before and have conjunctive power, are used to introduce relative clauses. Unlike conjunctions, relative pronouns are members of the clauses.
2. Who is used in reference to human beings or animals: Professor Marvin, who was always early, was there already.
3. Whose is mainly used in reference to human beings or animals, but it may be applied to things: A child whose mother had left was crying loudly.
4. Which is used in reference to things and animals: I gave him an envelope, which he put in his pocket at once.
Which can be used to say something about the whole situation described in the main clause: I never met Brandy again, which was a pity.
5. That is mainly used in reference to animals and things. It may also be used in reference to human beings: He was the man that bought my house. There was the ice-cream that Mum had made herself. The house that we lived in was huge.
6. As usually introduces attributive clauses when the demonstrative pronoun such is used in the principal clause (it is a rare case when as is used without such in the principal case). As may refer to living things and things: It was crazy for her to think of such a thing as buying a car.
7. Relative pronouns always perform some syntactical function in the clause they introduce. The thing that really surprised me was his attitude. (subject) The car, which caused the accident, drove off. (subject) He has married somebody, who I really don’t like. (object) You are the only person here who knows me. (object)
That, who or which can be left out if they are the objects of the verb in the relative clause: The woman you met yesterday lives next door. Angela was the only person I could talk to.
BUT: That, who or which cannot be omitted when they are the subjects of the verb in the relative clause.
8. The words whoever, whatever, whichever, whenever, however and wherever can be used as relative pronouns.
These words have similar meaning to it doesn’t matter who/what/which, any person who, any thing that, etc, or the unknown person who/ the unknown thing that etc. Whoever comes to the door, tell him I’m busy. Whatever you do, I’ll always love you. Whichever of them you marry, you’ll have problems. People always want more, however rich they are. You can come whenever you like. Wherever you go, you’ll find Coca-Cola.
9.1. DEFINING PRONOUNS
The defining pronouns are: all, each, every, everybody, everyone, everything, either, both, other, another.
1. All is a generalizing pronoun, it takes a group of things or persons as a whole: All luggage will be searched. All children need love.
All may be used as subject, predicative, object, attribute: All is said and done. (subject) He just loved me, that is all. (predicative) He forgot all about it. (object) All doors were closed. (attribute)
2. Both points out two living beings or things, mentioned before. The pronoun may be used as subject, object, attribute: Both came, Ann and Kate. (subject)You can study French or German or both. (object) He held both ends of the thread. (attribute)
3. Each, every refer to all members of the group of living beings or things, mentioned before and taken one by one.
Each may be subject, object and attribute, it requires a verb in singular: Each felt happy. (subject) He gave a flower each. (object) Each word was carefully chosen. (attribute)
Every is used only as an attribute: Every child needs care.
Everybody, everyone refer to all members of the group of living beings, mentioned before and taken one by one: Everybody enjoyed the party. Everyone looks tired today.
Everything may be applied to things, animals, abstract notions: Everything will be all right.
4. Either has two meanings - each of the two, one or the other: There are houses on either side of the river. Would you like tea or juice? - Either.
5. Other denotes some object different from the one mentioned before: You are not fair to the others. Where are the other photos? Other has two numbers: singular – other; plural – others.
Another has two meanings – 'a different one' and 'an additional one': I usually drink another kind of tea. Could I have another piece of bread?
Indefinite pronouns point out some person or thing indefinitely. These pronouns are some, any, somebody, anybody, someone, anyone, something, anything, one.
1. Some and its compounds are chiefly used in affirmative sentences while any and the compounds are used in negative and interrogative sentences and in conditional clauses: Ann has bought some new shoes. They haven’t got any children. Have you got any money? I don’t want anything.
Some and its compounds, not any, are used in special and general questions expressing a request or proposal: Do you want some water? Will someone help me?
Any and its compounds may be used in affirmative sentences with the meaning of “every”: Any woman loves flowers. Anybody can see it.
2. The pronoun one is often used in the sense of any person or every person: One has to think of the practical side of things.
One may be a word-substitute, used in the singular and in the plural: Are the new curtains longer than the old ones? Which is your boy? – "The one in the blue coat". I’d like a cake. A big one with lots of cream.
Most of the indefinite pronouns correspond to negative pronouns: some – no, none; something – nothing, none; somebody, someone – nobody, no one, none.
Some defining pronouns also correspond to negative pronouns: everything – nothing; all, everybody, each – no, none, nobody; both, either – neither: “Where are you going?” – “Nowhere. I’m staying here.”
“Is he British or American?” – “Neither. He is Australian.”
Nobody (no one) came to visit me when I was in hospital. I saw nothing. We had to walk because there were no buses. There were no shops open. Nobody phoned, did they? Neither man knew what he was doing. Neither report mentioned the Americans.
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