Grammar Notes 1. Personal Pronouns | | Subject
Pronouns | Object
Pronouns | Possessive
Pronouns | Reflexive
Pronouns | | Singular | I, you, she, he, it | me, you, her, him. it | my, your, her, his, its | myself, yourself, herself, himself, itself | | mine, yours, hers, his, its | | Plural | we, you, they | us, you, them | our, your, their | ourselves, yourselves, themselves | | ours, yours, theirs | - When the conference exhibitors arrived at the train station, they were directed to the hotel.
- I need to talk to you about your latest submission.
- Since our laptop isn‘t working, maybe we could borrow theirs.
- He was in charge of the research, so he decided to do it all himself.
- I would love to lend this to you, but it isn’t mine.
Note: Reflexive pronouns are sometimes used instead of object pronouns after like, as, but (for), and except (for).
- We are always looking to hire young and creative designers like yourself. (= like you)
- All the members of the board voted ”yes” except for myself. (= except for me) |
| 2. Positioning of Personal Pronouns A. Subject pronouns are always in the subject position of the sentence or clause (first position). B. Object pronouns usually follow a verb or a preposition. C. Possessive pronouns can be in either the first or third position of a sentence, before or after the verb, or before the noun. - Since George Larsson took over as president, he has been making changes to every department. - If you receive an extra copy of the contract, please return it to me. - Although I'm taking my laptop, you should bring yours as well. - Mrs. Kirkfield stated that the phone was not hers. |
| 3. Demonstrative Pronouns: This, That, These, Those - These pronouns are used to identify or point to nouns. - They can be used as subjects or objects to refer to persons or objects. - This has been an amazing show.
(This = the show) - That wasn’t what I saw in the magazine.
(That = the thing) - These are the books to be donated to the local library.
(These = the books) - Those are broken computers that we want to throw out.
(Those = the computers) |
| 4. Indefinite Pronouns - These pronouns refer to an identifiable but not specified person or thing. - Common indefinite pronouns include (but are not limited to) all, another, any, everyone, everything, anyone, anything, one, and many. - Many are hoping the price of the new product is the same as the older version.
(Many acts as the subject of the verb are hoping.) - We lost everything when the server crashed last month.
(Everything is the direct object of the verb lost.) |
