Types of Pronouns

1) Personal Pronoun – represents people or things. There are two kinds of personal pronoun: subjective and objective. Subjective pronoun is a pronoun that is used as the subject of a sentence; while objective pronouns is a pronouns that is used as the object of the sentence. Personal pronouns are: I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they, me, you, him, her, us, them.

Examples:
Do you need help? (subjective)
Did he informed you of the test result? (objective)

She loves him. (subjective)
She loves him. (objective)

It is the answer to your question. (subjective)
Can you manage it? (objective)

2) Demonstrative Pronoun – points to things. Use this “this” (singular) and “these” (plural) to point to things that are near in distance or time; use “that” and “those” to point to things that are far in distance or time.

Examples:
This is the right time.
These are to be delivered to the buyers.

That is not what I wanted.
Those were the days.

This is more expensive than that.
These are larger than those from the other store.

3) Possessive Pronoun – shows ownership or possession. Below are the possessive pronouns:

Singular	Plural
my, mine	our, ours
your, yours	your, yours
her, hers, his, its	their, theirs

An apostrophe is not used in a possessive pronoun. “You’re”, “it’s”, “who’s” and “they’re” are contractions often confused with “your”, “its”, “whose”, and “their”.

Examples:
The notebook is mine.
The victory is ours.

Brenda, is this your pen?
Students, this is your task for today.

China is its origin.
Their contributions are enough.

4) Interrogative Pronoun – is used to ask a question and represents the thing that is being asked about. The interrogative pronouns are: who, whom, which, what, whose, whoever, whatever, whichever, whomever. Use "who" and "whom" to talk about people. Use "which" and "what" to talk about things.

Examples:
Who is your crush?
Whom did you tell our secret?
What time is it?
Which of the two do you like more?

Notice that the interrogative pronoun “whose” can also be a possessive pronoun (an interrogative possessive pronoun).

Example:
Whose bag is this?
Whose dress is that?

5) Reflexive Pronoun – is used when referring back to the subject. Reflexive pronouns end in "-self" (singular) or "-selves" (plural).

Personal Pronoun	Reflexive Pronoun
I	myself
you	yourself / yourselves
he	himself
she	herself
it	itself
we	ourselves
they	themselves

 

Examples:
I can see myself in you.

Don’t blame yourself.

John talks to himself.

We treated ourselves to a fancy restaurant.

The children took care of themselves.

 

 

6) Intensive Pronoun – is used for emphasis. All reflexive pronouns can be intensive pronouns, but the function is different.

 

Examples:

I baked it myself.

Have you heard it yourself?

Donna herself wrote that song.

The task itself is easy.

We will do it ourselves.

 

 

7) Reciprocal Pronoun – is used when two or more subjects is doing the same thing towards the other.

 

Examples:

John loves Diana, and Diana loves John.

John and Diana loves each other.

 

Let us stop fighting one another.

 

 

8) Indefinite Pronoun – is a pronoun that does not refer to any specific person or thing. Indefinite pronouns are: all, another, any, anybody, anyone, anything, both, each, either, enough, everybody, everyone, everything, few, little, many, more, most, much, neither, nobody, nothing, none, one, other, others, several, some, somebody, someone, something, such.

 

Examples:

Anybody home?

Either juice or coffee is fine with me.

Little known is known about her past.

Nobody wants to be lonely.

Several items are missing.

 

 

9) Relative Pronoun – is a pronoun that links to a relative clause. The relative pronouns are: who, whom, whose, which, that, what, whatever, whoever, whomever, whichever.

Examples:
The girl who won the contest is a genius
The lady, whose phone you have found, is high-ranking official.
Ben really loves the toy that I gave him.
Tell me what to do next.
The charge is $10 or 5% of the total amount whichever is higher.