Pronouns
A few weeks ago, in part two of our series on Word Classes, we looked at pronouns.
A pronoun used in a sentence to avoid repeating a noun that has been mentioned before.
We use the term personal pronoun to describe pronouns used to replace words for people or things. Personal pronouns include: I, me, mine, you, yours, his, her, hers, we, they, and them.
Personal pronouns can be categorised into the following four groups:
Subjective Pronouns
The term subjective pronoun is used to describe the pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, and they. This is because these pronouns work as subjects of verbs in a sentence.
Here are some examples of subjective pronouns:
- She threw the ball to Thomas. He dropped it.
- They were supposed to arrive at three o’clock but traffic made them late.
- We love action films.
Objective Pronouns
The term objective pronoun is used to describe the pronouns: me, you,him, her, it, us and them. This is because these pronouns work as objects of verbs and prepositions in a sentence.
Here are some examples of objective pronouns:
- Katie threw the ball to him. He dropped it.
- We got stuck in traffic on the way to the party and almost missed it.
- Welove action films, do you like watching them?
Possessive Pronouns
The term possessive pronoun is used to describe the pronouns: mine, yours, his, hers, ours and theirs. This is because these pronouns refer to someone (or something) being possession of something.
Here are some examples of possessive pronouns:
- The ball was hers but she threw it to him.
- We were meant to get to theirs for three o’clock but the traffic made us late.
- We love action films, would you like to come over to ours to watch some?
Don’t forget that possessive pronouns never require an apostrophe. To learn more about when to use apostrophes, click here.
Reflexive Pronouns
The term reflexive pronoun is used to describe the pronouns: myself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves. These pronouns refer back to the subject of the part of the sentence in which they are used.
Here are some examples of possessive pronouns:
- Katie and Tommy threw the ball back and forth between themselves.
- We were late for the party and have no one to blame but ourselves.
- He watches action films with his girlfriend, but when he’s by himself he prefers rom coms.
If you found this article useful, why not check out some of our other posts?
Have a great week!
02 May 2017
blog home
