Unit 3: Out of This World

3.4 Pronouns

To avoid repetition, pronouns can be used to replace the name of a person or object in a text. A
pronoun replaces a noun. Examples of pronouns include: he, she, they, it, me, my, her, his, their.

Activities
1 Some of the nouns used in the following passage could be pronouns instead. Which words
could replace the words in bold below?

Cameradata276 was gliding over the tarmacked road

as if (a) Cameradata276 had always lived on land. On
the spaceship, (b) Cameradata276 was the expert in
identifying and displaying live crimes, catching criminals
before (c) criminals had the chance to finish their
crime, let alone flee. Here (d) Cameradata276 was a
reject, a lonely figure looking for work in an idyllic crime-
free town. After returning to Earth, the humans were
tired. (e) The humans had given in to the robots’
continual harassment and (f) the robots’ successful
data trawls. (g) The humans gave in easily.

a ___________________________ e ___________________________

b ___________________________ f ___________________________

c ___________________________ g ___________________________

d ___________________________

2 Look back at Activity 1. Are there any places where using a pronoun could cause confusion
about whether the writer is referring to the robot(s), criminals or humans? Use the letters in
front of the bold words for identification in your answer.

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Ignite English: Kerboodle LRA 1 www.oxfordsecondary.co.uk/acknowledgements © Oxford University Press 2014 1 of 2

 3.4 Pronouns

3 Look at the passage about Cameradata276 again and then rewrite it to present the robot’s
point of view. Decide if the robot will be evil or kind. You could begin: ‘I was gliding over the
tarmacked road as if I had always lived on land…’. Give the robot feelings and emotions, so
the reader will either sympathize with or despise it.

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4 In Activity 3 you wrote in the first person, and in Activity 1 the original passage is in the third
person. Compare your writing for Activity 3 with the original passage. Which do you prefer?
Why?

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5 To revise your understanding of different types of pronouns, write the pronouns in the
following list under the correct headings in the table.
Pronouns: me, my, I, he, she, their, yours, it, his, our, we, they, your, mine, his, hers, us, you.

Possessive pronouns First-person Second-person Third-person

(show belonging) pronouns pronouns pronouns

6 From the list of pronouns in Activity 5, which pronoun would you be most likely to use if
describing an object or robot? ___________________________