Pronouns

Pronouns are small words that we use to replace nouns in sentences.

For example : He is eating the pancake.

We went to the cinema with them yesterday.

They are 8 types of pronouns altogether.

Types of Pronouns
Personal Subject they, we, she, it
Object them, us, her, it
Possessive Adjective my, your, his, her
Pronoun mine, yours, his, hers
Demonstrative Near this, these
Far that, those
Interrogative who, what, whose,
whom, which
Indefinite something, nobody,
somebody, everyone
Relative who, whom, whose,
which, that
Reflexive Singular myself, yourself, itself
Plural ourselves, yourselves
Reciprocal each other, one another

1. PERSONAL PRONOUNS

Personal pronouns represent specific people or things. There are two types of personal
pronouns which are subject and object pronouns.

Subject Pronouns Object Pronouns

I me
you you
he him
she her
it it
we us
they them

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 A subject pronoun is used as the subject of the sentence. It usually appears at the beginning
of a sentence before a verb.

They like Ellie. i. ……………………………………………………

ii. ……………………………………………………
subject iii. ……………………………………………………
verb

An object pronoun is used as the object of the sentence. It usually appears in the middle or
at the end of the sentence after a verb.

Ellie likes them.

i. ……………………………………………………
ii. ……………………………………………………
object
iii. ……………………………………………………
verb

2. POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES / PRONOUNS

Some pronouns are used to show belongings or possessions. These pronouns are known as
possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns.

Possessive Adjectives Possessive Pronouns

my mine
your yours
his his
her hers
our ours
their theirs

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 A possessive adjective normally appears before a noun. A possessive pronoun
normally appears after a noun.

This is my book. This book is mine.

possessive possessive
adjective pronoun

noun noun

Exercise 1
Fill in the blanks with either possessive adjectives or possessive pronouns.

1. (you)
This is __________ book.
This book is __________.

2. (he)
Those people are __________ teachers.
Those teachers are __________.

3. (she)
That is __________ red pen.
That red pen is __________.

4. (they)
These are __________ cupcakes.
These cupcakes are __________.

5. (we)
__________ books are so thick.
The thick books are __________.

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3. DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS

Demonstrative pronouns are used to replace singular or plural nouns to signal the location of
something.

Near Far
Singular this that
Plural these those

This bottle of water is mine. That is your bowl of rice.

These computers are cheap. Those peaches are delicious.

4. INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS

We use interrogative pronouns to ask questions. There are five interrogative pronouns which
are:

who what whose whom which

In order to which interrogative pronouns to use in questions, your have to take a look at the
focus of the question - either the subject or the object.

Suffix Questions Answer Focus

who Who told you? Christopher told me. Subject
whom Whom did you tell? I told Becky. Object
what What has happened? An accident has happened. Subject
What do you want? I want coffee. Object
which Which came first? A white cat came first. Subject
Which one will the doctor see The doctor will see the small Object
first? child first.
whose There’s one car missing. Whose Anna’s (car) hasn’t arrived. Subject
hasn’t arrived?
We’ve found everyone’s keys. I found Billy’s (keys). Object
Whose did you find?

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5. INDEFINITE PRONOUNS

We use indefinite pronouns to refer to something that is not specific. For example:

Suffix Nouns Nouns

somebody an unspecified person Clearly somebody is not here. There are
someone only 19 of you here.
anybody no matter what person Can anybody answer this question?
anyone Anyone can answer this question.
nobody no person I phoned many times but nobody
no one answers.
everybody all people We can start the class because everybody
everyone has arrived.
anything no matter what thing I haven’t eaten anything since last night.

nothing no single thing Are you sure you put it there? Nothing is
on the table.
everything all things They lost everything in the terrible
earthquake.

6. RELATIVE PRONOUNS

We use relative pronouns in a statement to connect extra information about something or

someone. Relative pronouns include words like:

that which who whom whose

The sentence it is connected to is normally a complete sentence. For example:

The cat is mine. a complete sentence

which has white fur. extra information

The cat, which has white fur, is mine.

extra information

relative pronoun

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Here are some examples of relative pronouns usage.

Examples Usage
that We can use “that” for people, animals or things. It is
generally followed by a pronoun or a noun.

A red house that Jack has built sits on top of a mountain.

noun

which “Which” is used for things or animals. It can be followed by a

verb, a noun or a pronoun.

I have a puppy which is grey in colour.

verb

The puppy, which I named Gary, is very mischievous.

pronoun

who “Who” is used for people. It is followed by a verb.

Clementine, who likes to play the piano, is my cousin.

verb

whom “Whom” is used for people. It is followed by a pronoun.

Jim, whom she has known since childhood, is her friend.

pronoun

whose “Whose” is used for people. It is followed by a noun.

Rory, whose car is pink, is my colleague.

noun

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7. REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS

We use reflexive pronoun when we want to refer back to the subject of the sentence. Reflexive
pronouns end in “-self” in singular form and “-selves” in plural form.

Reflexive Pronouns
Singular myself
yourself
himself
herself
itself
Plural ourselves
yourselves
themselves

Now let’s looks at these examples:

the underlined words are NOT
referring to the same person/thing
John saw me.
Why does he blame you?
David sent him a copy.
David sent her a copy.
My dog hurt the cat.
We blame you.
Can you help my children?
They cannot look after the babies.
Reflexive pronouns
the underlined words are referring
to the SAME person/thing
I saw myself in the mirror.
Why do you blame yourself?
John sent himself a copy earlier.
Mary sent herself a copy earlier.
My dog hurt itself.
We blame ourselves.
Can you help yourselves?
They cannot look after themselves.

8. RECIPROCAL PRONOUNS

We use reciprocal pronouns when each of two or more subjects is acting the same way towards
the other. There are two examples of this type of pronoun:

each other - used when you want to refer to two people

one another - used when you want to refer to more than two people

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9. UNIT 2 PRACTICE

Exercise 2
Fill in the blanks with suitable reflexive pronouns.

e.g. himself .
He did his homework __________

itself
1. The dog is licking __________ all over.
herself
2. The little girl can feed __________.
himseft some watermelon because it looks good.
3. My father cut __________
yourself for the accident.
4. You must not blame __________
5. The children enjoyed __________ at the theme park.
6. We shared the pudding among __________.
7. I made it all by __________! I followed the recipe very carefully.
oneself
8. One must always have faith in __________.
himself a big plate of chicken rice. He was very hungry.
9. Yoong ordered for __________
itself
10. Don’t worry, the kettle will turn off by __________ once the water is boiled.

Exercise 3
Fill in the blanks with the correct forms of relative pronouns.

e.g. Whatever
_______________ you do, pay attention to the rules of the game.

whichever
1. _______________ pizza you ordered, I hope it does not have any anchovies on it. I hate
anchovies.
whatever
2. The prisoner said that he would say _______________ he needed to say to get out of jail sooner.
whenever
3. _______________ I go to sleep at night, I have strange and scary dreams.
wherever
4. _______________ we put the television antenna, the reception is bad.
whoever
5. _______________ knocked on the door late last night must have done so by mistake.
whatever
6. The student was so intelligent that _______________ question we asked her, she gave the
correct answer.
whichever
7. You can drive _______________ car you want. I won’t be going out today.
however
8. You can dress up _______________ you like, it’s a costume party. Be a little creative!

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 whenever
9. _______________ Sam comes home for the holidays, the first thing he does is drop by the
mamak stall for some roti canai.
whoever
10. _______________ told you that I was leaving the country was lying.

Exercise 4
Fill in the blanks with the appropriate pronouns.

themself
1. The villagers had to put out the fire by _______________.
2. Give the money back to them now. It is _______________.
3. This boat belongs to me. It is _______________.
4. A storm is coming. We should keep _______________ safe by staying indoors.
5. Here are the books. We found _______________ in the cupboard.
6. This dress suits _______________ best. She looks very nice in it.
7. The jackfruits are not ripe yet. You had better not pluck _______________ yet.
8. This dress of _______________ does not fit me anymore. You can have it.
9. These antique plates are _______________. Puan Siti collects them from her trips overseas.
10. “Excuse me, is this my notebook or _______________?” I asked the girl who was next to me.
11. That is the mysterious woman _______________ I spoke to regarding my application.
12. I gave him that shirt for his birthday. So the shirt is now _______________.
13. My siblings and _______________ are very close. We get on very well with _______________.
14. _______________ is that handsome young man over there?
15. Gina has told us to keep _______________ free this Saturday. She wants us to attend her
birthday party.
16. The butterfly _______________ he kept was blue in colour.
17. _______________ did you call earlier?
18. _______________ car is parked in the handicapped parking space? If someone doesn’t move it,
it’s going to be towed.
19. Melanie couldn’t remember the name of the student _______________ science project received
the first prize.
20. That’s the professor _______________ spent 10 years living in the deepest parts of the Amazon
rainforest.

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Exercise 6
Read the passage and fill in the blanks with the correct pronouns.

Reading
Once upon a time, there was a tomcat named
he
Nuisance. ________ lived with a wonderful woman named
he
Lisa, but for some reason, ________ seemed to like everyone
but ________. The harder Lisa tried to please ________, the
more Nuisance thought of things ________ could do to
annoy ________. One day, Lisa’s friend, Kristine brought
over a beautiful hanging plant. ________ hung ________ in
________ bedroom window. Then the two friends went out
to dinner.
they
When ________ they
returned, ________ found the plant
it
on the floor. “What happened to ________?” asked
her
________ friend, but Lisa knew, and ________
you do too, don’t
you
________? Of course we do. That Nuisance!

he
Another time, ________ ran away and was gone for
three months. Lisa asked the people in the apartment
him
building to help search for ________. they
________ all agreed to
help, but ________
nobody found Nuisance. Lisa was very sad. Just
when everyone he
________ had given up hope, ________ turned up and
his
acted like nothing had happened. Nuisance spent ________
whole life doing things like this to Lisa, but she always
him
forgave ________.

Exercise 7
Identify the error in each sentence. Then, rewrite the correct word on top of the error.

1. These two cats are us.

2. Excuse you, can I ask you a question?
3. Alex and Danny can ride they skateboards.
4. We can phone my grandmother and ask herself about the rendang chicken recipe.
5. They don’t eat potatoes because they don’t like themselves.

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