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3. Pronouns
Imagine trying to tell someone a story where you cannot substitute a noun with a pronoun.
Listen to this story that I am going to read to you.
Radha listened keenly for sounds in the hall. Hearing no sounds in the hall Radha tiptoed out of
Radha’s room, slipped out through the kitchen door, quickly jumped into Radha’s car and drove
as first as Radha could. Radha had to find Shyam and warn Shyam about the mysterious
message.
Lost your patience? I would not blame you. The thrill of reading the story is dampened to plod
through the endless list of repetitive nouns.
Pronouns would make the story easier to read
Radha listened keenly for sounds in the hall. Hearing no sounds in the hall she tiptoed out of her
room, slipped out through the kitchen door, quickly jumped into her car and drove as first as she
could, She had to find Shyam and warn him about the mysterious message .
“Pro” means acting for and therefore a pronoun implies a ‘word’ that takes the place of a noun,
Without pronouns, both reading and writing would become a tedious process. You just had a
taste of it! Like nouns, pronouns too come in several types. The ones we use most often, are the
personal pronouns which refer to specific people and sometimes two things. In the example
above, ‘she’ and ‘her’ refers to Radha, and ‘him’ refers to Shyam. Like nouns, pronouns also
take on singular and plural forms. However unlike the nouns, they change to show :
‘The first person (the one who is speaking)
‘The second person ( the one who is being spoken to) and
‘The third person(the one who is being spoken about).
Study the chart showing the different forms of personal pronouns.
Subject Object
Pronouns Pronouns
1* Person. I 1 Person. Me.
2" Person ‘You 2" Person You
3"! Person(M) He 3 Person(M) Him
3% Person(F) She 3° Person(F) Her
a It 3 Person(Neutral) | Tt
Person(Neutral) 1 Person(Pl) Us
1* Person(Pl) ‘We 2™ Person(PI) ‘You
2 Person(Pl) You 3° Person(Pl) them
3"! Person(Pl) They
67 [Page Possessive
Pronouns
1 Person, Mine
2" Person Yours Possessive
3” Person(M) His Adjective
3" Person(F) Hers 1* Person My
3a Tts ‘2™ Person ‘Your
Person(Neutral) 3" Person(M) His
1* Person(Pl) Ours 3° Person(F) ‘Her
2 PesonPl) | Yours 3 Person(Neutral) | Its
3° Person(Pl) Theirs 1* Person(Pl) Our
2™ Person(Pl) ‘Your
Ralae 3"! Person(Pl) ‘Their
Pronouns
1 Person Myseif
2" Person ‘Yourself
3" Person(Mf) Himself
3" Person(F) She
3" Person(Neuiral) | Itself
I Person(Pl) ‘Ourselves
2 Person(Pl) ‘Yourselves
3" Person(Pl) themselves
‘Ahmed (the first person) spoke to Anita (the second person) about Rita (the third person)
When we use personal pronouns, we would say:
Ahmed spoke about her to her
Look at the chart to understand under which column these pronouns would fall.
In case you use the plural form
The boys spoke about the teachers to the parents
They spoke about them to us.
Remember a subject pronoun which is ideally your first person, comes before the verb in the
ordering of the sentence, When a pronoun is used as an object pronoun which is either direct,
indirect or objects of preposition you used an objective form of the pronoun like- me, her etc.
She hates eating apples.
Alli gave the book to me.
‘The possessive pronouns show ownership, in a way they act as adjectives.
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