PRONOUNS

Pronouns are used in place of nouns.


* The boy is tall.
    He is tall.

* The girl sings well.
    She sings well.

* The boys are playing cricket.
    They are playing cricket.

* My friends and I are going to a movie.
   We are going to a movie.

* The cow is tied to a pole.
    It is tied to a pole.

* The movie was interesting.
    It was interesting.

Kinds of Pronouns

There are six kinds of pronouns with different functions:

1. Personal pronouns

This kind of pronoun refers to a particular person or thing.  For example, you are referring to a female subject in the sentence, the pronouns that are appropriate to use are: she, her, and hers. If you are referring to a male, you can use: he, him, and his. For a group of persons, not including yourself, the appropriate pronouns are: they, them, and their.

Whenever you use a Personal Pronoun like She, It or They, you first have to have an Antecedent., ie, the word you are replacing with the pronoun.
In the examples above, Boy, Girl, Boys, My friends and I, Cow and Movie are all Antecedents.

The general rule for pronoun agreement is straightforward: A singular antecedent requires a singular pronoun; a plural antecedent needs a plural pronoun

Personal pronouns can serve as the subjects, objects of the verb or preposition, and can also show possession. They are formally classified into: subjective personal pronouns, objective personal pronouns, and possessive personal pronouns.

Subject Pronouns                           Object Pronouns                       

         I                                                      Me                                                
        You                                                  You                                                
        We                                                    Us                                                
        They                                                 Them                                            
         He                                                    Him                                              
         She                                                   Her                                                                                                                                                                                                                

 :Examples of Subject Pronouns:

  * You are the first person to arrive.

  * We have an important meeting to attend.

  *  I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

  *  It is my first painting.

Examples of Object Pronouns:

  * Give that book to me.

  * Mr. Peters sent a message to us.

  * She gave her a long explanation.

  * The boy told them that he was an artist.

Examples of Possessive Pronouns

   Mine

   Yours

   Ours

   Theirs

   His

   Hers

   Its

Examples of Possessive Pronouns:

  * That car is mine.

  * The blue car parked there is ours.

  * The colour of its eyes are green.

  * She said that the book was hers.

2. Demonstrative pronouns

The function of this kind of pronoun is to point to a noun. Examples are: this, these, that, and those. The pronouns “this” and “these” points to things that are nearby while the other two are for things that are far. Aside from proximity, you must also consider the number of things you are pointing out. For singular nouns, “this” and “that” should be used, while for plural nouns “these” and “those” are appropriate.

Examples;

* That guy there looks suspicious. (singular noun)
* This is the book I am reading.     (singular noun)
* These are my new neighbours.   (plural noun)
* Those people at the bank were angry with the staff. (plural noun)
* The underlined words are nouns.

3. Indefinite pronouns

This kind of pronoun refers to unspecified things. 

Singular Indefinite Pronouns

each, either, neither anybody, anyone, anything everybody, everyone, everything nobody, no one, nothing somebody, someone, something

Eg,

* Everyone / everybody /anyone / anybody has the right to fight for his freedom.
* Each of the students has to give his or her opinion.
* Neither his mom nor his dad knows anything about it. 

PLURAL Indefinite Pronouns

Both, several, few and many

Eg,

* Both the brothers stay in their aunt's house.
* Several people are invited to the party.

* Many students came for the show.

4. Intensive pronouns

The function of intensive pronouns is to give emphasis to the antecedent. Examples of this kind of pronoun are: myself, itself, himself, herself, yourself, yourselves, themselves, and ourselves.

Eg,

 * The PM himself said it was a terrorist attack.
 * I myself saw the man stabbing her.
 * She herself didn't know that she won the award.

5. Interrogative pronouns

As the title implies, the function of this kind of pronoun is to ask questions. Examples of interrogative pronouns are: who, what, which, whom, whoever, whatever, whichever, and whomever.

Eg,
  
 * Who wrote Oliver Twist ?
 * What did your parents say ?

6. Relative pronouns

This kind of pronoun links one clause or phrase to another. Some of the most common relative pronouns are: who, whoever, whomever, that, and which.

Eg,

  * She is the lady who stole my bag.

 * I like the dress which you are wearing.

 * I gifted the ring that she is wearing on her finger.