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A
List
of Pronouns
of Different Types
The following list of pronouns gives you a description of the various
types of pronouns
along with examples for each type.
Personal Pronouns.
These
are pronouns that refer mostly to human beings. The word 'it',
which does not refer to human beings, is also a personal
pronoun. So, there is a more grammatical way of defining
personal
pronouns so that we can include the hapless 'it' in the personal
pronoun family.
Often you'll find personal pronouns divided into:
subjective pronouns (I, we, you, he, she, it, they);
objective pronouns (me, us, you, him, her, it, them); and
possessive
pronouns
(mine, ours, yours, his, hers, its, theirs; also the following ones,
though not strictly since they are adjectives—my, our, your, her,
their).
Should we have such a division? I think not. These three
so-called "types" are not really different types; they are just the same personal
pronouns taking different case forms.
So dividing
personal pronouns into these three groups will cause misunderstanding.
Firstly, we don't make a list of pronouns of different number
or
gender; and secondly we don't make a list of pronouns of belonging to
different cases for the other pronouns.
Compound
Personal Pronouns:
There are two types of these—Reflexive
pronouns and Intensive
pronouns. These two types have the same
forms, but different
functions.
Examples: myself, ourselves,
yourself, yourselves,
himself, herself,
itself, themselves.
- Reflexive Pronouns
function as grammatical objects or complements which mirror the
subject. (She blamed herself
for the
mishap. He is himself
today.)
- Intensive Pronouns
act as appositives
of nouns or pronouns for the sake of emphasis. (You yourself wrote those
words.)
Demonstrative Pronouns:
These pronouns point out
someone or something. They are identical in form to Demonstrative
Adjectives/Determiners. The difference is that a Demonstrative Pronoun
stands alone (because it is a substitute for a noun or noun phrase),
but a
Demonstrative Adjective is accompanied by the noun it modifies.
- She gave me this
gift. (this—demonstrative adjective)
- I like this.
(this—demonstrative pronoun)
More examples:
- these
- These are my children.
- that
- That is a good idea.
- those
- The streets of Chennai are more crowded than those of Kodaikanal.
- such
- Such are the people whom you once trusted.
Indefinite
Pronouns:
These pronouns do stand for some person or thing, but we don't know for exactly whom.
When we say, "Somebody stole my watch," we don't know to whom the word
'somebody' refers to. The word 'somebody' is an Indefinite Pronoun.
The pronouns list for this type are...
- one
- One should speak the truth.
- somebody
- Somebody called the doctor.
- anybody
- Anybody can solve this problem.
- nobody
- Nobody came.
- many
- Many are called, but few are chosen.
- others
- Do good to others.
- you
- You don't take coal to Newcastle, or coconuts to Kerala!
- they
- They say that a poor workman blames his tools.
Distributive
Pronouns
These pronouns refer to individual elements in a group or a pair, one
individual at a time.
Here are the examples...
- each
- "From each according to his ability, to each according to his
need." (Marx)
- either
- You may answer either of these (two) questions first.
- neither
- Neither of the answers is correct.
- any
- You may bring any of your friends.
- none
- None of the students failed last year.
Reciprocal
Pronouns
These
pronouns are found in pairs. They are really
a subject-object
pair now compressed. We'll find this if we expand the sentence (in
which they are present) to bring out the full meaning. When one gives,
the other member of the pair also gives in return. That's what
we
mean by reciprocation...
hence Reciprocal Pronouns.
Examples:
- each
other - They love each other. (i.e. Each loves the other - 'each' is
used in a distributive
sense; the 'other' automatically takes the reciprocal
position. 'Each' stands for both individuals, one at a time.)
- one
another - Good people help one another to succeed.
Relative
Pronouns
These
pronouns are very important words in the language. They not
only
act as substitutes for nouns, but also function as joining words for
two clauses. They perform a function similar to that of subordinating
conjunctions besides being substitutes.
Here's a list of pronouns that belong to this important category...
- who
- Give this to the boy who wins the race.
- whose
- This is Mohan, whose mobile phone was stolen last week.
- whom
- Rita, whom you praised in class yesterday, is my sister.
- which
- This is the problem, which we are struggling to solve.
- that
- This is the day that we have waited for so long.
- what
- Eat what is set before you.
You also have Compound
Relative Pronouns:
whoever,
whatever, whichever, whosoever, whatsoever, and whichsoever.
Using any of the last three is old-fashioned.
Interrogative
Pronouns
These
look like relative pronouns, but have a different function.
They
are used in asking questions. There are three of them:
- who
(with its other forms, whose
and whom)
- who
- Who is that man?
- Whose
- Whose is this wallet?
- Whom
- Whom do you seek?
- which
- Which is your berth?
- what
- What is your name?
From this above list of pronouns, I can tell you that you will need
more time to study Personal Pronouns and Relative Pronouns, since they
involve more language elements than the others.
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