Pronouns

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. But why? Nouns already exist, so why do we need pronouns? Well, as useful as nouns are, they can be long and clunky. Take your name. Imagine instead of saying I or me, you had to say your full name every time. Or instead of you, imagine saying the full name of every person you were addressing. It would take forever to get through saying anything. Pronouns were invented as a shorthand for the most commonly used nouns to make language quicker and simpler.

Yet pronouns only make communicating simpler if they are used correctly. Read the following lines: She started from nothing, but after a stint with a modeling agency, she got her big break in Hollywood. She became a successful, top-billed actress, leading her to win accolades and become a lasting icon. Who am I talking about? Natalie Portman? Marilyn Monroe? Gal Gadot? Jennifer Lawrence?

When the text is all pronouns, it becomes vague. That's why every pronoun requires an antecedent, a stated or implied noun that it refers to. The antecedent almost always comes before the pronoun in question and is typically the subject of the first sentence of the paragraph.

While "pronouns stand in for nouns" seems simple, pronouns are one of the more complex parts of speech and have a lot of rules. For example, pronouns can rarely take modifiers, so nouns with articles and adjectives cannot be replaced with a pronoun without changing the sentence. To make pronouns make sense, they are divided into six categories, each with their own rules concerning case and number: personal pronouns, reflexive pronouns, indefinite pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, interrogative pronouns, and relative pronouns.

PERSONAL PRONOUNS: Subjects, objects, and possession

Personal pronouns take the place of specific people as an antecedent. Since these pronouns are based around people, they are also grounded in plurality and perspective. Each personal pronoun can be classified by case, person, and plurality. Here's a handy chart:

CASE

Case works slightly different for personal pronouns than it does for nouns:

First, there is no vocative case for personal pronouns, though there is for many non-personal pronouns like everyone and what.
Like nouns, pronouns can be in the nominative case, meaning the pronoun is the subject of a clause or renames the subject of a clause. I, we, he, she, and they are always nominative pronouns while you and it are sometimes nominative. When paired with another nominative, the pronoun goes last (Becca and I went to the zoo.) When using multiple person pronouns in a sentence, the order is second-third-first (You, she, and I will walk to the giraffe cage).
Instead of being separated into the accusative case and dative case, any pronoun that acts as object is said to be in the objective case. Me, us, him, and them are always objective while you, her, and it are sometimes objective. When paired with another object, the pronoun goes first (The zoo blamed me and Becca for the escaped giraffe). When using multiple person pronouns in a sentence, the order is second-first-third (The cops are looking for you, me, and her). These are the only personal pronouns that can take modifiers (poor you, despicable me), though this isn't very common.
Like nouns, personal pronouns have a possessive case, meaning they show ownership and act as a modifier in the sentence). While the same possessive noun can be a modifier (Kate's dad let me borrow her car) or a predicate nominative (That car is Kate's), possessive personal pronouns are either modifiers or objects. Thus, unlike nouns, the possessive case for pronouns is split into two different cases: the modifying possessive case and the independent possessive case .
- Modifying possessive personal pronouns can only act like adjectives and modify nouns. My, our, your, her, its, and their are exclusively modifying possessive pronouns. When paired with another modifying possessive, the pronoun goes first (We escaped the fuzz in my and Becca's car). The pronoun also goes first when there are multiple modifiers of the noun (Becca took out her beautiful eight-inch stiletto knife.).
- Independent possessive personal pronouns can only act like nouns are serve as predicate nominatives. Mine, ours, yours, and hers are exclusively independent possessive pronouns. These pronouns can only properly pair with other independent possessive pronouns (The blame for the crime is equally hers and mine) though possessive nouns can pair with the independent pronoun in informal speech (The giraffe was almost mine and Becca's).
- His is the only possessive pronoun that can be modifying (I borrowed his car) or independent (The car is his).

NUMBER

Like nouns, there are singular pronouns (representing one person) and plural pronouns (representing more than one person):

SINGULAR PERSONAL PRONOUNS: I, me, my, mine, you, your, yours, he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its, they, them, their, theirs
PLURAL PERSONAL PRONOUNS: we, us, our, ours, you, your, yours, they, them, their, theirs

PERSON

A unique classification to pronouns that no other part of speech has is that it shows person, which is a term for the person that pronoun refers to. This makes pronouns the only part of speech that can show perspective.

First person pronouns are the most straightforward and refer to whoever is writing or saying the sentence: I, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours. Since I is the only pronoun that's only one letter long, it is always capitalized to keep it from being confused for punctuation or typing errors.

Second person pronouns refer to whoever the speaker is talking to or to whoever is reading the written sentence. There are only three second person pronouns used in modern English: you, your, and yours. This wasn't always the case with English, as Middle English had THOU (singular nominative), THEE (singular objective), THY (singular modifying possessive), THINE (singular independent possessive), and YE (plural nominative). Though these words were dropped from common use in the mid-seventeenth century, they can still be found in the works of Shakespeare and metaphysical poetry. Conversely, some regions of the United States have made their own plural second person pronouns, like y'all or youse.

Third person pronouns are the most numerous and complex, as they have another dimension in addition to case and number: gender. While many other languages have a gendered case for all personal pronouns, the only gendered pronouns in English are third person pronouns:
- Third person plural pronouns are not gendered: they, them, their, theirs
- He, him, and his are masculine pronouns that indicate the antecedent is male.
- She, her, and hers are feminine pronouns that indicate the antecedent is female.
- It and its are inhumane neuter pronouns, meaning they are used when gender is unknown or unapplicable (I hope it's a girl so I'll get a granddaughter! The hundred-year-old book showed its age as the brittle pages turned to powder.)
- They, them, their, and theirs are humane neuter pronouns, meaning they are used to refer to people who have a gender that is unknown or not definitively male or female (They had a great time at the movies. If a student needs something, they must raise their hand). While this may seem like a new change to grammar, singular use of they and them goes back to before Shakespeare's time. Note that these pronouns have replaced the outdated "he or she" way to present unknown gender and are also the same as every case of third-person plural pronouns, which can lead to confusion if not used with care.

REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS: Personal pronouns, plus the self

Reflexive pronouns add the suffix -self to a personal pronoun. English currently has nine reflexive pronouns: MYSELF, YOURSELF, HIMSELF, HERSELF, ITSELF, OURSELVES, YOURSELVES, THEMSELVES, and ONESELF. There are also three archaic reflexive pronouns: thyself, thineself, and thineselves. These pronouns are sometimes called intensifiers, as they are used to put emphases on pronouns to make them more intense (I built the bookshelf vs I built the bookshelf myself.) Reflexive pronouns are all in the objective case and can be a direct object (Mary confused herself), an indirect object (Give yourselves a round of applause), or the object of a preposition (Mike only cares about himself). The odd word out in this set is oneself, as one is not a personal pronoun -- the word came about in the 1540s as a way to express not a particular person's self but a generic anybody's self: It's important to defend oneself when attacked (note the spelling -- one's self is not proper English).

INDEFINITE PRONOUNS: Personal pronouns, minus the knowledge

If personal pronouns refer to a known person or group, then indefinite pronouns refer to general or unknown persons and groups. To be clear, there is still an antecedent, but the speaker isn't sure what is is. In the sentence Does anybody have a red pen?, the antecedent person is whoever has the red pen (or no one if no one has one). There are lots of indefinite pronouns: here are all of them.

All the indefinite pronouns can act in the nominative case (Someone here is guilty) and the objective case (I know someone).

Anybody, anyone, enough, everybody, everyone, somebody, and someone can be used in the vocative case (Everybody, come here and look!)

While no indefinite pronoun is by nature possessive, a few of the pronouns can become possessive in the same way as nouns: by adding the 's suffix (She's everybody's favorite, No one's fate is predetermined, It's anybody's guess). These pronouns that can be possessive are another, anybody, anyone, everybody, everyone, no one, nobody, one, somebody, and someone.

Some indefinite pronouns are singular (Anything is possible), some are plural (Others have tried), and some can be both (More is possible with some investment, More are happy than upset by the announcement), so always double-check that there is proper subject-verb agreement.

Sometimes these pronouns are pronouns, and but they are often modifiers as well. Take the sentence Another one bites the dust: one is a pronoun (and the subject of the sentence) while another modifies the subject.

Three of these pronouns -- either, neither, and each -- fall into the subcategory of distributive pronouns, which are pronouns that can address actions and qualities of individuals in a group without applying those actions to the group collectively. For example, in Each student chose an essay topic, each indicates that there is a group of students and that the individuals, not the group, chose the essay topic.

Another special class of indefinite pronouns are called reciprocal pronouns, which are pronouns that always appear in a pair and refer to each other. There are only two reciprocal pronouns in English: each other (which is used with pairs) and one another (which is used with groups of three or more).

DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS: Show which one

Demonstrative pronouns indicate which of a series of items are being discussed in the sentence. There are only four demonstrative pronouns in English:

THIS, which is singular and proximal (near to the speaker)
THAT, which is singular and distal (far from the speaker)
THESE, which is plural and proximal

THOSE, which is plural and distal

These pronouns can all be in either the nominative or objective case, but not the possessive or vocative cases. When determining if one of the four words is a demonstrative pronoun, make sure the word is not an adjective. In the sentence This homework is taking forever, this is an adjective describing homework. In the sentence I just don't get this, this is the direct object of get, making it a demonstrative pronoun.

INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS: Start questions

Interrogative pronouns start interrogative (questioning) sentences. There are only five interrogative pronouns:

WHAT, which can be singular or plural, nominative or objective, but never represents a person (What are a pair of underwear doing in the hallway?)
WHO, which represents a person and is always nominative (Who put these underwear here?)
WHOM, which represents a person and is always objective ( To whom do these underwear belong? )
WHOSE, which represents a person and is always possessive (Whose underwear are these?)
WHICH, which can be singular or plural and is always nominative but never represents a person (Which of you left your underwear in this hallway?)

Remember that these words are always pronouns and not modifiers: in the sentence Which hallway had the underwear?, which is the subject, not hallway (hallway is the object of the phantom preposition of, as the sentence should be Which of the hallways had the underwear?).

RELATIVE PRONOUNS: Start relative clauses

Relative pronouns are pronouns that start relative clauses. Relative clauses are dependent clauses that act like adverbs and modify nouns, and these clauses can be restrictive (essential for sentence meaning) or nonrestrictive (not essential for sentence meaning). The most common relative pronouns are who, whom, whose, that, and which, but this class of pronouns also includes whichever, whoever, whosoever, whomever, whomsoever, whatever, and whatsoever.

WHO, WHOM, and WHOSE are only used when referring to people and can start both restrictive relative clauses (I hate the man who ran over my dog) and nonrestrictive relative clauses (Mr. Coon, who ran over my dog, is a monster.) Like with interrogative pronouns, who is always nominative, whom is always objective, and whose is always possessive.

THAT and WHICH are NEVER used for people and can be nominative or objective. That can only be used with restrictive relative clauses (I designed the movie poster that currently hangs in the lobby), while which can only be used with nonrestrictive relative clauses (I design movie posters, which can be seen in the lobby).

Practical question: What's the difference between who and whom? What about that and which?

Who is always is nominative: He's the only guy I know who can wrestle a crocodile. (subject of can wrestle)

Whom is always objective: He was the man whom the president fired (object of fired)

That is only used for restrictive clauses : I baked those cookies that you are eating (essential to sentence)

Which is used for nonrestrictive clauses: I slept all night in the bathtub, which wasn't easy (not essential to sentence)