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? Kate Upton? Angelina Jolie? 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.
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? Kate Upton? Angelina Jolie? 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.
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:
While this table looks complicated, personal pronouns in English are simpler than other languages. The only gendered pronouns in English are third person singular pronouns. Also notice how you is both nominative and objective: it wasn't always that way. In Middle English, you was only for plurals. Second person singular had four other pronouns: thou (nominative), thee (objective), thy (possessive nominative), and thine (objective nominative). Though these words were dropped in the mid-seventeenth century, they can still be found in the works of Shakespeare and metaphysical poetry.
While no new pronouns have entered the English dictionary in over 500 years, there have been informal attempts to add new pronouns. Some regions of the United States have made their own plural second person pronouns, like y'all or youse. Transgender activists have also unsuccessfully pushed for a set of gender neutral third person singular pronouns, including ze, vis, hir, and eir. While once unacceptable, most modern grammarians allow they and them to be used as gender neutral.
While no new pronouns have entered the English dictionary in over 500 years, there have been informal attempts to add new pronouns. Some regions of the United States have made their own plural second person pronouns, like y'all or youse. Transgender activists have also unsuccessfully pushed for a set of gender neutral third person singular pronouns, including ze, vis, hir, and eir. While once unacceptable, most modern grammarians allow they and them to be used as gender neutral.
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.
Like most words, figuring out indefinite pronouns are all a matter of context. Sometimes these words are pronouns, and other times they are modifiers. Take the sentence Another one bites the dust: one is a pronoun (and the subject of the sentence) while another modifies the subject. Also notice that some indefinite pronouns are singular, some are plural, and some can be both, so always double-check that there is proper subject-verb agreement.
REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS: Personal pronouns, plus the self
Reflexive pronouns add the suffix -self to a personal pronoun. English currently has eight reflexive pronouns: MYSELF, YOURSELF, HIMSELF, HERSELF, ITSELF, OURSELVES, YOURSELVES, and THEMSELVES. 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 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).
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, THAT, THESE, and THOSE. 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 (What are a pair of underwear doing in the hallway?), WHO (Who put these underwear here?), WHOM (To whom do these underwear belong?), WHOSE (Whose underwear are these, anyway?), and WHICH (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 adverbial in nature and modify nouns. The most common relative pronouns are WHO, WHOM, WHOSE, THAT, and WHICH, but also include whichever, whoever, whosoever, whomever, whomsoever, whatever, and whatsoever. Who, whom, and whose can start both restrictive relative clauses and nonrestrictive clauses (I hate the man who ran over my dog; Mr. Coon, who ran over my dog, is a monster.) 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 designed the movie poster, which currently hangs in the lobby).
Practical question: What's the difference between who and whom? What about that and which?
Who is a nominative pronoun and always is a subject: He's the only guy I know who can wrestle a crocodile. (subject of can wrestle)
Whom is an objective pronoun and always is an object: He was the man whom the president fired (object of fired)
That is used for restrictive clauses but never for people: 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)