In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (Lat: pronomen) is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun (or noun

phrase) with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English. The replaced phrase is called
the antecedent of the pronoun.

For example, consider the sentence "Lisa gave the coat to Phil." All three nouns in the sentence can be
replaced by pronouns: "She gave it to him." If the coat, Lisa, and Phil have been previously mentioned,
the listener can deduce what the pronouns she, it and him refer to and therefore understand the meaning
of the sentence; however, if the sentence "She gave it to him." is the first presentation of the idea, none of
the pronouns have antecedents, and each pronoun is therefore ambiguous. Pronouns without
antecedents are also called unprecursed pronouns. English grammar allows pronouns to potentially have
multiple candidate antecedents. The process of determining which antecedent was intended is known
as anaphore resolution.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Types of pronouns

 2 Pronouns and determiners

 3 The views of different schools

 4 See also

 5 References

 6 External links

[edit]Types of pronouns

Common types of pronouns found in the world's languages are as follows:

 Personal pronouns stand in place of the names of people or things:

 Subjective pronouns are used when the person or thing is the subject of the sentence or clause.
English example: I like to eat chips, but she does not.
 Second person formal and informal pronouns (T-V distinction). For
example, vous and tu in French. There is no distinction in modern English though Elizabethan
English marked the distinction with "thou" (singular informal) and "you" (plural or singular
formal).
 Inclusive and exclusive "we" pronouns indicate whether the audience is included. There is
no distinction in English.
  Intensive pronouns, also known as emphatic pronouns, re-emphasize a noun or pronoun
that has already been mentioned. English uses the same forms as for the reflexive pronouns;
for example: I did it myself (contrast reflexive use, I did it to myself).
 Objective pronouns are used when the person or thing is the object of the sentence or clause.
English example: John likes me but not her.
 Direct and indirect object pronouns. English uses the same forms for both; for
example: Mary loves him (direct object); Mary sent him a letter (indirect object).
 Reflexive pronouns are used when a person or thing acts on itself. English example: John
cut himself.
 Reciprocal pronouns refer to a reciprocal relationship. English example: They do not
like each other.
 Prepositional pronouns come after a preposition. No distinct forms exist in English; for
example: Anna and Maria looked at him.
 Disjunctive pronouns are used in isolation or in certain other special grammatical contexts. No
distinct forms exist in English; for example: Who does this belong to? Me.
 Dummy pronouns are used when grammatical rules require a noun (or pronoun), but none is
semantically required. English example: It is raining.
 Weak pronouns.
 Possessive pronouns are used to indicate possession or ownership.
 In a strict sense, the possessive pronouns are only those that act syntactically as nouns.
English example: Those clothes are mine.
 Often, though, the term "possessive pronoun" is also applied to the so-called possessive
adjectives (or possessive determiners). For example, in English: I lost my wallet. They are not
strictly speaking pronouns because they do not substitute for a noun or noun phrase, and as
such, some grammarians classify these terms in a separate lexical category
called determiners (they have a syntactic role close to that of adjectives, always qualifying a
noun).
 Demonstrative pronouns distinguish the particular objects or people that are referred to from other
possible candidates. English example: I'll take these.
 Indefinite pronouns refer to general categories of people or things. English example: Anyone can
do that.
 Distributive pronouns are used to refer to members of a group separately rather than
collectively. English example: To each his own.
 Negative pronouns indicate the non-existence of people or things. English
example: Nobody thinks that.
 Relative pronouns refer back to people or things previously mentioned. English
example: People who smoke should quit now.
 Indefinite relative pronouns have some of the properties of both relative pronouns and
indefinite pronouns. They have a sense of "referring back", but the person or thing to which they
refer has not previously been explicitly named. English example: I know what I like.
 Interrogative pronouns ask which person or thing is meant. English example: Who did that?
 In many languages (e.g., Czech, English, French, Interlingua, and Russian), the sets of relative
and interrogative pronouns are nearly identical. Compare English: Who is that?(interrogative) to I
know who that is. (relative).
[edit]Pronouns and determiners

Pronouns and determiners are closely related, and some linguists think pronouns are actually
[1]
determiners without a noun or a noun phrase. The following chart shows their relationships in English.

Pronoun Determiner

Personal (1st/2nd) we we Scotsmen

Possessive our our freedom

Demonstrative this this gentleman

Indefinite some some frogs

Interrogative who which option

The personal pronouns of the English language can have various forms according
to gender, number, person, and case. Modern English is alanguage with very
little noun or adjective inflection, to the point where some authors describe it as analytic, but the Modern
English system of personal pronouns has preserved most of the inflectional complexity of Old
English and Middle English.

Unlike other nouns, which are undeclined for case except for possession (woman/woman's), English
pronouns have a number of forms, depending on their grammatical role in a sentence:
  a subjective case (I/we/etc.), used as the subject of a verb.
 an objective case (me/us/etc.), used as the object of a verb or preposition. The same forms are also
used as disjunctive pronouns.
 a reflexive form (myself/ourselves etc.), which is preceded by the noun or pronoun to which it refers
(its antecedent) within the same clause (for example, She cut herself). Frequent errors exist when a
reflexive pronoun is inserted incorrectly for "me" or "I" (error: It was written by John, Ann, and
myself when it should read, It was written by John, Ann, and me and error: John, Ann, and myself
wrote it when it should read, John, Ann, and I wrote it). The same reflexive forms also are used
as intensive pronouns (for example, She made the dress herself).
 two possessive forms, used to indicate the possessor of another noun. The first group (my/our/etc.)
are used as determiners (possessive determiners, also called possessive adjectives), and the second
(mine/ours/etc.) as pronouns or predicate adjectives.
Contents
[hide]

 1 Basic personal pronouns of modern English

 2 Full list of personal pronouns

o 2.1 First person pronouns

 2.1.1 I and me

 2.1.2 My and mine, thy and thine

 2.1.3 We

 2.1.4 Ourself

o 2.2 Second person pronoun

 2.2.1 You

 2.2.2 Ye

 2.2.3 Thou

 2.2.4 Other second person pronouns

o 2.3 Third person pronoun

 2.3.1 He and she & his and her

 2.3.2 His and its

 2.3.3 One

 2.3.4 Third person plural

 3 See also

 4 References
[edit]Basic personal pronouns of modern English
The basic personal pronouns of modern English are shown below.

Personal pronouns in standard Modern English

Singular Plural

Subject Object Reflexive Subject Object Reflexive

First I me myself we us ourselves

Second you you yourself you you yourselves

Masculine he him himself

Third Feminine she her herself they them themselves

Neuter it it itself

[edit]Full list of personal pronouns

The following table shows the full list of English personal pronouns, including archaic and dialectal forms.
Nonstandard, informal and archaic forms are in italics.

personal pronoun
possessive possessive
pronoun determiner
subjective objective reflexive

my
first-
singular I me myself mine mine (before
person
vowel)
 we us ourselves ours our
plural
ourself

standard (archaic
you you yourself yours your
formal)

singular
thy
archaic informal thou thee thyself thine thine (before
vowel)

second-
you you
person standard yourselves yours your
you all you all

archaic ye you yourselves yours your

plural

y'all y'all y'all's selves y'all's y'all's

nonstandard or
youse youse
informal [1]
etc.

masculine he him himself his his

feminine she her herself hers her

neuter it it itself its its

third-
singular
person

generic/epicene
one one oneself – one's
(formal)

generic/epicene
they them themself, themselves theirs their
(nonstandard)
 plural they them themselves theirs their

For further archaic forms, and information on the evolution of the personal pronouns of English, see Old
English pronouns.

[edit]First person pronouns

Main articles: I and me

[edit]I and me

 In modern English, me is sometimes used in colloquial speech as the predicative of the copula,
occurring when the subject is the speaker. See It is I/It is me for a more detailed discussion.
 In some dialects of English, such as Caribbean English, me may be used as a subject, in place
[citation needed]
of I.
[edit]My and mine, thy and thine
Main articles: my, mine, thy, and thine

 Historically, my comes from a reduction of mine, and well after the emergence of my, mine continued
to be used instead of my before words beginning with vowel sounds (e.g., the first line of “The Battle
Hymn of the Republic”). Similarly with thy and thine.
[edit]We
Main article: we

 In English, the first-person plural pronoun, we, is used in both the inclusive sense (you and I) and
exclusive sense (someone else and I but not you). It's also used as a majestic plural.

e.g.: Inclusive use with the speaker:

 We can all go to the zoo today.

This contrasts with exclusive we, which excludes the person being spoken to, e.g.:

 We mean to stop your evil plans!

Majestic plural:

 We are not amused

[edit]Ourself
Main article: ourself
 Ourself is used when we is semantically singular, but grammatically plural, as in the royal we and in
the editorial we, however, there is the reflexive example of, "We, ourselves, are not pleased!"
[edit]Second person pronoun
[edit]You
Main article: you

 The only common distinction between singular and plural you is in the reflexive and emphatic forms.
 You and its variants can sometimes be used in a generic sense. See Generic you.
[edit]Ye
Main article: ye (pronoun)

 Historically, you was an object pronoun, and ye was its subject counterpart; today, you fills both roles
in Standard English, though some dialects use ye for the two roles, and some use ye as
an apocopated or clitic form of you.
[edit]Thou
Main article: thou

 Between 1600 and 1800, the various second-person singular forms of thou began to pass out of
common usage in most places, except in poetry, archaic-style literature, publicprayer, and
descriptions of other languages' pronouns. Thou refers to one person who is familiar, as in a friend or
family, and also for a person who is being insulted or disrespected (since the formal form implies a
degree of respect). Also, as in other European languages, the familiar form is used (presumably as
for family and intimates) when speaking to God in prayer. Almost all forms of thou have disappeared
from Standard Modern English, although a few dialects retain them. Thou still exists in parts
of England, Scotland, and in someChristian religious communities.
[edit]Other second person pronouns
Main articles: y'all, yinz, and yous

 While formal Standard English uses you for both singular and plural, many dialects use various
special forms for the plural, such as y'all (short for "you all"), you guys, yinz (short for "you ones"),
and yous (also spelled youse). Corresponding reflexive and possessive pronouns are often used as
well.
 In Scotland, yous is often used for the second person plural (particularly in the Central Belt area).
However, in some parts of the country, ye is used for the plural you. In older times and in some other
places today, ye is the nominative case and you is the accusative case. Some
English dialects generalised ye, while standard English generalised you. Some dialects use ye as a
clipped or weak form of you.
[edit]Third person pronoun
[edit]He and she & his and her
Main articles: he, she, his, and her

 He and she are also often used for animals when the animal's gender is known and is of interest.
Some animals, especially domesticated ones such as horses, cattle, dogs, andchickens, have
different common names depending on their gender and therefore the he or she pronoun is required
instead of it, while for others such as giraffes or turtles there is no common English word based on
the gender and thus it is used unless the gender is known (such as in a work of fiction or
a veterinarian or zoologist's description).
 In English, inanimate objects such as ships, countries, cities, and institutions are sometimes referred
to as she. Even a ship with the name of man (e.g. the USS John F. Kennedy) is assigned the
feminine gender and would have a feminine pronoun (e.g. The John F. Kennedy raised her flag); a
city such as Paris would have a parallel feminine pronoun, e.g. Paris is known for her rainy Spring
season; and so would a country: America is renowned for her geographical diversity. A parallel
construction is required for a pronoun referring to a noun. Where the noun is assigned a gender, the
pronoun must be of the same gender. Nouns derived from foreign languages are accompanied by
pronouns that reflect their gender in the foreign language.
[edit]His and its
Main article: its (pronoun)

 Historically, his was the possessive of it as well of he; nowadays it has been completely supplanted
by its.
[edit]One
Main article: one (pronoun)

 In informal usage, English speakers often use you instead of one; for example "If one is kind to
others..." becomes "If you're kind to others...".
[edit]Third person plural

 Historically the forms they, their, and them are of Scandinavian origin (from the Viking invasions and
[2]
settlement in northeastern England during the Danelaw period from the 9th to the 11th centuries).
 The third person plural form 'em is believed to be a survival of the late Old English form heom, which
appears as hem in Chaucer, and has apparently lost its aspiration due to being used as an
unstressed form.
 The forms of they are also sometimes used with grammatically or semantically singular antecedents,
though it is a matter of some dispute whether and when such usage is acceptable. When this is the
case, they takes a plural verb, but themselves with a singular sense is often changed to themself.
 Although grammarians and usage writers often condemn the use of the "singular they" when the
gender is unknown or unimportant, this is often used, both in speech and in writing (e.g. "If a
customer requires help, they should contact..."). In fact, a consistent pattern of usage can be traced at
least as far back as Shakespeare, and possibly even back to Middle English. It avoids awkward
constructions such as he or she. This usage is authorised and preferred by the Australian
Government Manual of Style for official usage in government documents. See Singular they. The use
of the "singular they" can often be avoided by thinking ahead and rephrasing the whole sentence (e.g.
"For assistance, customers should contact...").