Pronouns and Determiners

Basic Rules

1. Personal Pronouns

A sentence is a group of words expressing a complete thought. Its two essential parts are the
subject and

Subject of a sentence Object of a sentence Examples

I me I had dinner at my house.
you you You had dinner at your house.
he, she, it him, her, it She had dinner at her house.
we our We had dinner at your house.
you your You had dinner at your house.
they their They had dinner at their house.

2. Possessive Pronouns and Determiners

Possessive Possessive pronouns Examples

determiners
my mine This is my car. It is mine.
your yours This is your car. It is yours.
his, her, its his, hers, its This is his car. It is his.
our ours This is our car. It is ours.
your yours This is your car. It is yours.
their theirs This is their car. It is theirs.

3. Reflexive Pronouns

Reflexive pronouns Examples

myself I did it myself.
yourself You did it yourself.
himself, herself, itself She did it herself.
ourselves We did it ourselves.
yourselves You did it yourselves.
themselves They did it themselves.

4. Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns Examples

who Ben, who moved to London, bought a house.
which He bought the black car, which was cheaper.
whose This is the tower whose faade was restored last year.
 I visited Roberta, whose husband had left her.

5. Interrogative Pronouns

Interrogative pronouns Examples

who Who left the door open?
what What were you thinking?
which Which car do you like best?
whose Whose fault was it?

6. Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative Examples
pronouns
this This is my house right here.
that That over there is the school.
these These are my children. Aren't they cute?
those Those are my sister's children. They are brats!

7. Indefinite Pronouns

Indefinite pronouns Examples

someone / somebody Somebody stole my bike.
anyone / anybody Has anyone seen my bike?
one One has to watch out for thieves.
each Each one of them could have done it.
either Either one of them could have done it.
none I saw none of them last week.
etc. I didn't talk to either one last week.
I talked to neither one last week.

8. Determiners

a. identifiers

a/an, the, possessive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns

can tell the listener whether the speaker is talking about specific example or in general
(a house vs. the house)

can tell the speaker's attitude toward something (this vs. that)

two identifiers cannot be put together (The my car.)

b. quantifiers
 much, many, a lot, few, several, little, most, all, less, enough, every, ...

give information about how many / how much the speaker is thinking about

combinations of quantifiers are possible: Tom talks to her every few days.