In this written essay we will deal with the problems that Spanish-speaker students may

encounter when learning pronouns. It is common to use a wrong meaning of the pronoun or
even use it on the inappropriate way. For this reason it is necessary long hours of practicing.
According to the Oxford Dictionary of English a pronoun is ​a word that can function as a
noun phrase used by itself and that refers either to the participants in the discourse (e.g. I,
you) or to someone or something mentioned elsewhere in the discourse (e.g. she, it, this).
Also they can be “formally distinguished” because of the existence special objectives forms,
like as ‘her’ for ‘she’ or ‘me’ for ‘I’, and because of the non-occurrence with an article or an
adjective. In addition, we need to take into account that in the English language we find eight
different types of pronouns. Bearing that in mind, we will list them below giving some
examples of each type:
1.​ ​Personal pronouns (I, you, we, them, her…)
2.​ ​Possessive pronouns (mine, yours, its…)
3.​ ​Reflexive pronouns (myself, herself, yourselves…)
4.​ ​Indefinite pronouns (somebody, anyone, nothing…)
5.​ ​Reciprocal pronouns (each other, one another…)
6.​ ​Interrogative pronouns (what, who, which, whom…)
7.​ ​Relative pronouns (that, which, who…)
8.​ ​Demonstrative pronouns (this, that, those…)

The most frequently mistakes that the first one is ‘personal pronouns’​. Learners
usually forget the subject in the sentences, due to in Spanish the conjugation of the verb tells
us the number and gender to figure out the person or thing that carries out the action. For
instance, in Spanish you are able to say ​‘no quiero verte​’ but in English you need the subject:
‘​I do not want to see you​’. ​Besides, people tend to exchange the subject and object personal
pronouns ‘I’ and ‘me’. For example, ‘​Susan and me are going to the park​’, you have to say or
write ‘​Susan and I are going to the park​’ because there is a verb after the pronoun.
Another common problem is in the third person, Spanish distinguishes between direct
and indirect object pronouns. The English third-person object pronouns are "him," "her" and
"it" in the singular and "them" in the plural, and the same words are used whether the object
is direct or indirect. The pronouns are distinguished like this:
o Singular direct objects: lo (masculine), la (feminine).
o Plural direct object: los (masculine), las (feminine).
o Singular indirect object: le.
o Plural indirect object: les.
So while the simple English sentences "​I found her"​ and "​I sent her a letter"​ use the same
pronoun "her" a distinction is made in Spanish. The first sentence would be "​La encontré​"
where la is a direct object, while the second would be "​Le mandé una carta​" with le being the
indirect object. ("Letter" or carta is the direct object).
The distinction between direct and indirect objects is different in the two languages.
Taking note of which verbs require the use of le or les would be beyond the scope of this
lesson. But it can be said that many Spanish verbs use the indirect-object pronoun where the
pronoun in English would be viewed as a direct object. For example, in the sentence "​Le
pidieron su dirección​" (They asked him for his address), ​le is an indirect object. But in
English, "him" would be viewed as a direct object because he was the one who was asked.
The same is true in "​Le pegó en la cabeza​" (They hit him in the head).
In Spanish, object pronouns can be attached to some verbs. The pronouns
can be attached to three verb forms: infinitives, gerunds and affirmative commands.
The pronoun is written as part of the verb, and sometimes a written accent is needed
to maintain the same pronunciation as if the verb and pronoun were written as
separate words. Here is an example of each of the verb types with an attached
pronoun:
● Infinitive: ​Voy a amarte por siempre​. (I’m going to love you forever.)
● Gerund: ​Seguían mirándonos​. (They kept on looking at us.)
● Command: ​¡Cállate!​ (You) shut up!

It is common in Spanish to use an object pronoun even when the noun represented by
the pronoun is explicitly stated. Such a redundant use of the pronoun often occurs when the
object is named and appears before the verb:
● A Chris le gusta escuchar música.​ (Chris likes listening to music.)
● Toda la ropa la tenemos en descuento​. (We have all the clothing on sale.)
Note that the redundant pronoun isn't translated to English.
The pronoun also is used redundantly in some cases to add emphasis, or often because
that's what "sounds right" to native speakers even if such use isn't mandatory:
● Lo conocemos bien a este señor.​ (We know this man well.)
● Le dieron un regalo a la niña.​ (They gave a present to the girl.)

Spanish sometimes uses an indirect object pronoun where English would use a phrase.
In English we often indicate who or what was affected by a verb's action with phrases such as
"for me" or "to him." In Spanish, it may not be necessary to make a phrase.

Now, we are going to focus on ‘Reflexive Pronouns’ that In Spanish is implicit in the
sentence and you do not need a word, like in English to refer to it. For example: ‘​we
introduced ourselves​’ the translation in Spanish is: ‘​nosotros nos hemos presentado a
nosotros mismos​’; but in Spanish you do not need to say ‘a ​nosotros mismos​’. The problem is
if you do not say ‘​ourselves​’ in English, the sentence may not have the meaning that you
want.
Another mistake is Possessive Determiners and Possessive Pronouns look very
similar; the only alteration is that possessive pronouns have an extra letter at the end of the
word (‘-s’) as in ‘her’ (Possessive Determiner) or ‘hers’ (Possessive Pronoun). Thus, Spanish
speakers, time and again, say or write a possessive pronoun before the noun which is not
correct because they have to write a determiner or use a possessive determiner instead of a
possessive pronoun. For example: ‘this car is ​your​’ is wrong. The two only possibilities that
can be stated are: ‘this car is yours’ or ‘this is your car’.
 To end with this point, regarding pronunciation, Spanish-speaking students also have
problems with the sound of (it’s) /its/ which is a contraction and with the pronoun (its) since
they have exactly the same pronunciation /its/ so they do not know the differences between
them regarding the use. As an example: ‘Look at the dog. ​It’s so happy after having ​its lunch’
([it’s] is the subject and [its] is the pronoun).
After explaining usual difficulties in the practice of some pronouns because of the fact
that they are equally written, it is turn to show the issues that Spanish-speaking students have
related with the acquisition of English pronouns due to in Spanish some grammatical rules
are completely different.
To begin with this point, there are some verbs that need a reflexive pronoun in
Spanish but they do not need it in English like: concentrate, change (talking about ‘clothes’),
complain, decide, dress up, feel, meet, relax, remember, sit down, stand up, wake up, wash,
wonder, worry, etcetera. Now, let us introduce some examples: ‘I could not concentrate
myself​’ (this sentence is wrong) / ‘I could not concentrate’ (right), ‘Fer shaves ​himself every
morning’ (this sentence is wrong) / ‘Fer shaves every morning’ (right) and ‘How do you feel
yourself?’ (this sentence is wrong) / ‘How do you feel?’ (right).
In addition to this, in English, it is always used the pronouns ‘one/ones’ to replace a
word, which do not exist in Spanish. For instance: ‘I have bought a book. The one that I have
been looking for’. They are used when people want to refer back to a previous noun, and it
could be written after a possessive pronoun or at the end of a sentence. As an example of this:
‘This is not my wallet, it’s the other one’ (‘one’ after a possessive pronoun).
The same occurs with the pronouns ‘any/some’; they act as indefinite pronouns at the
end of the sentences in order to avoid repeating the object. Let us illustrate this point with an
example: if we go to a bar and we ask: ‘do you have beer?’ they could answer: ‘no, we do not
have any’. In Spanish does not happen that because Spanish speaker will answer: ‘no, no
tenemos’ but they would not say ‘ninguna’ because it sounds a little bit redundant. The same
with ‘some’: ‘Do you need money?’ ‘Yes, I need some’ (in Spanish ‘some’ is omitted).

As has been discussed above, speaking is a very difficult process-especially for

nonnative speakers. A speaker must worry about many things. One must pay attention to
grammar and vocabulary. In conclusion, if the above instructions were to be followed, there
would be no doubt that you would become a successful speaker in ENGLISH.
● REFERENCES
● Bhat, Darbhe Narayana Shankara (2007). Pronouns (Paperback ed.). Oxford:
Oxford University Press

● Murphy, R. (1998). ​English Grammar in Use.​ Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press

● The Oxford English Dictionary

● www.rae.es

● www.aprendeinglessila.com

● grammar.yourdictionary.com

● learningenglish.voanews.com

● poligo.com
 Names of the members of the group (B3)
Benita Moya
Fernando Yagüe
Rebeca Sánchez
Rosalía Orenes
Bita Saghaeain

Name of the members of the group on which we have written the

essay (B2)
Francisco Rodríguez
Jose María Pozuelo Cegarra
Jose María Sánchez
Raúl Ruiz