PRONOUNS

● “pro + noun” 🡪 Latin for “for/instead of”.

Semantically: they take the meaning of the NP they refer to/replace.
Morphologically:
o They don’t take affixes (except for reflexive pronouns “self-selves”)
o They are simple words, except for indefinite pronouns (any + one, some + body, etc.)
o They take the gender and number of their antecedent.

● They are used to avoid repetition. They usually refer to something that has been mentioned before.

Syntactically:
o They stand on their own.
o They function as NP substitutes (they are NPs on their own right)
o They might function as SUBJECT, D.O., I.O., and S.C. and O.C.
o

1. PERSONAL PRONOUNS
● They refer to “grammatical persons” (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
● Pronouns (except you, but compare yourself/yourselves) agree in number with the NP they replace.
● Some pronouns agree in gender (she: feminine, he: masculine, it: neuter)

● Deictic reference: the pronouns have “deictic reference”, i.e. their meaning depends on who is
talking, who they are talking to, and the context of situation.

SUBJECT OBJECT REFLEXIVE POSSESSIVE Possessive

PRONOUN PRONOUN PRONOUN PRONOUN Determiner
I Me Myself Mine My
You You Yourself Yours Your
He Him Himself His His
She Her herself Hers Her
It It Itself Its Its

We Us Ourselves Ours Our

You You Yourselves Yours Your
They Them themselves Theirs Their

1.1. Subject pronouns

1
● They function as subject of the sentence.
● The first person singular pronoun (I) is always written with capital letters.
● We and they can be used for general statements:
o We all fear the unknown (= Everybody fears… )
o They say this is the best restaurant in the area (= People say)

● Subject pronoun omission: in English the subject is compulsory. However, there are some
situations when we omit it.
o You Stay here (in imperative sentences the subject “you” is omitted because it can be
recovered from the context = I give an order to the person who I am talking to)
o I Found this in my pocket. Is it yours? (in everyday speech we might omit the pronoun)

● Animals
o Animals are “it” but if they are pets we tend to use she/he.
o We also use she-he when we make reference to their role: The cuckoo lays her eggs in
other birds’ nests.

● Ships, cars, motorbikes: sometimes refers to as feminine: My boat is ready. She’ll take me across
the ocean.

● Countries are usually feminine: In 1941, America assumed her role as a world power.

● It can be used for a person in specific contexts:

A: Someone’s knocking on the door.

B: Who is it?

A: Sheila is going to have a baby.

B: Oh! Is it a boy or a girl?

o It can be used as an “empty subject” (with no specific reference)

▪ Time: It’s 7 o’clock.
▪ Weather: It’s raining.
▪ Temperature: It’s 12°C.
▪ Distance: It’s 10 km from the city center.
▪ Environment: It’s noisy here.
▪ Present situation: It’s a shame. It doesn’t matter. It’s no use.

▪ With:
● Since: It’s two years since we last met.
● Say: It says here that the museum is closed.
● Take: It takes me two hours to clean the house.

1.2. Object pronouns

● They replace NPs in OBJECT POSITION (D.O. and I.O.)
o Jenny bought a new car last week 🡪 Jenny bought it last week.
o I’ll visit my grandparents soon 🡪 I’ll visit them soon.

2
 o The teacher gave Mary the exam 🡪 The teacher gave her the exam.
o The teacher gave Mary the exam 🡪 The teacher gave it to Mary.

● They can be complements to prepositions

o I feel sorry for them.
o We never talked to him after the accident.

● They are normally used instead of subject pronouns in short answers:

A: Who ate my chocolate?
B: Not me!

A: Who wants more cake?

B: Me!

● They are used in comparative structures:

o She is taller than me. (but also: She is taller than I am)
o He’s as old as her. (but also: He is as old as she is)

● They are used in exclamations: Poor him! Lucky her!

Common mistakes:
*They paid the tickets for Jane and I (I is a subject pronoun)
They paid the tickets for Jane and me.
* They paid the tickets for me and Jane (it’s more polite to mention the other person first)

1.3. Reflexive pronouns

● Only a few verbs must be followed by reflexive verbs: absent, avail, pride

● Other verbs are commonly followed by reflexives (but also by other objects): amuse, blame, cut,
dry, enjoy, hurt, introduce

I cut myself shaving this morning.

We enjoyed ourselves at the party.

But:
I’ve cut my lip when I was shaving this morning.
We enjoyed the film very much.

● They are always used with transitive verbs (Subject + Verb + Object).
● We use a reflexive pronoun when the subject and the object of the verb is the same person.

● Behave: it is an intransitive verb but can (but not need to be) by a reflexive
Please, behave (yourself).
The children behaved (themselves)

3
● Optional use of reflexive pronouns: with some verbs which are intransitive we use a reflexive to
show that the action was performed with effort (e.g. when done by a child, an old person, or a
person with certain disability)
She’s finally learnt how to dress herself now.
Grandpa could wash himself in spite of his old age.

● With ordinary verbs to point back to the subject:

I sometimes talk to myself.
She was shocked when she saw herself in the mirror.

● As indirect objects:
The legislators gave themselves a rise.

● Short conversational expressions with reflexive pronouns:

Help yourself!
Make yourself at home.
Don’t upset yourself.
Hear yourself!
I couldn’t make myself heard above the noise.

● By + reflexive: meaning “unaided” or “alone”

He lives by himself.

● To emphasize that no help was needed:

I painted the room myself.
They build the tree house themselves.

● For emphasizes after but and than and after the subject pronoun
You can blame no one but yourself.
I wouldn’t like to marry someone older than myself.
You yourself saw the accident.
The car itself was OK, but the driver was seriously injured.

● With other meanings:

I’m not myself today (I don’t feel well).
She doesn’t look herself (she seems strange)

1.4. Possessive pronouns

● They replace the NP formed by a possessive determiner + a noun:

o They are my children 🡪 They are mine.
o I can’t find my key. Can I use your key? 🡪 Can I use yours?

● Double possessive: reflexive pronouns are used in structures such as:

o He’s a friend of mine.
o These children of yours are very noise.

4
 ● The form is regulated by the possessor, not the object being possessed. So, “his” refers to
something possessed by a male person, and “hers” by a female one.
o Sarah borrowed my book because she couldn’t find hers. (= her book)
o Sarah borrowed my pens because she couldn’t find hers. (= her pens)

o I’ll go with my daughters and Tom will go with his. (= his daughters)

2. Demonstrative pronouns:
Compare: These students aren’t in my class. (det)

These are your students. (pron)

Can you sign this? (pron)

This form must be signed. (det)

HERE THERE

SINGULAR This That

PLURAL These Those

For more examples and uses:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/gramatica/gramatica-britanica/this-that-these-those?q=this

3. Reciprocal pronoun: each other, one another.

Compare: reciprocal pronouns and reflexive pronouns:

After: accuse, blame, help, look at

The two kids blamed themselves for the broken window (they both took the blame)
The two kids blamed each other for the mistake. (one blamed the other, and vice versa)

They look at themselves in the mirror.

They looked at each other.

4. Indefinite pronouns: anybody, anyone, anything, no-one, nothing,

somebody, someone, something, etc.
Compound pronouns Compound adverbs
thing Body / one Where
Some + something Somebody – someone somewhere
Any - ? anything Anybody – anyone anywhere
No + (-) nothing Nobody – no one nowhere
Every + everything everybody everywhere

5
● They are called “indefinite” because we cannot trace their reference.
● They are written as one word (except for “no one”)
● The pronouns ending in “one” and “body” can take genitive case:
This isn’t everyone’s favourite subject.
● Pronouns with “some” are used in
o affirmative sentences: There’s someone at the door.
Someone phoned you last night.
o Questions expecting “yes” as an answer: Was there something you wanted?
o Offers and requests: Would you like something to drink?
● Pronouns with “any” are used in:
o Negative statements: There isn’t anybody in the room.
o Questions: Is there anyone at home?
o Sentences with “hardly”: I’ve had hardly anything to eat today.
● Pronouns with “no” are used in affirmative sentences with negative meaning: There’s no one here.

Indefinite pronoun followed by:

+ positive adjective
Positive adjective:
This is something special.
This isn’t anyone important.

+ Comparative adjective: I’d like something cheaper.

+ the infinitive: Haven’t you got anything to do?

+ “else”:
We’ll call someone else.
We’ll buy something else.
I don’t want anything else.

+ PP: Someone from the back asked me a question.

“One”
It is a pronoun in the sense that it has no descriptive content of its own, but rather takes its descriptive content from
its antecedent
One = everyone/anyone 🡪 There’s no sign outside. One cannot guess this is the room.
One 🡪 He bought a new computer. I want one too.
Which woman? The one with the umbrella?
Ones 🡪 Do you prefer those boots or these ones?

5. Relative pronouns: that, who, whom, which

6
They introduce relative clauses.

o Who 🡪 people and pets: The man who bought the house is from Paris.
o Which 🡪 animals and things: I’m reading a book which is really interesting.
o Whom 🡪 people and pets: She is the woman whom I met at the grocery store.

Compare:

The house where I live is quite big. (= in that house)

The man whose bike was stolen called the police. (the man’s)

The day when we got married was (on that date)

This is the reason why I didn’t tell you. (because… )

6. Interrogative pronouns: who, which, what (Q-pronouns)

Who left this bag here? = John left the bag here
What did you buy? = I bought a computer
Which did you choose? = I chose the blue dress
Who is she talking to? = She’s talking to Jack