Last week’s post talked about issues with nouns. Now, pronouns — they have issues!
Pronouns cause a variety of problems with speaking and writing. Of course, the most common is the I/Me issue. But there are many other pronoun problems. In today’s post, I am just going to introduce the SIX kinds of pronouns. Yup, six.
First of all, what is a pronoun? We know a noun is a person, place, thing, or idea. A pronoun is a word that stands in for a noun (or another pronoun). Here are some examples:
Joanne hid her dress from her mother.
Pronouns come in handy because Joanne hid Joanne’s dress from Joanne’s mother is unwieldy!
John came into the room. He then sat in the most comfortable chair.
Sounds better than John came into the room. John then sat in the most comfortable chair.
Do you need to know what the six types of pronouns are? Of course not. Only grammar nerds like me care. The types are simply grammar vocabulary, so when someone refers to a personal pronoun, you know what they are talking about.
Here are the six types of pronouns:
- Personal pronouns are what I like to call “plain old pronouns.” They are the words everyone thinks of when they think of pronouns (IF they think of pronouns). Some examples are I, me, he, she, her, him, it, us, they, its, we, you, your, my, his, etc. Notice that some of them are possessive (more about that next week). Personal pronouns are used as nouns are used in a sentence: as subjects or objects.
- Demonstrative pronouns point things out. There are only four of them: this, that (singular) and these, those (plural). These four can also be used as adjectives (these books). Demonstrative pronouns are also used as subjects or objects when they are used as pronouns.
- Intensive and reflexive pronouns are the ones that end in –self: myself, yourself, yourselves, ourselves, himself, herself, itself, etc. They are called intensive when used to emphasize, like this: I myself made that chocolate torte. They are called reflexive when they reflect back to the subject: I made that chocolate torte myself.
- Interrogative pronouns, as their name indicates, are those pronouns used to ask a question: who, whom, what, which, and whose: Who are you? Whom did you invite? What is that? Which is yours? Whose are those books? (Which can also be an adjective: Which coat?)
- Relative pronouns are the five that are almost exactly the same as the interrogatives except they don’t ask a question. They are used to introduce adjective or noun clauses. Who, whom, that, which, and whose are the relative pronouns — the same as the interrogatives except what changes to that: I know who you are. She is the friend whom I invited. Here is the book that I wrote. I baked this strawberry cake, which won an award at the fair. Jack is the neighbor whose car I borrowed.
- Indefinite pronouns are the words you wouldn’t think were pronouns, and there are many of them. Here are just some: something, someone, somebody, everyone, everything, anyone, none, all, few, many, some, no one, either. Some of these can also be used as adjectives.
We will talk about the issues these persnickety pronouns cause in the next couple of weeks. A little preview:
- Personal: I versus me, its versus it’s
- Demonstrative: When used as pronouns, no problems.
- Intensive/Reflexive: Incorrect use of myself
- Interrogative: Who versus whom
- Relative: Who versus whom; which versus that
- Indefinite: Are they singular or plural? Do you use a singular or plural verb with them?
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I cannot agree with the use of “they” as a pronoun to avoid the singular gender “he” or “she.” That can create ambiguity. For example: A person can join the board of directors and they will help the community.
I cannot agree with the use of “they” as a pronoun to avoid the singular gender “he” or “she.” That can create ambiguity. For example: A person can join the board of directors and they will help the community.
Thanks for the comment. First of all, in your example, it doesn’t sound as if there is a particular man or woman being talked about, so it really isn’t ambiguous. I don’t like using the singular “they” either, but “he or she” doesn’t work any longer in many cases. The sentence can always be rewritten to avoid the issue. I do that, and I often do use the “he or she” as many people still do.
I am afraid I have a problem with number 3. As I see it , in both sentences the pronoun is intensive. I have always understood that with the intensive used for emphasis, the position of the pronoun can vary (and if it is omitted, the emphasis goes, but the sentence is still complete).
This is not the case with t he reflexive use:
Take “She hurt herself.” Here one cannot change the order and say, “She herself hurt.” If one omits the pronoun, the sentence is clearly not really complete.
Other examples of reflexive would be
“He admires himself.”
“She sees herself as the best person for the job.”
I see your point and tend to agree with your distinction. “She herself hurt” does make sense in a way, but the meaning is different from “She hurt herself.” So you are saying that in the reflexive examples, the reflexive pronoun is actually the object.
Shelley beat me to the punch. I agree with her absolutely.
And on Type 2. Isn’t there a fifth Demonstrative pronouns: ‘them’?
Have you moved yet?
I don’t believe “them” is demonstrative. It is the objective form of the personal pronoun “they.” I see that it sometimes points something out, but so do all pronouns. No, I have not moved yet.