Pronombres

Pronouns | NOUNSPAGE 3/5 |
Pronouns are a major subclass of nouns. We call them a subclass of nouns because they can sometimes replace a noun in a sentence:      Noun | Pronoun |
John got a new job | ~He got a new job |
Children should watch less television | ~They should watch less television  |
    In these examples the pronouns have the same reference as the nouns which they replace.In each case, they refer to people, and so we call them PERSONAL PRONOUNS. However, we also include in this group the pronoun it, although this pronoun does not usually refer to a person. There are three personal pronouns, and each has a singular and a plural form:      Person | Singular | Plural |
1st | I | we |
2nd | you | you |
3rd | he/she/it | they |
    These pronouns also haveanother set of forms, which we show here:      Person | Singular | Plural |
1st | me | us |
2nd | you | you |
3rd | him/her/it | them |
    The first set of forms (I, you, he...) exemplifies the SUBJECTIVE CASE, and the second set (me, you, him...) exemplifies the OBJECTIVE CASE. The distinction between the two cases relates to how they can be used in sentences. For instance, in our first exampleabove, we say that he can replace John      John got a new job | ~He got a new job |
    But he cannot replace John in I gave John a new job. Here, we have to use the objective form him: I gave him a new job.         Other Types of Pronoun As well as personal pronouns, there are many other types, which we summarise here.      Pronoun Type | Members of the Subclass | Example |
Possessive |mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs | The white car is mine |
Reflexive | myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, oneself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves | He injured himself playing football |
Reciprocal | each other, one another | They really hate each other |
Relative | that, which, who, whose, whom, where, when | The book that you gave me was really boring |
Demonstrative | this,that, these, those | This is a new car |
Interrogative | who, what, why, where, when, whatever | What did he say to you? |
Indefinite | anything, anybody, anyone, something, somebody, someone, nothing, nobody, none, no one | There's something in my shoe |
    Case and number distinctions do not apply to all pronoun types. In fact, they apply only to personal pronouns, possessive pronouns, andreflexive pronouns. It is only in these types, too, that gender differences are shown (personal he/she, possessive his/hers, reflexive himself/herself). All other types are unvarying in their form.    Many of the pronouns listed above also belong to another word class - the class of determiners. They are pronouns when they occur independently, that is, without a noun following them, as in This isa new car. But when a noun follows them - This car is new - they are determiners. We will look at determiners in the next section.    A major difference between pronouns and nouns generally is that pronouns do not take the or a/an before them. Further, pronouns do not take adjectives before them, except in very restricted constructions involving some indefinite pronouns (a little something, acertain someone).    While the class of nouns as a whole is an open class, the subclass of pronouns is closed.   
  
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In each of the following sentences a pronoun has been highlighted. What type of pronoun is it?  
   1. Let's contact one another once we've made some progress.  | Personal 
Reflexive 
Possessive Relative 
Indefinite 
Reciprocal 
Interrogative  |
2. She wants to do it herself.  | Personal 
Reflexive 
Possessive 
Relative 
Indefinite 
Reciprocal 
Interrogative  |
3. I can't find them.  | Personal 
Reflexive 
Possessive 
Relative 
Indefinite 
Reciprocal 
Interrogative  |
4. I can't believe it's finally ours.  | Personal 
Reflexive 
Possessive 
Relative ...