Tag Archives: Pronouns

Pronoun in English Grammar


Pronoun is a part of speech that is used instead of a noun or an adjective to avoid repetition. There are several types of pronouns: personal, possessive, reflexive, demonstrative, interrogative, indefinite, etc. We’ll consider the most important of them.


Nancy came home late. She was very tired. (The personal pronoun ‘she’ replaces the proper name ‘Nancy’.) The car stood in a garage. It was white and clean. (Here, the indefinite pronoun ‘it’ substitutes the noun ‘car’.)

 Personal pronouns English personal pronouns have two cases.
1) Common: I; you; he/she/it; we; they. In an English sentence these pronouns can function as subjects: I read a book. They are students. We walked down the street. Do you know this city?
2) Objective: me; you; him/her/it; us; them. In the objective case English personal pronouns function as sentence objects, with or without a preposition.


Andrew saw them. Tell us about your trip. The teacher explained everything to me. The letter was written by him. Betsy prepared a dinner for you.


Pronoun ‘it’ The English pronoun ‘it’ is used in three different situations.

1) Personal pronoun ‘it’ refers to inanimate objects.


I saw your wallet.> It is here. I cannot find my pen.> I think, I have lost it. Leo bought a new car.> It is large and roomy inside. He opened a bottle of milk.> It was sour.

2) Demonstrative pronoun ‘it’ is synonymous with ‘this’. Both can often be used interchangeably.


It is a cat. Please do not do it. Martin read about it in the newspaper. It was the most serious decision of her life.

3) Indefinite pronoun. Each English sentence must have a subject . Pronoun ‘it’ is often used as a formal subject of indefinite sentences.


It is 5 p.m. already. It is great to be young! It is important to memorize new English words. It was she who came first. It was raining all day on Tuesday.

Possessive pronouns

Possessive pronouns correspond to personal pronouns and answer the question ‘whose?’: my; your; his/her/its; our; their. They function as modifiers. When possessive pronouns modify a noun or a noun with another modifier, an article is not needed.


His car is white. I like your sister. We closed our summer house for the winter. Their dog was noisy and restless.

In English possessive pronouns are used very often.


He likes his job. I entered my apartment at 6 o’clock. The nature takes its toll. They spent their vacation in Europe.

When a possessive pronoun is used alone, it functions as a noun and has a special form: mine; yours; his/hers/its; ours; theirs.


Your room is larger than mine. This pen is hers. I do not have my dictionary.> Can I borrow yours? When we saw the dog, we realized that it was ours.

Reflexive pronouns

Reflexive pronouns are: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves. Example:

He always thinks only about himself. They bought themselves new furniture.

Besides their direct meaning, reflexive pronouns are used in two more cases.
1) For emphasis: Do it yourself, dear. I like the melody itself, but not the lyrics. Henry finished all work himself. She herself said so.
2) To form reflexive verbs: He cut himself. The child already can wash himself.