Pronouns: What they are & how they work.

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun to avoid repetition. So, instead of saying:
  
      "Tom is a nice boy. Tom has many friends. Tom likes to play with his friends"

we say:

     " Tom is a nice boy. He has many friends and he likes to play with them.
    
     After mentioning Tom for the first time, we can use the pronoun he. If it was Lisa instead of Tom, we would use she. If it was the car, we would use it, and so on.
These are called 'subject pronouns'. Because they replace the noun that did something = that was a subject.
 

  
      I               he
     we              she
     you             it
     they


   But what if someone did something to the noun = the noun was an object?
 if it was:

- We played with David
Could I say;
- We played with he   ?
Right. The answer is: No. we would say:
- We played with him.
- I love my brother   => I love him.
if it was;
- I love my sister     => I love her.
and so on.

The object pronouns are:

             me           him
             us            her
             you          it
             them


Examples:
 - The teacher told us to read three pages.
 - I have a pet and I love it (could be a cat, a dog,etc)
 - I love you.
 - I have three nieces. My mom told me to take care of them.

But what are these?
- My      - your      - his    - her    - its
- their     - our
These are called Possessive adjectives or determiners.

Examples:
  - My brother’s wife. => his wife.
  - The cat’s tail => its tail.
  - The students’ teacher => their teacher.
  - The girl’s bag = her bag.
  - Whose house is this? => it’s our house.
 and so on.


When a noun comes before the pronoun, the possessive adjectives are replaced with possessive pronouns.
- Whose book is this? It’s mine.
The possessive pronouns are:
 
            mine          ours
            yours         theirs
            his            yours 
            hers      
            its

Tip: the possessive pronouns are used when answering a question with ‘whose’.
  
    - ‘whose car is parked in front of your house?’
    - it’s mine.
The possessive pronoun also replaces a noun with possessive s.
    - Whose car is it?
    - it’s my friend’s. (it’s my friend’s car.) = it’s his / hers/ theirs.
- This idea is ours.
etc



There are other types of pronouns:

Reflexive pronouns are used when the subject and the object are the same; the subject did the action on himself.

The reflexive pronouns are:

        myself             ourselves

        yourself           yourselves (plural)

        himself            themselves

        herself
        itself.

Examples:
   - At the beginning of the meeting, they asked me to introduce                           myself.   (no one introduced me. I introduced myself. (not I introduced me ) )
   - You’ll often see a cat lick itself.
   - Robert didn’t have anyone to help him so he did all the work by himself.
   - Do you talk to yourself sometimes? (talking to one person.)
   - Stephanie’s coffee machine broke down. But she repaired it herself.
     
Summary:

Subject pronouns	Object Pronouns	Possessive adjectives	Possessive Pronouns	Reflexive Pronouns
I	me	my	mine	myself
We	us	our	ours	ourselves
you (singular)	you	your	yours	yourself
you (plural)	you	your	yours	yourselves
They	them	their	theirs	themselves
he	him	his	his	Himself
She	her	her	hers	Herself
It	it	its	Its	Itself.

Notes:

 - The only difference between the pronoun “you” in the singular and in the plural is in that the reflexive pronoun of each is “yourself” for singular and “yourselves” plural.
- The reflexive pronouns are different from the possessive adjectives. In other words, they are not:
 
       ××  possessive pronoun + self  ××
         
That’s why, it’s ‘themselves’ not ‘theirselves’.
‘himself’ not ‘hisself’.

       So, that’s it! I hope that was useful. Share the article with friends if you liked it.
See you in the next article!