PRONOUNS
A pronoun can replace a noun or another pronoun. You use pronouns like "he," "which," "none," and "you" to make your sentences less cumbersome and less repetitive.
Grammarians classify pronouns into several types, including the personal pronoun, the demonstrative pronoun, the interrogative pronoun, the indefinite pronoun, the relative pronoun, the reflexive pronoun, and the intensive pronoun.
For example, consider the sentence "Lisa gave the coat to Phil." All three nouns in the sentence can be replaced by pronouns: "She gave it to him." If the coat, Lisa, and Phil have been previously mentioned, the listener can deduce what the pronouns she, it and him refer to and therefore understand the meaning of the sentence; however, if the sentence "She gave it to him." is the first presentation of the idea, none of the pronouns have antecedents, and each pronoun is therefore ambiguous. Pronouns without antecedents are also called unprecursed pronouns. English grammar allows pronouns to potentially have multiple candidate antecedents. The process of determining which antecedent was intended is known as anaphore resolution.
Personal pronouns stand in place of the names of people or things:
Subjective pronouns are used when the person or thing is the subject of the sentence or clause. English example: I like to eat chips, but she does not.
Second person formal and informal pronouns (T-V distinction). For example, vous and tu in French. There is no distinction in modern English though Elizabethan English marked the distinction with "thou" (singular informal) and "you" (plural or singular formal).
Inclusive and exclusive "we" pronouns indicate whether the audience is included. There is no distinction in English.
Intensive pronouns, also known as emphatic pronouns, re-emphasize a noun or pronoun that has already been mentioned. English uses the same forms as for the reflexive pronouns; for example: I did it myself (contrast reflexive use, I did it to myself).
Objective pronouns are used when the person or thing is the object of the sentence or clause. English example: John likes me but not her.
Direct and indirect object pronouns. English uses the same forms for both; for example: Mary loves him (direct object); Mary sent him a letter (indirect object).
Reflexive pronouns are used when a person or thing acts on itself. English example: John cut himself.
Reciprocal pronouns refer to a reciprocal relationship. English example: They do not like each other.
Prepositional pronouns come after a preposition. No distinct forms exist in English; for example: Anna and Maria looked at him.
Disjunctive pronouns are used in isolation or in certain other special grammatical contexts. No distinct forms exist in English; for example: Who does this belong to? Me.
A possessive pronoun is a part of speech that substitutes for a noun phrase that begins with a possessive determiner (also known as a possessiv adjective. For example, in the sentence These glasses are mine, not yours, the words mine and yours are possessive pronouns and stand for my glasses and your glasses, respectively. Like other pronouns, possessive pronouns can thus obviate the need to repeat nouns or noun phrases. (Sometimes the possessive determiners – my, your etc. – are themselves classified as possessive pronouns; see Possessive adjective: Nomenclature.)
A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that is preceded by the noun, adjective, adverb or pronoun to which it refers (its antecedent) within the same clause. In generative grammar, a reflexive pronoun is an anaphor that must be bound by its antecedent (see binding). In some languages, there is a difference between reflexive and non-reflexive pronouns; but the exact conditions that determine whether or not something be bound are not yet well defined and depend on the language in question. It depends on the part of the sentence that the pronoun is in.
