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WHAT ARE PRONOUNS? DEFINITIONS AND EXAMPLES
Grammarly
Updated on January 16, 2024Grammar
You use pronouns every day. In fact, even if you don’t know what pronouns are,
you use them—and in this sentence alone, we’ve now used pronouns four times.
Pronouns are words (or phrases) you substitute for nouns when your reader or
listener already knows which noun you’re referring to. For example, you might
say, “I have a dog. She’s brown and white.” There’s no need to clarify that
you’re describing your dog in the second sentence because you already mentioned
her in the first. By using the pronoun she, you can avoid the annoying
repetition of the dog.
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Pronouns do a whole lot more than helping us avoid repetitiveness. They provide
context, make your sentences’ meanings clearer, and shape how we perceive people
and things. Read on to learn about the different ways we use pronouns and how to
use them to construct sentences.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. What is a pronoun?
2. What is an antecedent?
3. Personal pronouns
4. Relative pronouns
5. Who vs. whom—subject and object pronouns
6. Demonstrative pronouns
7. Indefinite pronouns
8. Reflexive pronouns
9. Intensive pronouns
10. Possessive pronouns
11. Interrogative pronouns
12. Reciprocal pronouns
13. Distributive pronouns
14. Pronoun examples
15. Pronouns and gender identity
16. Gender-neutral and gender-inclusive pronouns
17. Grammarly helps you write better
WHAT IS A PRONOUN?
In English grammar, pronouns are a type of generic noun that can represent any
other noun. Their job is to make communication faster and more efficient because
you don’t have to repeat the same word over and over again. Some pronoun
examples include:
* I
* me
* us
* you
* themselves
* who
* that
Pronouns are one of the eight traditional parts of speech, and they are also
sometimes understood as making up a small subcategory of nouns. The
distinguishing characteristic of pronouns is that they can be substituted for
nouns. For instance, if you’re telling a story about your sister Sarah, the
story will begin to sound repetitive if you keep saying or writing Sarah over
and over again:
Sarah has always loved fashion. Sarah announced that Sarah wants to go to
fashion school.
You could try to mix it up by sometimes referring to Sarah as “my sister,” but
then it sounds like you’re referring to two different people:
Sarah has always loved fashion. My sister announced that Sarah wants to go to
fashion school.
Instead, you can use the pronoun she to refer to Sarah after introducing her:
Sarah has always loved fashion. She announced that she wants to go to fashion
school.
Pronouns can replace both proper and common nouns. Certain pronouns have
specific rules about when they can be used, such as the way it should never be
used to refer to a human being. We explain all of the different types and their
associated rules below. Notice that some pronouns (such as which and whose) can
function as more than one type, depending on how they’re deployed in a sentence.
WHAT IS AN ANTECEDENT
Remember how we mentioned that in order to use a pronoun, you need to introduce
the noun first? That noun has a name: an antecedent.
Antecedents are necessary because pronouns are versatile. Think about it—it can
refer to a bike, a tree, a car, or a city, and we just used it to refer to
something else entirely: pronouns’ versatility. Take a look at these examples,
in which pronouns are bolded and the nouns they’re referring to are underlined,
to see how antecedents and pronouns work together:
My family tests my patience, but I love them.
The sign was too far away for Jorge to read it.
Danita said she is almost finished with the application.
Antecedents aren’t necessary when the reader/listener knows who or what you’re
discussing. Generally, you don’t need an antecedent for a pronoun like I, you,
we, our, or me. But sometimes you do need an antecedent in this kind of
situation—like when you’re giving a speech where you introduce yourself and your
credentials before discussing the subject of your speech.
There are also circumstances where you might not introduce the noun first and
instead reveal it only after using pronouns to refer to your subject. You might
do this for dramatic or poetic effect in a piece of creative writing, for
example.
PERSONAL PRONOUNS
When you think of pronouns, you most likely think first of personal pronouns.
Personal pronouns are pronouns that change form based on their grammatical
person—that is, based on whether they refer to the person speaking or writing
(the first person), the person or thing being spoken to (the second person), or
the person or thing being spoken about (the third person). Here is a list of the
main personal pronouns :
* I/me
* she/her
* he/him
* they/them
* It
* we/us
* you
Here are a couple of example sentences with personal pronouns bolded and their
antecedents underlined:
The new student will arrive today. They will need a seating assignment and a
name tag.
My family loves nachos. We make them every Friday for movie night.
RELATIVE PRONOUNS
Relative pronouns are another class of pronouns. They connect relative clauses
to independent clauses. Often, they introduce additional information about
something mentioned in the sentence. Relative pronouns include these words:
* that
* what
* which
* who
* whom
Traditionally, who refers to people, and which and that refer to animals or
things. Here are a few examples of relative pronouns at work:
The woman who called earlier didn’t leave a message.
All the dogs that got adopted today will be loved.
My car, which is nearly twenty years old, still runs well.
WHO VS. WHOM—SUBJECT AND OBJECT PRONOUNS
Knowing when to use who and when to use whom trips a lot of writers up. The
difference is actually pretty simple: Who is for the subject of a sentence or
clause, and whom is for the object of a verb or preposition. Here are a couple
of a quick examples:
Who mailed this package?
To whom was this package sent?
See the difference? Who is a subject pronoun. It’s in the subjective case, just
like I, he, she, they, and we. Whom is an object pronoun, which puts it in the
objective case along with me, him, her, them, and us. An easy way to determine
whether you should use who or whom in a sentence is to answer the sentence’s
question by substituting another pronoun that is affected by case. With the new
pronoun in place, determine whether the sentence still makes sense. For example:
He mailed this package.
The package was sent to him.
Figuring out when to use whom can be more difficult than knowing when to use who
because it typically comes before the sentence’s verb when used in a question,
as it often is—notice how the structure of the object pronoun example sentence
needed to change more dramatically than that of the subject pronoun sentence.
DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS
That, this, these, and those are demonstrative pronouns. They can point directly
to an antecedent or replace one that has already been mentioned or is clear
through context.
This is used for singular items that are nearby. These is used for multiple
items that are nearby. The distance can be physical or metaphorical. Take a look
at these examples:
She looked at the envelope and said“This has no return address, we better add
one.”
What a fantastic idea! This is the best thing I’ve heard all day.
If you think gardenias smell nice, try smelling these.
That is used for singular items that are farther away. Those is used for
multiple items that are farther away. Again, the distance can be physical or
metaphorical. Here are a few examples of these pronouns in action:
“That would be a nice place to live,” they said, pointing at the large house.
Some new flavors of soda came in last week. Why don’t you try some of those?
Those aren’t swans, they’re geese.
INDEFINITE PRONOUNS
Indefinite pronouns are used to refer generally to a person or thing that
doesn’t need to be specifically identified or has already been mentioned. Here
are some common indefinite pronouns:
* one
* other
* none
* some
* anybody
* everybody
* no one
Here are a few examples of indefinite pronouns in sentences:
Everybody was late to work because of the traffic jam.
It matters more to some than to others.
Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen.
When an indefinite pronoun functions as the subject of a sentence or clause, it
usually takes singular verbs.
REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS
Reflexive pronouns are forms of personal pronouns that end in –self or –selves:
* myself
* yourself
* himself
* herself
* itself
* oneself
* ourselves
* yourselves
* themselves
You can use a reflexive pronoun as the object of a verb or preposition to refer
back to the subject of the sentence or clause Here are a few examples:
She checked herself out of the hotel thirty minutes before checkout time.
Lola made herself a smoothie to bring to class.
Take care of yourselves.
In the third example above, the antecedent is the implied you that is the
subject of an imperative sentence.
Using myself when you mean me is a common mistake writers and speakers make.
Reflexive pronouns are correct only when the subject and object of a verb are
the same. If you’re using a pronoun as an object but it refers to an antecedent
that is not the subject of the sentence or clause, you use an object pronoun
instead:
He asked myself to go for a bike ride.
He asked me to go for a bike ride.
I had promised myself I would accept more invitations.
INTENSIVE PRONOUNS
Intensive pronouns look the same as reflexive pronouns, but their purpose is
different. Intensive pronouns add emphasis by repeating their antecedent noun or
pronoun. Conceptualizing the difference between them and reflexive pronouns can
be challenging because the emphasis isn’t always obvious. Take a look at these
examples of intensive pronouns and examine how they’re different from the
examples in the previous section:
I told them I could do it myself.
It was the idea itself that posed a problem, not the way it was executed.
If you can remove a pronoun from a sentence and it loses emphasis but its
meaning stays the same, it’s most likely an intensive pronoun. Compare these two
sentences:
I built this house.
I built this house myself.
See how the second one emphasizes that the speaker had no help in building their
house? Intensive pronouns can help you express pride, shock, disbelief,
credulousness (or incredulousness), or another strong emotion. Here are a few
more examples:
They hiked the entire Appalachian Trail themselves?
Did you yourself see Loretta spill the coffee?
POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS
As their names imply, both possessive pronouns and possessive adjectives show
ownership.
Possessive pronouns are sometimes called independent possessive pronouns or
absolute possessive pronouns. They show possession of a noun by replacing it.
They look like this:
* mine
* yours
* ours
* his
* hers
* theirs
* its
When you use an independent possessive pronoun, you drop the noun that the
pronoun is expressing a relationship to. Here are a couple of examples:
She had forgotten her jacket, so I gave her mine.
I had no idea whose bid had won the auction, but then my cousins told me that
theirs had.
Possessive adjectives also clarify who or what owns something. Unlike possessive
pronouns—which replace nouns—possessive adjectives go before nouns to modify
them. They include the following:
* my
* your
* our
* his
* her
* their
* its
Take a look at these examples of possessive adjectives in action:
I crashed my bike into a telephone pole.
Your house is always decorated so nicely.
Each possessive pronoun also has a form called the independent possessive. They
look like this:
* mine
* yours
* ours
* his
* hers
* theirs
* its
When you use an independent possessive pronoun, you drop the noun that the
pronoun is expressing a relationship to. Here are a couple of examples:
She had forgotten her jacket, so I gave her mine.
I had no idea whose bid had won the auction, but then my cousins told me that
theirs had.
INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS
Interrogative pronouns are used in questions. These are the interrogative
pronouns:
* who
* whose
* whom
* what
* which
Here are a few examples of interrogative pronouns at play:
Who wants a bag of jelly beans?
What is your name?
Which movie do you want to watch?
Whose jacket is this?
RECIPROCAL PRONOUNS
There are only two reciprocal pronouns: each other and one another.
These pronouns describe a mutual relationship between two or more elements. Take
a look at these examples:
Javier and Priya, the two top salespeople on our team, are competing with each
other to be named salesperson of the year.
All my siblings are blaming one another for letting the boa constrictor out last
Thanksgiving.
DISTRIBUTIVE PRONOUNS
Distributive pronouns refer to nouns as individual elements of larger groups.
They enable you to single out individuals while acknowledging that they’re part
of a group. Distributive pronouns include the following:
* either
* each
* neither
* any
* none
Here are a few examples of distributive pronouns in sentences:
All of my friends entered the costume contest, and none of them won.
Cookies and muffins are available for dessert. Neither is appealing to me.
MORE PRONOUN EXAMPLES
As you can see, pronouns do a lot. And there are a lot of them. To make them
even more complicated, many pronouns change forms when they’re used in different
positions within a sentence or based on number, gender, person, or case.
Take a look at the different types of pronouns and their forms at a glance:
Type Pronouns in this category Example sentences Personal I/me, you, they/them,
he/him, she/her, it, we/us
* I brought all the snacks.
* We weren’t planning on staying over.
Relative that, what, which, who, whom, whose
* My car, which is twenty years old, doesn’t connect to Bluetooth.
* The professor who ran the meeting ended it promptly.
Demonstrative this, that, these, those
* You’ve seen clear quartz and smoky quartz, but have you seen these stones?
* I ordered Hawaiian pizza. I like that a lot.
Indefinite another, any, anybody, anyone, anything, both, each, either,
everybody, everyone, everything, neither, nobody, none, no one, one, other,
some, somebody, someone, such
* We need cashiers up front. Anybody who’s available, please report to the
front end.
* “Why can’t we fix this?” I asked nobody in particular.
Reflexive myself, yourself/yourselves, themself/themselves, herself, himself,
oneself, itself, ourselves
* The car began to swerve, then corrected itself.
* He made himself a sandwich.
Intensive myself, yourself/yourselves, themself/themselves, herself, himself,
oneself, itself, ourselves
* You did all of this yourself?
* She herself said it wasn’t an easy project..
Possessive mine, yours, theirs, his, hers, its, ours
* The pool is ours.
* That green car is his.
Interrogative what, which, who, whose
* Whose bike is this?
* What is the answer?
Reciprocal each other, one another
* We ran into each other on the subway.
* They’ve been fighting with one another for decades.
Distributive Either, each, neither, any, none
* Peanut butter or chocolate? I’m good with either.
* There were four cats, and none had long hair.
PRONOUNS AND GENDER IDENTITY
You might have noticed pronouns listed in some of your colleagues’ and friends’
email signatures or social media profiles. You might have even been prompted to
list your own pronouns in your profiles and communications. While historically
only the personal pronouns he/him/his and she/her/hers were used for
individuals, based on their perceived gender, pronoun usage is broader and more
descriptive today.
Many people use gender-neutral language like they/them/theirs and zie/hir/hirs
because they feel these pronouns express their gender identity more accurately
than she or he. The most common gender-neutral pronoun is the singular they.
Today, it’s not uncommon to see the singular they as the default neutral
pronoun. It’s what we use on the Grammarly blog, and for writers across the
internet, it’s a concise, catch-all pronoun that can fit just about any
sentence. However, language is constantly evolving, and new types of singular
third-person pronouns have emerged that refer to people entirely without
reference to gender, such as noun-self pronouns.
>>Read More: A Guide to Personal Pronouns and How They’ve Evolved
GENDER-NEUTRAL AND GENDER-INCLUSIVE PRONOUNS
When somebody tells you their pronouns, using their pronouns is an act of
respect. Think of it like spelling or pronouncing that person’s name
correctly—they’re the authority on who they are and how they express themselves,
and referring to them the way they’ve asked you to refer to them affirms this.
For some gender-neutral and gender-inclusive pronouns, the different forms to
use are obvious. For others, they aren’t. Take a look at this table that
contains some of the most common gender-neutral and inclusive pronouns:
Subject Object Possessive Adjective Independent Possessive Reflexive ey em eir
eirs emself he him his his himself ney nem nir nirs nemself she her her hers
herself they them their theirs themself ve ver vis vis verself xe xem xyr xyrs
xemself ze hir hir hirs hirself ze zir zir zirs zirself zie hir hir hirs hirself
zie zir zir zirs zirself
If you ever aren’t sure of the correct pronouns to use when referring to
somebody, just ask them! And if you accidentally use the wrong pronoun, simply
apologize for doing so and make an effort to use the correct pronoun in future
conversations.
GRAMMARLY HELPS YOU WRITE MORE CONFIDENTLY
Writing is like completing a puzzle, and pronouns are important pieces of that
puzzle. After you’ve written your first draft, Grammarly’s writing suggestions
catch mistakes you might have made (with pronouns or any other part of speech)
and help you get your tone just right, so your writing communicates your message
exactly the way you intend.
This article was originally written in 2016. It’s been updated to include new
information.
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