Types of Pronoun with Examples

The pronoun is a word that is used in place of a noun while writing a sentence. To avoid repetition of the same noun many times in a sentence, the pronoun is used. Now let us know the various types of pronouns with examples.

Types of Pronoun

There are many types of pronouns such as the following:

Personal Pronouns
possessive Pronouns
Reflexive Pronouns
Demonstrative pronouns
Relative Pronouns
Interrogative pronouns
Reciprocal pronouns
Universal Pronouns
Distributive Pronouns
Indefinite pronouns

Types of Pronouns in detail:

Personal Pronouns

There are three persons in English grammar. Personal pronouns are the pronouns that speak about the three persons. They are:

First person- that is the person who is speaking. The pronouns used are I, WE.

Second Person- that is the person spoken to. The pronoun used is YOU.

Third person- they are persons other than the two. The pronouns used are HE, SHE, IT, THEY.

Forms of Personal Pronouns

The various forms of all the personal pronouns in the nominative, accusative, and possessive cases are described in the following table:

Case/ Person	Nominative	Accusative	Possessive
First Person	I We	Me Us	My, Mine Our, ours
Second Person	You	You	Your, Yours
Third Person	He She It They	Him Her It Them	His Her, Hers Its Their, Theirs

Reflexive Pronouns

When a pronoun consists of a reflection of the self, it is a reflexive pronoun. For example,

He hurt himself.

She herself turned up to the event.

Note: We can only use the reflexive pronoun as a reflection of the subject, but not instead of the subject.

I wanted to join the party. (Myself should not be used instead of I).

Demonstrative Pronouns

These pronouns demonstrate and point out to the objects that are spoken in the sentence. For example,

This, these, that, those, such, etc.

This is the pen you are searching for.

New York’s roads are better than those of any other city.

It is true that the USA is the richest country in the world.

Indefinite Pronouns

When the pronoun describes a general phenomenon and no one specific in a sentence, that is an indefinite pronoun. For example,

One, all, some, no one, nobody, somebody, any, other, many, anyone, everyone, someone etc.

One should be careful about one’s behavior in the class.

Distributive Pronouns

Distributive pronouns describe one thing at a time in a sentence. It is important to note that the distributive pronoun is always singular. Each, either, neither are some examples of distributive pronouns.

Neither of the two was present in the class. (Were should not be used)

Either this or that option fits the schedule. (The plural ‘fit’ should not be used)

Relative pronouns

A relative pronoun is a word that is related to the noun mentioned before in the sentence. The relative pronoun also works as a conjunction in the sentence, thus acting as a link between various sentences.

He works in that room which is also like his bedroom.

The man whose bike was stolen came to the police station today.

It is the best movie that I ever watched.

I have a friend whom I treat as my teacher.

Interrogative Pronouns

Interrogative pronouns are used for asking questions in the sentences. Examples of such pronouns are what, who, which, when, where, why, etc.

These are the various types of pronoun. We provided more chapters and more exercises and rules about pronouns and their usage which will improve your understanding of pronouns.

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What are Pronouns?

Definition: Pronoun is word that substitutes the noun in a given sentence. In other words it acts as a replacement for a noun.

Classification of Pronouns:

They are classified into eight types. They are:

Personal
Possessive
Reflexive/ Intensive
Relative
Demonstrative
Indefinite
Interrogative
Reciprocal

Let us see each of them in detail.

1. Personal Pronoun:

These refer to the speaker or speakers, called first person, and include the following

I, my, mine, me, myself,

We, our, ours, us ourselves.

Those spoke to are said to be in second person and include the following

You, your, yours, yourself, yourselves

Those spoken about are said to be in the third person an include the following

He, his, him, himself,

She, her, hers, herself,

It, its, itself

They, their, theirs, them, themselves.

Impersonal Pronoun:

These substitute Nouns which are in the Neuter gender.

It, its, itself

They, their, theirs, them, themselves.

Antecedent: The noun/ Pronoun or phrase which the Pronoun is referring to is called its antecedent.

Example: The boy bought a nice flower bouquet. He gifted it to his friend. Here, boy is the antecedent for he, and flower bouquet is the antecedent for it.

2. Possessive Pronoun:

Some of the personal pronouns listed above can be categorized as Possessive as they show to whom something belongs. They are:

My, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, their and theirs.

Example: The mobile is mine. Here mine denotes to whom the mobile belongs.

3. Reflexive Pronoun:

Myself, yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, itself, ourselves and themselves are compound personal pronouns formed by combining My, your, him, her, it, our, them. with self or selves. These are called reflexive pronouns.

Example: He hurt himself while hitting the dog.

4. Relative Pronoun:

These join the dependent clause to the independent clause. They are,

Who, whose, whom which and that.

Example: He found his ring that he had lost in the gathering.

5. Demonstrative Pronoun:

These are the pronouns which point out something. They are,

This, that, these and those.

These are also called Definite Pronouns.

Example: This is my book.

Indefinite Pronoun

Any, anybody,anyone, anything, both, each, either, everybody, everything, many, neither, nobody, none, no one, one, other, others, some, somebody, someone are called Indefinite Pronouns.

6. Interrogative Pronoun:

These ask questions. They are:

Who, whom, whose, which, and what.

The compounds formed by suffixing the above pronouns with ever also belong to this category. They are: Whoever, whomever, whichever, and whatever. They can also be used as relative type and sometime they may act as adjectives as well.

Example: Whom do you wish to take with you?; Who will receive the delegates from the airport?

7. Reciprocal Pronoun:

Each other, One another are called reciprocal pronouns.

Example: They love each other.

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Reflexive Pronoun

Types of Pronoun with Definitions and Examples