Types of Pronoun with Definitions and Examples

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:

1. Personal Pronouns
2. possessive Pronouns
3. Reflexive Pronouns
4. Demonstrative pronouns
5. Relative Pronouns
6. Interrogative pronouns
7. Reciprocal pronouns
8. Universal Pronouns
9. Distributive Pronouns
10. 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.

Click here for more information on pronouns.

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