A. What is a Personal Pronoun?
A personal pronoun is a pronoun that is associated primarily with a particular
person, in the grammatical sense.
When discussing “person” in terms of the grammatical, the
following rules apply:
- First person, as in “I”
- Second person, as in “you”
- Third person, as in “It, he, she”
Personal pronouns may take on various forms depending on
number (singular or plural for the most part). They may also take different
forms depending on case, gender, or formality. It is important to note that
personal pronouns may refer to objects, animals, or people.
Personal pronouns provide us with the following information:
- The person – Who is speaking?
- The number – Is the pronoun plural or singular?
- The gender – Is the pronoun feminine, masculine, or neuter?
Examples of Personal Pronouns
The word “he” is an example of a personal pronoun. He is
third person (becausehe is the person being spoken about), singular, and
masculine. The word “we” is another example of a personal pronoun. We is
first person (because we are speaking as a group), plural, and
neuter.
In the following examples, personal pronouns are italicized.
- You need to stop lying to me.
- We would love for you to join us.
- Come look at my cat! He has climbed to the top of that tree
B. Possesive Pronouns
Can you match these possessive pronouns to the right personal pronouns and possessive adjectives?
yours, mine, theirs, ours, hers, his, its
| Subject | Object | Possessive adjectives |
Possessive pronouns
|
|---|---|---|---|
| I | me | my | |
| You | you | your | |
| He | him | his | |
| She | her | her | |
| It | it | its | |
| We | us | our | |
| They | them | their |
We can use a possessive pronoun instead of a noun phrase:
| Is that John’s car? | No, it’s [ | > | No, it’s mine. | |
| Whose coat is this? | Is it [ | > | Is it yours? | |
| Her coat is grey, [ | Her coat is grey, | mine is brown. |
We can use possessive pronouns after of.
We can say:
Andi is one of my friends.
or
Andi is a friend of mine.
but not
Andi is a friend of me
or
Andi is a friend of mine.
but not
or
I am one of Andi's friends.
or
I am a friend of Andi's.
but not
I am a friend of Andi
or
I am a friend of Andi's.
but not
C. Reflexive Pronouns
What Are Reflexive Pronouns?
Reflexive pronouns are pronouns that refer back to the subject of the sentence or clause. They either end in –self, as in the singular form, or –selves as in the plural form.
The singular reflexive pronouns are:
- Myself
- Yourself
- Himself
- herself
- itself
Plural reflexive pronouns include:
- Ourselves
- Yourselves
- Themselves
All of the above pronouns are used to rename the subjects of action verbs and function as different types of objects. If the reflexive pronoun is taken out of the sentence, it won’t make sense. Let’s look at a few examples.
Examples of reflexive pronouns
The following sentences are examples of the correct and incorrect use of reflexive pronouns.
Non-reflexive: Adam e-mailed him a copy of the report.
In this sense the italicized words are not the same person. Him is not a reflection of Adam therefore it is not a reflexive pronoun.
Reflexive: Adam e-mailed himself a copy of the report.
Here are the italicized words are the same person. Himself reflects back to the subject of the sentence which is Adam.
Non-reflexive: Allison accidentally cut her with the scissors.
Reflexive: Allison accidentally cut herself.
Non-reflexive: Brandon blames you.
Reflexive: Brandon blames himself.
Non-reflexive: Can you feed my guests?
Reflexive: Can you feed yourselves?
Non-reflexive: They cannot help the angry mob.
Reflexive: They cannot help themselves.
Non-reflexive: Carol poured her a glass of milk.
Reflexive: Carol poured herself a glass of milk.
Non-reflexive: The young girl was singing happily to them.
Reflexive: The young girl was singing happily to herself.
Andhiko S
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