Pronouns are words that replace nouns, they often refer to people, but they can also refer to objects too. For example:
- John is coming to the party but he will be late.
- She doesn’t want to come to the beach with us.
- That is my book but he thinks it is his book.
There are many different types of pronouns, in this section we will deal with the following types of pronouns:
- Subject pronouns.
- Object pronouns.
- Possessive pronouns.
- Possessive adjectives.
See the table below for the form of each of these types of pronouns.
1. Subject Pronouns
Subject pronouns are pronouns which are the subject of a sentence or clause. This means they ‘own’ the verb in the sentence/ clause. They are doing the action. For example:
- I like chocolate ice-cream.
- That is my old phone but it doesn’t work.
- We need to go before he comes home!
Subject pronouns are usually the first word in the sentence, but we can see in two sentences above there are two clauses and two subjects.
Many languages use he/she when talking about objects, instead of using it, so this can be more difficult for some learners.
When there are two subjects, we put the other person first. For example:
- She and I are old friends.
- He and I had an argument last week.
2. Object Pronouns
Object pronouns are pronouns which are not ‘doing’ the verb, they are ‘receiving’ the verb. For example:
- I want him to help move the furniture.
- The red car belongs to them, not me.
- The students don’t want us to talk.
Object pronouns usually come after the verb, as we can see above.
You and it are the same for subject and object pronouns, so they are the same.
When we are talking to a group of people, we often use you all to show we are not talking to just one person, this is also true for subject pronouns.
3. Possessive Pronouns
Possessive pronouns refer to who something belongs. They generally go after the noun. As you can see in the chart, we do not use ‘its’ in this case, as we use the possessive adjective instead. We generally put possessive pronouns at the end of a sentence or clause.
For example:
- The red bag is mine.
- My phone is dead so can I use yours?
- I don’t like my painting but I think yours is great.
4. Possessive Adjectives
Possessive adjectives are very similar to possessive pronouns and, as you can see in the chart, they look very similar (his is the same!). However, possessive adjectives come before the noun, just like other adjectives, they generally do not go at the end of the sentence. For example:
- My brother is older than me.
- Our house is beside his.
- Your dog never stops wagging its tail!
As you can see from the final example, we use ‘its’ for objects but we can also use it for animals when we don’t know (or care) if it is male or female.