Examples
1. Emeka lives in Abuja.
N
2. He lives in Abuja.
pro
‘He,’ in the second
example, is a pronoun because it is used instead of the noun, “Emeka.” There are different
types of pronoun:
- · Personal pronoun.
- · Reflexive pronoun.
- · Possessive pronoun.
- · Relative pronoun.
- · Interrogative pronoun.
- · Demonstrative Pronoun.
- · Indefinite pronoun.
Personal
Pronoun
A personal pronoun is a
pronoun that is associated primarily with a person or persons. It may be
singular or plural.
Person
|
Number
|
Subject
|
Object
|
First
|
Singular
|
I
|
Me
|
Second
|
Singular
|
You
|
You
|
Third
|
Singular
|
He/She/It
|
Him/Her/It
|
First
|
Plural
|
We
|
Us
|
Second
|
Plural
|
You
|
You
|
Third
|
Plural
|
They
|
Them
|
Types
of Personal Pronoun
1. First Person
The first person is the
person speaking or reporting, e.g. I, we. The object forms are: me and us respectively.
2. Second Person
The second person is the
person being spoken to or being addressed, e.g. You.
3. Third Person
The third person is the
person being spoken about or being addressed, e.g., he, she, it, they. The
object forms are: him, her, it
and them respectively.
Reflexive
Pronoun
A reflexive pronoun is a
pronoun that refers to the noun or pronoun that precedes it in a sentence. The
preceding noun or pronoun is usually the subject of the sentence.
Examples
1. Emeka slapped himself.
2. They are talking to themselves.
In the sentences above,
‘himself’ and ‘themselves’ are reflexive pronouns because they refer to ‘Emeka’
and ‘They’ respectively. Other examples of reflexive pronouns are: myself,
itself, herself, yourselves, yourself, ourselves.
Possessive
Pronoun
Possessive pronouns are
pronouns that are used to show ownership, e.g., my, our, mine, ours, his, hers,
their, theirs, your, yours.
Relative
Pronoun
A relative pronoun is a
pronoun that gives extra or additional information about the noun which it
precedes, e.g., who, whom, which, whose, that, what.
Interrogative
Pronoun
Interrogative pronouns are
pronouns that are used to ask questions. They include: what, which, who, whose,
why, whom, where etc.
Demonstrative
Pronoun
Demonstrative pronouns are
pronouns that point at nouns. They are four in number: this, that, these,
those. Demonstrative may also be singular or plural.
Singular
|
Plural
|
This
|
These
|
That
|
Those
|
While ‘this’ is used to
point at singular nouns that are closer to the speaker, ‘that’ is used to point
at singular nouns that are farther from the speaker. On the other hand, whereas
‘these’ is used to point at plural nouns that are closer to the speaker,
‘those’ is used to point at plural nouns which are farther from the speaker.
Indefinite
Pronoun
An indefinite pronoun is a
pronoun that refers to no particular person or thing. It is usually in singular
form, e.g., anyone, everyone, everybody, anybody, someone, nobody, somebody,
anything, nothing, everything, all, some, any, each etc.