Pronouns
Antecedent
Definition: An antecedent is the noun that a pronoun references. Pronouns should agree in person, number, and gender with their antecedents.
Example: “Each of the boys (third person, singular, masculine) brought his (third person, singular, masculine) briefcase.”
Demonstrative
Definition: Demonstrative pronouns call attention to a person or people or to an object or objects. They include this, that, these, and those.
Example: “This is my brother Andrew.”
Indefinite
Definition: Indefinite pronouns reference unspecified people or objects. They include all, any, anyone, anything, one, none, nobody, each, everybody, everyone, everything, some, somebody, someone, few, many, and several.
Example: “Anyone who wants a burger can join me.”
Intensive
Definition: Intensive (or emphatic) pronouns (which are myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, itself, themselves, and oneself) resemble reflexive pronouns. Their function, however, is to stress or accent a noun or pronoun.
Example: “The senator himself gave me the flowers.”
Interrogative
Definition: Interrogative pronouns begin questions. They include who, whom, whose, which, and what.
Example: “Who stole my phone?”
Personal
Definition: Personal pronouns are used specifically in regards to particular grammatical persons. First-person uses the personal pronouns of I, me, we, and us. Second-person uses the personal pronoun you. Third-person uses the personal pronouns he, she, it and him, her, it.
Example:
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First-person: "I ate a grilled cheese sandwich."
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Second-person: "You ate a grilled cheese sandwich."
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Third-person: "She ate a grilled cheese sandwich."
Reflexive
Definition: Reflexive pronouns include myself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves. A reflexive pronoun, according to Scribbr, is placed as a sentence’s object when the sentence’s subject matches this object.
Example: “Sarah berated herself.”
Relative
Definition: Relative pronouns begin relative (adjectival) clauses, and they include who, whom, whoever, whomever, what, whose, which, when, where, and that.
Example: “The woman who pushes the library cart stumbled into the conference hall.”