pronoun

Cases of Pronoun

Subjective Case (I, we, you, he, she, they)

After ‘be’ verb (is, am, are, was, were), we use subjective case of pronoun.

Examples:

It is I who helped the old man.

It may be she who stole the book.

After ‘than’ we use subjective case.

Example:

·       I am older than he.

Note: If there is objective case before ‘than’, we use objective case after ‘than’.

Example:

·       The teacher likes me more than him.

After ‘as – as’, we also use subjective case.

Example:

·       She is as wise as he.

Objective Case (me, us, you, him, her, them) we use ‘objective case of pronoun’ after ‘verbs and prepositions’.

Examples:

       I like him.

       I have written to him.

• Possessive Adjective (my, our, your, his, her, their) we use a possessive adjective before a noun to say who the noun belong to.

Example:

This is my office.

We also use possessive adjective before a gerund.

Example:

·       She likes my singing.

v Possessive Pronoun (mine, ours, yours, his, hers, theirs) we use possessive pronoun without a noun.

Examples:

·       This book is mine.

·       The dog of yours is very agile.

Note: We do not use ‘apostrophe’ after possessive pronoun.

Examples:

·       This house is our’s.            (Incorrect)

·       This house is ours.             (Correct)

 Relative Pronoun

‘Who’ is used for persons

‘Which’ is used for things or animals

Examples:

·       The boy who met you was an athlete.

·       Who can explain the happenings which were considered strange.

We use ‘that’ after the following expressions: ‘all, none, superlative, the same, only, nothing’.

Examples:

·       All that glitters is not gold.

·       This is the best that we can offer.

We can use ‘that’ after ‘human beings and animals’.

Examples:

·       Ben is the same boy that comes late.

·       The dog that injured the cat was caught.

v ‘Who’ is used as a subjective pronoun.

Example:

·       The student who does not try fails.

‘Whom’ is used as an objective pronoun.

Example:

·       It is God whom we worship.

‘Whose’ is used for possession.

Example:

·       This is the boy whose father is a doctor.

‘Which’ for question.

Example:

·       Who of the boys has got the job?           (Incorrect)

·       Which of the boys has got the job?                  (Correct)

Reflexive Pronoun (myself, himself, herself, ourselves, yourself, itself)

Reflexive pronouns are used after the following verbs ‘busy, devote, introduce, avenge, pride, hurt, absent, avail, enjoy, resign to’ etc.

Examples:

·       She prides herself on her beauty.

·       He avenged himself on his brother’s killer.

Reciprocal Pronoun (each other, one another)

‘Each other’ is generally used for two persons or things and ‘one another’ for more than two.

 Examples:

·       Both the boys are fighting with each other.

·       All the boys are fighting with one another.

Order of Pronoun

General orders of pronoun and noun in positive sense

You, he and I

You and I

You and he

You and they

He and I

Paul and I

David and you

Examples:

·       You, he and I are good students.

·       He invited you and me.

Orders of pronoun in negative sense

I, he and you

I and he

He and you

Example:

·       I, he and you told a lie.

Vague Pronoun

When a pronoun has ‘two antecedents’ (nouns), the pronoun becomes vague, it is better to avoid it.

Examples:

·       The grandmother told Ellen a story. She became happy.              (Incorrect)

·       The grandmother told Ellen a story. Ellen became happy.             (Correct)

Difference between

(its – it’s)

‘its’ is used as a possessive adjective for thing or animal.

Example:

·       The tree has lost its leaves.

‘its’ is used as a contraction of ‘it is, it was, it has’.

Example:

·       It’s cloudy today.

‘Who, whom, whose’ used for question

·       Who teases you?

·       Whom do you like?

·       Whose book is this?