What is PRONOUNS

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Pronouns
Conversation would sound very strange if we had no pronouns. These are the words we use when we want to refer to people or things without continually repeating their names. If we really wanted to, we could say:

• I saw Snoopy this morning. Snoopy came early to get Snoopy’s books.

It’s much more convenient to use some pronouns:

• I saw Snoopy this morning. He came early to get his books.

Below is a table ofpersonal pronouns, arranged according to “person”. You will work out what “person” means in grammar as you study the table.

A case of case

If you are learning another language, then depending on what it is, you may very soon hear aboutcase. You will encounter it in relation to nouns and pronouns. Modern English doesn’t worry very much about case, but we do have some vestiges of old cases in our pronouns, so we’ll use them to illustrate.
 

When a small child says, “Me like Timmy”, we smile, knowing that the little speaker will soon pick up the correct form and say, “I like Timmy” (provided of course that Timmy remains in favour). In grammatical terms the child has made a mistake in case, using the object form me instead of the subject form I. 

(With this in mind, think about the growing tendency to say things like, “Her and her mother do the shopping together.” Would we say, “Her does the shopping”?) The table on the previous page shows other forms for pronouns besides subject and object, but beyond these, English does very little in the matter of case. Some languages have different forms, usually shown by different word endings, not only for subject and object, but for other purposes as well. The differing endings are called inflections, and English, over the centuries, has dropped most of its noun and pronoun inflections in favour of other ways of showing meaning.
 

As well as personal pronouns, there are also

Relative pronouns
who     whose     whom      which     that 

We use these in contexts such as

•  I’ve just met the man who designed it.
•  Isn’t that the boy whose story was on TV?
•  The book that they really want is out of print.

The relative pronoun whom is not very popular these days, but it is still used in formal contexts.

• To whom should we direct our complaint? 

We often omit whom, which and that

• She’s the one (whom) we want to see.
• Here are the cakes (which or that) you ordered.

And there are

Interrogative pronouns, the same words as the relative pronouns, but with different functions.

• Whose is this desk?
• Which cup do you want?

and indefinite pronouns
anyone              somebody              everything            etc