vi_tm/jit/figs-pronouns/01.md

Description

Pronouns are words that people use in place of a noun to refer to someone or something. Some examples are I, you, he, it, this, that, himself, someone. The most common type of pronoun is personal.

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns refer to people or things and show if the speaker is referring to himself, the person he is speaking to, or someone or something else. The following are kinds of information that personal pronouns may give. Other types of pronouns may give some of this information, as well.

Person

• First Person - The speaker and possibly others (I, we)
  • Exclusive and Inclusive 'We'
• Second Person - The person or people that the speaker is talking to and possibly others (you)
  • Forms of 'You'
• Third Person - Someone or something other than the speaker and those he is talking to (he, she, it, they)

Number

• Singular - one (I, you, he, she, it)
• Plural - more than one (we, you, they)
  • Singular Pronouns that Refer to Groups
• Dual - two (Some languages have pronouns for specifically two people or two things.)

Gender

• Masculine - he
• Feminine - she
• Neuter - it

Relationship to other words in the sentence

• Subject of the verb: I, you, he, she, it, we, they
• Object of the verb or preposition: me, you, him, her, it, us, them
• Possessor with a noun: my, your, his, her, its, our, their
• Possessor without a noun: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs

Other Types of pronouns

Reflexive Pronouns refer to another noun or pronoun in the same sentence: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.

• John saw himself in the mirror. - The word "himself" refers to John.

Interrogative Pronouns are used to make a question that needs more than just a yes or no for an answer: who, whom, whose, what, where, when, why, how

• Who built the house?

Relative Pronouns mark a relative clause. They tell more about a noun in the main part of the sentence: that, which, who, whom, where, when

• I saw the house that John built. The clause "that John built" tells which house I saw.
• I saw the man who built the house. The clause "who built the house" tells which man I saw.

Demonstrative Pronouns are used to draw attention to someone or something and to show distance from the speaker or something else: this, these, that, those.

• Have you seen this here?
• Who is that over there?

Indefinite pronouns are used when no particular noun is being referred to: any, anyone, someone, anything, something, some. Sometimes a personal pronoun is used in a generic way to do this: you, they, he or it.

• He does not want to talk to anyone.
• Someone fixed it, but I do not know who.
• They say that you should not wake a sleeping dog.

In the last example, "they" and "you" just refer to people in general.