| |
| |
| Home > Editing > Pronouns |
  | Pronouns LEARN PRONOUN TYPES Pronouns refer to and take the place of nouns . The students are from Korea. They came here in 1992. There are five types of pronouns: personal, relative, indefinite, demonstrative, and reflexive. PERSONAL PRONOUNS can act as subjects and direct objects.
Personal pronouns also act as possessives.
RELATIVE PRONOUNS connect groups of words to nouns or other pronouns. That and which refer to animals, objects, or ideas. Who, whoever, whom, and whomever refer to people. Whose can be used in all cases. The family enjoyed the pizza that Rinaldo cooked. INDEFINITE PRONOUNS refer to people and things that are not named or not specific. Indefinite Pronouns
Anybody can join the club. DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS refer to nouns or pronouns that come after them: that, this, those, these. That is a terrible reason to quit school. REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS end in -self. Use them when the subject of a sentence does something to itself. I want to enjoy myself. Pronouns ending in -self can also create emphasis. I saw him take the money myself!
USE THE CORRECT PRONOUN CASES A pronoun can act as a subject, complement, object, or possessive. These four uses are called pronoun cases.
PRONOUNS AS SUBJECTS If you want to make a pronoun the subject of a sentence, you can use a personal, indefinite, or demonstrative pronoun.
Subject Pronouns Before Nouns Be careful when a pronoun comes immediately before a noun it refers to. If the noun is a subject, the pronoun is also a subject. Not:Us students gave blood at Community Hospital. Pronouns in Compound Subjects Writers are sometimes confused about which pronoun to use when the subject contains a noun and a pronoun or more than one pronoun. The next two examples use the wrong pronouns: Angelo and me play basketball on Tuesdays. The pronouns me and her are objects. But in the sentences above, they are used as subjects. The correct versions are Angelo and I play basketball on Tuesdays. Pronouns as Complements A complement is a word that defines or explains a subject and is connected to it by a verb such as is, are, was, were, has been, have been, and will be. Pronouns used as complements are the same as those used as subjects. "It is I [not me]," Fino said as he rang the bell. PRONOUNS AS OBJECTS If you want to make a pronoun the object of a sentence, you can use a personal, indefinite, or demonstrative pronoun. Remember that an object is a receiver of action.
Pronouns in Compound Objects Writers are sometimes confused about which pronoun to use when the object contains a noun and a pronoun or more than one pronoun. The next two examples use the wrong pronouns. Freddie challenged Angelo and I to a game. The pronouns I, she, and we are subjects, doers of action. But in the sentences above, they are used as objects, receivers of action. The correct versions are Freddie challenged Angelo and me to a game. Objects of Prepositions A preposition comes before a noun or pronoun and shows how that word relates to the rest of the sentence. Pronouns that come after prepositions act as objects. My sister called to me [not I] across the field. Object Pronouns Before Nouns
Not:Community Hospital asked we students to give blood. PERSONAL PRONOUNS AS POSSESSIVES A possessive pronoun shows ownership or a relationship between the pronoun and the noun that follows it. Certain possessive pronouns are used before the noun; others are used after the noun. iMy dog is a German shepherd. Indefinite Pronouns as Possessives You can make an indefinite pronoun possessive by adding -'s. Everyone's right to vote is sacred. Possessives with -ing Nouns Nouns ending in -ing name activities. They are called gerunds. Here are some examples: swimming, crying, running, speaking, breathing, thinking. Whenever gerunds come immediately after pronouns, those pronouns are possessive. His [not him] snoring disturbed us.
LEARN TO USE RELATIVE PRONOUNS The relative pronouns are that, who, whom, whose, whoever, and whomever. They refer to nouns that come before them. She is a woman who has won many academic honors. SPECIAL PROBLEMS WITH WHO,WHOM, AND WHOSE Some writers confuse these relative pronouns and use one when they mean to use another. Just remember these five rules:
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHOSE AND WHO'S Don't confuse whose with who's. Whose is possessive; who's means whois. Not:I met a man who's hair was blue. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHO AND WHOM As you just learned, who is used as a subject and whom is used as an object. Special problems can occur when who and whom come in the middle of sentence.
In the first example, who is the subject of the verbspoke. In the second, whom is the object of the verb invited. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHO, WHOM, AND THAT That is not a personal pronoun. Use that to refer to places and things. Don't use that to refer to people or types of people. Not:I enjoy meeting students that were born in other countries. CHOOSE THE RIGHT PRONOUN AFTER THAN OR AS Writers sometimes use the wrong pronoun after than or as. Not:Joan is taller than me. Not:The professors are as concerned as them. AN EASY WAY TO FIND THE RIGHT PRONOUN To decide whether you have used the correct pronoun, complete the thought by adding a verb after the pronoun. Not:He is taller than me [am]. Not: My family is as concerned as them [are]. Adding a verb shows the object pronouns me and them are incorrect in these sentences. Subject pronouns are needed. In some cases, however, object pronouns should be used. Not:The dogs barked louder at her than I [did]. MAKE PRONOUN REFERENCE CLEAR Because pronouns take the place of nouns, they must refer or point to those nouns clearly and directly. Otherwise, the reader might not understand exactly what you are saying. INCLUDE THE NOUN TO WHICH THE PRONOUN POINTS Sometimes writers forget to include the noun that a pronoun refers to. Doing so can make their writing vague or unclear.
The meaning of which is unclear; there is no noun earlier in the sentence to which the pronoun points.
MAKE SURE THE PRONOUN POINTS ONLY TO ONE NOUN Sometimes writers create sentences in which a pronoun points to two nouns. Such sentences can be unclear.
The reader must guess which woman was promoted, so the sentence should be rewritten.
MAKE THE NOUN CLEAR Sometimes writers hide the noun to which the pronoun should refer, as in the following:
The reader can safely assume that the pronoun their refers to Mexicans, but the sentence should read
AVOID USING IT,THEY, AND THIS WITHOUT INDICATING WHAT THEY STAND FOR Writers sometimes use it, they, and this without telling readers what these words stand for.
In the first version, it has no reference. To correct the error, it has been removed, and the sentence rewritten to include the pronoun he, which has a clear antecedent, Jerry.
In the first version, the reader will not know what they refers to, and so the sentence must be rewritten. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
