Pronouns Flashcards
Personal pronouns
Those pronouns that indicate first, second, or third person, singular or plural, with masculine, feminine, or neutral gender (nominative, objective, reflexive or intensive, and possessive).
Impersonal pronouns
Those pronouns that do not reflect the characteristics of personal pronouns ( indefinite, reciprocal, interrogative, demonstrative, and relative)
Nominative or subjective pronouns
The form used for the subject of the sentence — she is here; or for the subjective complement — who is she?
Objective pronoun
The form used for the direct object, indirect object, or object of a preposition. Easy test, the pronoun that follows TO : “to me”, “to her”, “to him”, “to us”, or “to them”.
Reflexive pronouns
Those pronouns necessary for clarity, e.g. Julie found HERSELF alone in the room.
Intensive pronouns
Optional forms used for emphasis, e.g. the children THEMSELVES painted the mural.
Indefinite pronouns
Used to take then place of a noun that cannot be named. Usually pronouns that begin with “any”, “some”, “every”, or “no”.
Words that specify a number also — “enough”, “many”, “each”, “both”, “none”, and cardinal numbers.
Reciprocal pronouns
Indicate reciprocity, either singular (“each other”) or plural (“one another”).
When possessive, can be determiners (adjectives), e.g. “each other’s nerves”.
Interrogative pronouns
“Who”, “whom”, “whose”, “which”, and “what” when used to begin a question.
“Whose”, “which”, and “what” function as determiners (adjectives) when they immediately proceed a noun.
Note: certain words “when”, “where”, “why”, and “how” function as adverbs.
Demonstrative pronouns
There are four, “this”, “that”, “these”, “those” that are used to point out a specific noun. They indicate proximity.
Relative pronouns
They begin relative, or adjective, clauses.
A relative clause is a group of words containing a subject and verb and used to modify a noun that precedes the, clause. E.g. The police officer WHO helped us was cute.
