Pronouns

Pronouns replace nouns. We use pronouns so we do not have to repeat the same noun over and over
again. Look at this example.
 Bill is a doctor. Bill has a wife and 3 children. Bill's wife is beautiful and smart. Bill's
children are cute. Bill likes to golf.
As you can see, repeating "Bill" many times does not look or sound very nice. We can replace "Bill"
with a pronoun.
 Bill is a doctor. He has a wife and 3 children. Bill's wife is beautiful and smart. His children
are cute. He likes golf.
Be careful: Make sure the listener knows the subject or object is before you start using pronouns.

A) He is nice.
B) Who are you talking about?

Here is a better example.

A) Mary is nice.
B) How do you know her?
A) She used to work at my company.

There are different kinds of pronouns. We briefly cover each of them in this lesson. We will study
them in more detail in the upcoming lessons.

1. Subject Pronouns

These are used at the beginning of a sentence and they replace the subject of a sentence. We always
use the subject pronouns "I" and "You" in English.
No Pronoun Subject Pronoun
X I am tall.
X You love to go fishing.
Jane and I are friends. We are friends.
Nick is a doctor. He is a doctor.
Mary is cool. She is cool.
The car is red. It is red.
The students are noisy. They are noisy.
The cookies are good. They are good.

2. Object Pronouns

These pronouns replace nouns that are used as the object of a sentence. We always use "me" and
"you" as objects. We do not use our name or the name of the person "you".
No Pronoun Object Pronoun
X Jon hit me.
X The teacher will help you.
I know Jon. I know him.
The police officer arrested Mary. The police officer arrested her.
Mark ate the sandwich. Mark ate it.
The teacher gave the students a test. The teacher gave them a test.
Henry brought cookies here. Henry brought them here.

3. Possessive Adjectives (Possessive Determiners)

These are called possessive adjectives, but it makes more sense to talk about them in the pronoun
section. They come before a noun and show who or what the noun belongs to or who or what the noun
is connected to.
No Pronoun Possessive Adjective
X That is my book.
X Mary is your friend.
It is Mark's hat. It is his hat.
This is Tina's house. This is her house.
The lion's claws are sharp. Its claws are sharp.
It is the children's ball. It is their ball.

It is very common to start a sentence with a possessive adjective.

 My house is small.
 His hair is black.
 Her dress is pretty.
 Their mother is kind.
4. Possessive Pronoun

We use possessive pronouns to replace a "possessive adjective + noun".

Possessive Adj./Noun Possessive Pronoun
That is my book. That is mine.
I think this is your hat. I think this is yours.
This house is his house. This house is his.
That is Mary's car. That is hers.
This food is the dog's food. This is its food.
These are the students' bags. These are theirs.

Possessive Pronouns are usually used at the end of a sentence, but it is possible to use them at the
beginning.

A) My apartment is on the 5th floor.

B) Mine is on the 3rd floor. (Mine = My apartment)

A) Her hair is black.

B) His is blonde. (His = His hair)

5. Reflexive Pronouns
We use reflexive pronouns when the subject and object of the sentence are the same.
 I accidentally hit myself.
 Why do you talk to yourself?
 We take care of ourselves.
 He pinched himself.
 She threw water on herself.
 It will fix itself.
 They asked themselves that question.
We can also use reflexive pronouns to emphasize.
 I will do it.
 I will do it myself.

 She did it.

 She did it by herself.
6. Reciprocal Pronouns

"Each other" and "one another" are called reciprocal pronouns. For example, I do for you and you do
for me.
 I will help you and you will help me.
(=We will help each other.)

 She gave me a present and he gave her a present.

(=They gave each other presents.)

 All the people hugged all the other people.

(=All the people hugged one another/each other.)
7. Indefinite Pronouns

These pronouns refer to a non-specific person or thing. We use them when we do not know the name
of a person or thing or when the name of a person or thing is not important.
anyone / anybody somebody / someone nobody / no one everybody / everyone
anything something nothing everything
anywhere somewhere nowhere everywhere
anytime sometime X every time

Note: "Every time" is two words.

We will cover all of these topics in more detail in the following free English lessons. Pronouns
are very important and are used a lot in English. Make sure that you understand them well and
know how to use them naturally when writing or speaking English.

Subject Pronouns 1
Here is a list of subject pronouns. These are also called personal pronouns.
 I
 You
 We
 He
 She
 It
 They
We call these subject pronouns because they can replace a noun as the subject of a sentence.
For example,
 Jon works. = He works.
 The cookie is good. = It is good.
 The children play. = They play.
Here are a few things to remember when using these pronouns.
1. "He" refers to a man.
2. "She" refers to a woman.
3. "It" refers to one thing or animal.
4. "They" refers to more than one thing, person or animal.
5. "We" refers to "Another Person + I".
6. We always use the pronouns "I" and "You". We do not say our own name or the name
of the person that we are talking to in English.
No Pronoun Subject Pronouns
X I like pizza.
X You are late.
Chris and I are brothers. We are brothers.
Jon is a good man. He is a good man.
Sally works at a car company. She works at a car company.
I think that this hotel is nice. I think that it is nice.
Jon and Sally work here. They work here.
The shirts are expensive. They are expensive.

Do not use pronouns if the listener does not know the subject. Look at this example.

A) She likes you.

B) Who are you talking about?

If Person B does not know who "she" is, then using the pronoun is not effective. Make sure
you introduce the subject first, and then you can freely use subject pronouns.

A) Mary likes you.

B) Really? How do you know?
A) She told me.

Subject pronouns often go at the beginning of a sentence, but there are many times that we
use them in the middle of a sentence (this sentence is one example).
 I think that she is cute.
 Jon left after they came.
 I didn't want to go because you weren't there.
These pronouns are used very often when speaking or writing in English. If you want to
be good at English, then it is important that you know how to use these pronouns
correctly.

Subject Pronouns 2
Every English sentence needs a subject and a verb.

The only exceptions are imperatives:

 Go away.
 Sit down.
 Come here.
If we have no other subject, then we use "it" and "there". These are like placeholders. In this
lesson, we will look at when we use these two words as the subject of a sentence.

It1. Time and Dates

 It is 4 o'clock.
 It is March 27th, 2017.
 It is Friday.
 It is 9 am.
2. Weather
 It is hot.
 It is rainy.
 It is raining.
 It is snowing.
3. Giving an opinion about a place
 It is hot here.
 It is nice there.
 It will be better when we get home.
 It was a great restaurant.
4. Giving an opinion followed by an infinitive (to + verb)
 It is hard to speak English.
 It is easy to ride a bike.
 It is interesting to fix cars.
 It is fun to go hiking.
 It will be fun to see my family.
 It was exciting to ride the roller coaster.
 It has been hard to be away from my family.
5. Giving an opinion followed by a gerund (verb-ing)
 It is hard speaking English.
 It is easy cooking with friends.
Note: #4 and #5 are the same, but the sentences in #4 are more common and sound more
natural in English.

6. Talking on the phone or when we cannot see the other person

 Hello Sally. It's Michael.
 Mom the phone is for you. It is your friend Karen.
 Open the door. It is Tina.
There

1. Introducing a new topic

 There is a meeting tomorrow.
 There has been an earthquake.
 There is a new movie that I want to see.
2. With numbers and quantities
 There are 5 people in my family.
 There are 2 eggs in the fridge.
 There is a bottle of coke on the table.
Note: fridge = refrigerator

3. Giving location
 There is bank around the corner.
 There is a clothing store on Main Street.
 There are many museums in New York City.
 There used to be a movie theater here.
4. With indefinite pronouns
 There is nothing in the bag.
 There is someone at the door.
 There is nobody here.
 There is something on your face.
 There is somebody here to see you.
 There is nothing we can do for him.
 There is somebody waiting for you in the lobby.
Everything covered in this lesson is extremely important. You need to know everything
in this lesson to speak English.

Object Pronouns
Here is a list of the object pronouns in English.
 me
 you
 us
 him
 her
 it
 them
Object pronouns can replace a noun when the noun is an object in the sentence (not the
subject). Take a look at some examples.
 Mary likes this hotel. = Mary likes it.
 Jon ate the cookies. = Jon ate them.
 Henry told Kate and I. = Henry told us.
In the previous lesson, we studied subject pronouns – I, You, We, He, She, It, They.

Take a look at the difference between subject pronouns and object pronouns.
Subject Pronouns Object Pronouns
I hit Jon. Jon hit me.
You hurt Mary. Mary hurt you.
We saw Ben. Ben saw us.
He helped his mother. His mother helped him.
She hugged the child. The child hugged her.
It is broken. I broke it.
They said no. I said no to them.

Here a few things to remember about object pronouns.

1. "You" and "It" are subject and object pronouns. We know if it is a subject or object by
where it is in a sentence.
 It looks good. (Subject Pronoun)
 Jon likes it. (Object Pronoun)

 You broke it. (Subject Pronoun)

 Jane likes you. (Object Pronoun)
2. "Him" refers to one man.

3. "Her" refers to one woman.

4. "Us" refers to "Another person + I".

5. "It" refers to one thing or animal.

6. "Them" refers to two or more people, things, or animals.

7. Never start a sentence with an object pronoun.

 Me like it.
 Us are good friends.
 Them didn't come.
Here are a few more examples.
 The results of the test are not that important to me.
 We haven't decided if we want to hire her.
 I will bring it up at the meeting.
 It never occurred to us that you didn't like it.
It is important to know these pronouns well if you want to speak English. Pronouns are
used a lot by English speakers. Make sure that you spend enough time practicing and
studying English pronouns.

Possessive Pronouns
Here is a list of the possessive adjectives in English.
 my
 your
 our
 his
 her
 its
 their
We use possessive adjectives before a noun to show who the thing belongs to or who the
thing is related to. We always use a possessive pronoun before a noun.
 My dog is cute.
 Her hair is black.
  His hair is red.
 Their house is big.
 I did my homework.
 She finished her work.
 They came to our house.
We can use a possessive adjective instead of a possessive. Take a look at the difference.
Possessive Possessive Pronoun
X My shirt is dirty.
X Your car looks nice.
Mary and I's house is big. Our house is big.
Jon's cat is fat. His cat is fat.
Jane's job is hard. Her job is hard.
The dog's fur is dirty. Its fur is dirty.
We went to Mary and Jon's house. We went to their house.

Here are a few things to remember about possessive adjectives.

1. We always put them before a noun.

2. "His" is used for one man. "Her" is used for one woman.

3. "Another person + I's + noun" is okay, but do not use "I's" at any other time. This is the
only time that we use "I's".

4. We often use possessive pronouns before people who are connected or related to us in
some way.
 My boss is smart.
 Her mother is kind.
 Her father didn't go on vacation with the family.
 Their teacher is pretty.
 My friend said that.
 Our brother is tall.
5. We often use possessive pronouns for body parts.
 His hair is long.
 Her arms are skinny.
 My eyes are green.
 Her nose is broken.
 Our ears are big.
 I don't like my hair today.
 She hates her big nose.
This is a basic English grammar point that is very important to know. Study and
practice this English grammar until you know and understand it well.

Reflexive Pronouns
Here is a list of the reflexive pronouns in English.
 myself
 yourself
 yourselves
 ourselves
 himself
 herself
 oneself
 itself
 themselves
We use reflexive pronouns when the subject and object of a sentence are the same. We use a
reflexive pronoun as the object.
 I hit myself.
 She talks to herself.
 He drove himself to the concert.
 The cat cleans itself.
 They are teaching themselves to play the guitar.
Because the subject and object are the same, we always use the same reflexive pronoun with
the same subject. For example, "myself" always goes with "I" and "itself" always goes with
"it" or a singular subject, etc.
 I drove myself.
 I drove herself.
We use reflexive pronouns to avoid confusion. Look at this example.
 Mark hit Mark.
Are there two men named Mark? This sentence is very confusing. But if you say:
 Mark hit himself.
Now, the meaning of this sentence is very clear.

We also use reflexive pronouns to emphasize who does, did, or will do an action. We often
use "by + reflexive pronoun" or "all by + reflexive pronoun", but these have the same
meaning as just using a reflexive pronoun. They just add emphasis.
 I cook by myself.
(= I cook myself.)
(= I cook all by myself.)

 She did it herself.

 We finished it all by ourselves.
 The dog ate the whole cake all by itself.
We can use "yourselves" when we are talking to a group of people at one time.
 Welcome to our home. Please make yourselves comfortable.
 Hello Mary and Sue. Please help yourselves to some food.
We can use "oneself" when we are not talking about a specific person or there is no person
mentioned.
 A person needs to take care of oneself.
 It is not easy to teach oneself English.
(= It is not easy to teach yourself English.)
There are not many cases when we need to use reflexive pronouns, but sometimes they
are very important to express yourself (reflexive pronoun!) clearly. Therefore, it is
important that you are able to use them correctly.

Reciprocal Pronouns
We use the reciprocal pronouns "each other" and "one another" when two or more people do
the same thing.

Reciprocal means given, felt, or done in return. Or in other words, if I like you, and you like
me, then our feelings are reciprocal. You do not need to know the grammar term "reciprocal
pronoun". Instead, focus on the words below.

We usually use "each other" when there are two people.

 Sally and I will help each other.
 We gave presents to each other.
 Ben and Sally don't like each other.
We usually use "one another" to refer to more than two people, but sometimes "one another"
is used for just two people.
 All the students like one another.
 Everybody in our family helps one another.
 The puppies are biting one another.
 Sally and Ben will help one another.
Look at these examples.
 Sally looked at Ben and Ben looked at Sally.
 Everybody in my family helps all of the other people in my family.
Instead of that, we can make less repetitive and shorter by using reciprocal pronouns.
 Sally and Ben looked at each other.
 Everybody in my family helps one another.
Reciprocal pronouns can be useful to make your English sound more natural and to
help you express yourself clearly.

Make sure that you understand this English grammar well. It is important to know if
you want to speak English fluently.