What are Kinds of Pronoun and its Uses

In English grammar, a pronoun is recognized as a part of speech. It is a word or phrase that is replaced with a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns can be used as a subject, indirect and direct object and the object of the preposition. A pronoun is used in a sentence to avoid the repetition of a noun. ‘It’, ‘she’, ‘he’, ‘we’, ‘who’ and ‘they’ are widely used pronouns. Besides, these are also used for some adjectives, adverbs and other pronouns. Thus, if you want to describe about a person, place, animal or thing, then you can use pronouns and can make the sentence concise and clear for the readers.

Types of Pronoun

A pronoun is broadly categorized into following types:

1.    Personal pronoun
2.    Possessive pronoun
3.    Reflexive pronoun
4.    Relative pronoun
5.    Demonstrative pronoun

Let us understand the usage of different kinds of pronouns in detail.

1.    Personal Pronoun: Personal pronoun refers to a specific person, thing or group. It represents a thing or a person with the help word like ‘I’, ‘It’, ‘She’, ‘He’, ‘You’, ‘We’, ‘You’ and ‘They’.

For example:

•    He helps aged people.
•    They won the tournament

2.   Possessive Pronoun: Possessive pronoun shows ownership or close possession. Besides, it shows the relationship of a person or thing to another person or thing. ‘Mine’, ‘Ours’, ‘Yours’, ‘His’, ‘Their’ and ‘Her’ are possessive pronouns.

For example:

•    This painting is mine.
•    Her voice is really good.

3.  Reflexive Pronoun: A reflexive pronoun acts with another noun or pronoun when something does something to itself. In other words, reflexive pronoun explains a noun when subject’s action influence the subject itself. ‘Myself’, ‘Herself’, ‘Himself’, ‘Ourself’, ‘Themselves’ and ‘Yourself’ are reflexive pronoun.

For example:

•    They prepare themselves for the match.
•    How do you build confidence in yourself?

4.  Relative Pronoun: A relative pronoun is used to explain a noun that has been mentioned before and to give more information about that noun. ‘Which’, ‘Who’, ‘That’, ‘Whom’ and ‘Whose’ are relative pronoun.

For example:

•    The painter who designed this painting is standing outside.
•    The girl whom I met yesterday is my classmate.

5.  Demonstrative Pronoun: A demonstrative pronoun is used to replace certain thing or people, which have been previously mentioned. ‘This’, ‘That’, ‘Those’ and ‘These’ are demonstrative pronoun.

For example:

•    Those are rotten.
•    This is blue.