What Is a Pronoun?

Basic Grammar & Diagramming

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So, What Is a Pronoun?

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know

What is a pronoun?

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun.

Here are a few examples: he, she, it, they, someone, who

That means that a pronoun can do all of the things that a noun can do. It can be modified by an adjective, and it can perform any of the noun jobs in a sentence (subject, direct object, indirect object, object of the preposition).

Heck, the word pronoun even has the word noun in it!

What is a pronoun? It is a word that takes the place of a noun.

Let's look at a few example sentences:

Erik Weihenmayer is a blind mountain climber. (noun)

He is a blind mountain climber. (pronoun)

See how the pronoun he took the place of the noun Erik Weihenmayer?

Here is another example:

Not only is Erik Weihenmayer a mountain climber,
he is also a motivational speaker.

Notice how this example is a little different than the first one. Here, the noun and pronoun are found in the same sentence.

Remember how the definition of a pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun? Well, from the above example, you can see that the pronoun he takes the place of the noun Erik Weihenmayer

We could have written the sentence like this:

Not only is Erik Weihenmayer a mountain climber, but Erik Weihenmayer is also a motivational speaker.

But that doesn't sound good!

Thank goodness for pronouns!

If we didn't have them, we would have to keep saying Erik Weihenmayer every time that we wanted to refer to him. (Oh- look! I just used the pronoun him to refer to Erik Weihenmayer!)

So, what is a pronoun? Close your eyes and see if you can remember the definition!

Antecedents

An antecedent is the noun that a pronoun is replacing or referring to. In the examples above, Erik Weihenmayer is the antecedent.

What's missing from the following example?

He said, "I'm a great believer in luck, and I find that the harder I work, the more I have of it."

You should be asking yourself WHO is HE? You don't know because I have not given you the antecedent.

If I said:

Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States. He said, "I'm a great believer in luck, and I find that the harder I work, the more I have of it."

Now you should know who I am talking about because I have provided the antecedent for he, Thomas Jefferson.

However, not all pronouns have antecedents. Sometimes we don't know whom exactly we are talking about. For instance:

Someone broke my vase!

Maybe you can use that to your advantage. As in:

Mom, someone broke your vase...

It certainly wasn't YOU, right?

WARNING: Knowing the above information and looking at the list of pronouns should be enough for you to answer that burning question, "What is a pronoun?"

If you would like to go more in-depth, read on about the different types of pronouns. BUT, don't get bogged down. Just knowing how to answer, "What is a pronoun?" and a few examples should be all that you need right now.

Got it? Good.

Types of Pronouns

There are many different types of pronouns. Below you will find a short description and a few examples of each. For more examples, please see the list of pronouns.

Personal Pronouns

These are the pronouns that we use the most, and there are not too many of them. Here they are:

I, me, we, us, you, she, her, he, him, it, they, them

For each of these pronouns, we can tell the person (Who is speaking?), the number (Is the pronoun singular or plural?), and gender (Is the pronoun masculine, feminine, or neuter?).

For instance, she is third person (the person being spoken about), singular, feminine while we is first person (the people speaking), plural, neuter.

Relative Pronouns

These little guys are the most advanced type of pronoun on this list. They introduce relative clauses also called adjective clauses. In a way, they sort of act like conjunctions because they connect the relative clause to the rest of the sentence.

Although they sort of act like conjunctions, they are still pronouns. Why?

Well, what is a pronoun?

That's right- it is a word that takes the place of a noun. And that is what the relative pronoun does. It takes the place of or refers to a noun.

This is the cookie that I want to eat.

That refers to the noun cookie, and it introduces the relative clause that I want to eat.

Demonstrative Pronouns

There are only four demonstrative pronouns!

this, that, these, those

We use these to point out particular people or things.

Sometimes demonstrative pronouns are used before nouns. In these cases, they are adjectives - not pronouns. (Remember, an adjective is a word that describes a noun.) They are pronouns when they are used alone and are not modifying a noun.

Bring me that book. (adjective)

Bring me that. (pronoun)

Indefinite pronouns

The prefix in- means not. Indefinite pronouns are just that - they are not definite. This means that we don't know something about them. We do not know whom or what they refer to. (anyone, something, all, most, some...)

Someone yelled my name. (Who? We don't know.)

Everyone looked at me. (Who exactly? We don't know.)

Sometimes indefinite pronouns are used before nouns. In these cases, they are actually acting as adjectives, not pronouns. For example:

Both people smiled at me. (adjective)

Both smiled at me. (pronoun)

Reflexive and Intensive Pronouns

Both of these types of pronouns end in -self or -selves. (himself, herself, myself, itself...) They have different names depending on how they are being used.

A reflexive pronoun is used to refer to the subject of the sentence.

I will go to the school myself. (reflexive)

An intensive pronoun is used to emphasize another noun.

He himself visited the school. (intensive)

Interrogative Pronouns

These are pronouns that are found in questions. Another name for a question is an interrogative sentence. Interrogative pronouns often begin interrogative sentences:

Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?

Which jacket should I wear?

Other interrogative pronouns include: what, whom, whose.