Pronoun - Types of Pronouns

Types of Pronouns

Common types of pronouns found in the world's languages are as follows:

• Personal pronouns denote an entity of a specific grammatical person: first person (as in the case of I, me, we, etc.), second person (as in the case of you), or third person (he, she, they, etc.)
  • Subject pronouns are used when the person or thing is the subject of the sentence or clause. English example: I like to eat chips, but she does not.
    • Second person formal and informal pronouns (T-V distinction). For example, vous and tu in French. There is no distinction in modern English though Elizabethan English marked the distinction with "thou" (singular informal) and "you" (plural or singular formal).
    • Inclusive and exclusive "we" pronouns indicate whether the audience is included. There is no distinction in English.
    • Intensive pronouns, also known as emphatic pronouns, re-emphasize a noun or pronoun that has already been mentioned. English uses the same forms as the reflexive pronouns; for example: I did it myself (contrast reflexive use, I did it to myself).
  • Object pronouns are used when the person or thing is the object of the sentence or clause. English example: John likes me but not her.
    • Direct and indirect object pronouns. English uses the same oblique form for both; for example: Mary loves him (direct object); Mary sent him a letter (indirect object).
    • Reflexive pronouns are used when a person or thing acts on itself. English example: John cut himself.
    • Reciprocal pronouns refer to a reciprocal relationship. English example: They do not like each other.
  • Prepositional pronouns come after a preposition. No distinct forms exist in English; for example: Anna and Maria looked at him.
  • Disjunctive pronouns are used in isolation or in certain other special grammatical contexts. No distinct forms exist in English; for example: Who does this belong to? Me.
  • Dummy pronouns are used when grammatical rules require a noun (or pronoun), but none is semantically required. English example: It is raining.
  • Weak pronouns.
• Possessive pronouns are used to indicate possession or ownership.
  • In a strict sense, the possessive pronouns are only those that act syntactically as nouns. English example: Those clothes are mine.
  • Often, though, the term "possessive pronoun" is also applied to the so-called possessive determiners (or possessive adjectives). For example, in English: I lost my wallet. They are not strictly speaking pronouns because they do not substitute for a noun or noun phrase, and as such, some grammarians classify these terms in a separate lexical category called determiners (they have a syntactic role close to that of adjectives, always qualifying a noun).
• Demonstrative pronouns distinguish the particular objects or people that are referred to from other possible candidates. English example: I'll take these.
• Indefinite pronouns refer to general categories of people or things. English example: Anyone can do that.
  • Distributive pronouns are used to refer to members of a group separately rather than collectively. English example: To each his own.
  • Negative pronouns indicate the non-existence of people or things. English example: Nobody thinks that.
• Relative pronouns refer back to people or things previously mentioned. English example: People who smoke should quit now.
  • Indefinite relative pronouns have some of the properties of both relative pronouns and indefinite pronouns. They have a sense of "referring back", but the person or thing to which they refer has not previously been explicitly named. English example: I know what I like.
• Interrogative pronouns ask which person or thing is meant. English example: Who did that?
  • In many languages (e.g., Czech, English, French, Interlingua, and Russian), the sets of relative and interrogative pronouns are nearly identical. Compare English: Who is that? (interrogative) to I know who that is. (relative).