Language Network

Pronouns

What is a Pronoun?

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Why It Matters

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Pronouns

Look at this sentence !

Aghna had a new car. She bought it a year ago. Look! Izqho bring his dog to school!

So, what is PRONOUNS???

Pronoun

A pronoun is a word that is used in place of a noun or another pronoun.

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A pronoun can refer to a person, place, thing, or idea.

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REFERS TO

The word that a pronoun refers to is called its antecedent.

Ramon visited Death Valley, and he was impressed.

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Pronouns such as we, I, he, them and it are called personal pronouns.

Personal pronouns have a variety of forms to indicate different persons, numbers, and cases.

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There are first-person, second-person, and third-person personal pronouns, each having both singular and plural forms.

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Singular Plural

FIRST PERSON FIRST PERSON

SECOND PERSON SECOND PERSON

THIRD PERSON THIRD PERSON

I went out. We left early.

You left too. You are leaving.

He came by bus. They came by car.

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Each personal pronoun forms three cases: subject, object, and possessive.

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POSSESSIVE

OBJECT

SUBJECT

He read about Death Valley.

Julie asked him about the rocks.

Ramon bought his book.

Choose the pronoun form depending on the pronoun’s function in the sentence.

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Pronouns help you talk about people concisely when you’re telling a story.

Why It Matters

Write the personal pronoun in the sentence below.

Death Valley is famous for its strange moving boulders.

1.

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Write the personal pronoun in the sentence below.

The rocks slide and leave long tracks behind them.

2.

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Write the personal pronoun in the sentence below.

Do you know why this happens?3.

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Pronoun Agreement

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Why It Matters

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Pronouns

Antecedent

The antecedent is the noun or pronoun that a pronoun replaces or refers to.

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Use a singular pronoun to refer to a singular antecedent.

One story has its setting in Egypt.story its

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Use a plural pronoun to refer to a plural antecedent.

The characters have their motives for murder.characters their

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The pronoun must agree in person with the antecedent.

Louis likes his mysteries to have surprise endings.Louis his

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The gender of the pronoun must be the same as the gender of its antecedent.

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Personal pronouns have three gender forms:

• masculine he, his, him

• feminine she, her, hers

• neuter it, its

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The hero has to use all his wits to solve the crime.

Agatha Christie sets many of her stories in England.Agatha Christie her

hero his

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In your writing, you will sometimes refer to several people or groups of people.

Correct pronoun-antecedent agreement will help your readers keep track of who is who in your writing.

Why It Matters

Write the pronouns and their antecedents in these sentences.

Agatha Christie loved real-life mysteries of the past. She helped to investigate them in the Middle East.

4.

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Write the pronouns and their antecedents in this sentence.

Agatha Christie and her husband went on many archaeological trips and found them exciting.

5.

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Write the pronouns and their antecedents in this sentence.

A mystery writer may use exotic places and backgrounds for his or her stories.

6.

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Write the pronouns and their antecedents in this sentence.

Christie started Murder in Mesopotamia in the desert, but she finished it in England.

7.

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