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English pronouns and Practice Exercises

Learning English online with English pronoun lessons for ESL learners

English pronouns - Personal pronouns

Definition of English Pronouns:

There are 5 forms of pronouns - Personal pronouns - in English: Subject pronouns, Object pronouns, possessive pronouns, reflexive pronouns, and relative pronouns. Possessive adjectives will also be discussed in this lesson.

It is important to know 5 forms of pronouns and the possessive adjectives because we are often confused with them.

Subject Pronouns:

I / You / We / They / She / He / It

The Subject Pronouns are used:

• when it is a subject of a verb :
  She lives in New York.
• when the 2 subjects of the 2 clauses are compared :
  They are taller than we (are).
• After the verb to be :
  It is he with the egg.
• After as and than :
  She is not as tired as he (is)

Object Pronouns:

me / you / us / them / her / him / it

The Object Pronouns are used:

• when it is the direct object of a verb :
  She gives him the books.
• After propositions:
  when she returns, she takes over the books from him. But when the preposition introduces a new clause, the subject pronoun must be used because the pronoun is now the subject of the new clause.
  Example: Leave after he returns.
• when the objects of 2 clauses are compared:
  It is easier for them than us.

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Possessive Adjectives:

my / your / our / their / her / his / its

The possessive adjective is used

• to modify a noun and show ownship.
  They put their shoes on and left the temple.
• to refer to parts of the body
  My leg hurts very much.
• to modify a gerund.
  We surprised by their nesting in such harsh conditions.

Possessive Pronouns:

mine / yours / ours / theirs / his / hers / its

The possessive pronoun is used

• to replace a possessive adjective and a noun.
  This is my book, that is yours.
• after verb to be.The books are theirs.
• after the preposition "of" when it means "one of many."
  He is a friend of mine.
• to replace the second possessive adjective noun when they are being compared.
  Their life seems more difficult than ours.

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Reflexive Pronouns:

myself / yourself(yourselves) / ourselves / themselves / himself / herself / itself

The reflexive pronoun is used

• to emphasize the subject noun or pronoun it refers to and to emphasize the fact that the subject did the action alone.
  take care of the farm themselves.
  They themselves take care of the farm.
• As the object of a verb when the subject and object are the same.
  They stand together to protect themselves from the cold.
• As the object of the preposition by when the subject did the action alone.
  The young bird can not get the food by themselves.

Relative Pronouns:

The relative pronouns in English are who, whom, whose, which, and that.
It is important to make sure that the relative pronoun agrees with the subject.

• Who refers to people and household animals.
• Whom refers to people and household animals. It is used in the object position in formal written English or with who plus a preposition in spoken English.
• Whose refers to people, animals, and things. It shows possession.
• Which refers to things, collective nouns, and animals.
• That refers to people, animals, and things.

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