7 Other Types of Pronouns

7 Other Types of Pronouns 7 Other Types of Pronouns 7 Other Types of Pronouns By Mark Nichol Think of a pronoun. Chances are, you will come up with a personal pronoun, such as he, she, it, them, they, us, and the like. But note that I modified pronoun with the adjective personal, which implies that there are other types of pronouns. As a matter of fact, eight classes of pronouns exist. Here’s an outline: 1. Demonstrative Pronouns This class of pronouns direct the reader’s attention to an implied noun: â€Å"I’m not going to eat this.† â€Å"That was quite an experience!† â€Å"What are these?† â€Å"I’ve never seen those before.† â€Å"Such is my understanding of the situation.† These sentences closely resemble the type in which the same words appear as adjectives for example, â€Å"I’m not going to eat this food† but in such case, they have a different identity: When they modify nouns, these words are called determiners. 2. Indefinite Pronouns Not to be confused with indefinite relative pronouns, described below, these are pronouns that act as nouns: â€Å"All were present at the meeting.† â€Å"Each was guilty in his or her own way.† â€Å"One has to keep up appearances.† â€Å"Good fortune comes to some.† â€Å"None of them showed up.† â€Å"Is anybody interested?† â€Å"Somebody is going to pay for this.† â€Å"Have you sent invitations to everybody?† There are many more indefinite pronouns than these: any, fewer, several, most, and other related words; these also function as determiners (adjectives): â€Å"I recognized several people at the party.† 3. Intensive Pronouns Intensive pronouns are simply personal pronouns with -self or -selves attached, such as in the following sentences: â€Å"I myself don’t have an opinion.† â€Å"She would have said so herself, but he beat her to it.† Intensive pronouns, like the otherwise identical-looking reflexive pronouns (below), are not essential to the sentence; omit the highlighted word in each of these examples, and the sentences still make sense without the intensive pronoun. 4. Interrogative Pronouns These pronouns introduce interrogative sentences: â€Å"Who are you?† â€Å"What is the meaning of life?† â€Å"Which way should I go?† Like some other types of pronouns, these can serve as determiners (sometimes called, in this role, interrogative adjectives). Sentences in which interrogative pronouns appear don’t always end with question marks: â€Å"I know who you are.† â€Å"She told you what the meaning of life is.† â€Å"They know which way to go.† 5. Reciprocal Pronouns These pronouns combine ideas, hence the name: â€Å"Have you met each other before?† â€Å"We shared our thoughts with one another.† The distinction in use is whether you refer to two people (â€Å"each other†) or to more than two (â€Å"one another†). 6. Reflexive Pronouns These pronouns have the same form as intensive pronouns but differ in that they refer reflexively to the antecedent (a corresponding noun the pronoun refers to): â€Å"I bought myself a new car.† (Myself is reflexive of I.) â€Å"Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? (Yourself is reflexive of you.) They are also essential to the sentence; if you omitted the highlighted word in each of these examples, the sentences would be incomplete. The erroneous use of reflexive pronouns in sentences such as â€Å"Jane and myself were there when it happened† (instead of â€Å"Jane and I were there when it happened†) is called an untriggered reflexive, because there was no antecedent to trigger the pronoun. (â€Å"Jane and I† itself is the subject. This subject is the antecedent of we in â€Å"Jane and I were there when it happened, but we didn’t see anything,† but there’s no need for a reflexive pronoun in that sentence.) 7. Relative Pronouns These are the type of pronouns that, as the name implies, relate words to other pronouns or to nouns: â€Å"Who were you talking to?† â€Å"I’ll find out which one is correct.† â€Å"The vase that was on the table is missing.† A subgroup of relative pronouns, the indefinite relative pronouns, lack an antecedent: â€Å"What were you saying?† â€Å"Whoever said that is asking for trouble.† â€Å"I’ll do whatever I please.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Math or Maths?50 Idioms About Roads and Paths40 Irregular Verbs That Can End in â€Å"-t†