Pronoun Cases and Types

A pronoun stands in the place of a noun. Like nouns, pronouns can serve as the subject or object of a sentence: they are the things sentences are about. Pronouns include words like he, she, and I, but they also include words like this, that, which, who, anybody, and everyone. Before we get into the different types of pronouns, let’s look at how they work in sentences.

Because a pronoun is replacing a noun, its meaning is dependent on the noun that it is replacing. This noun is called the antecedent. Let’s look at the first sentence of this paragraph again:

Because a pronoun is replacing a noun, its meaning is dependent on the noun that it is replacing.

There are two pronouns here: its and it. Its and it both have the same antecedent: “a pronoun.” Whenever you use a pronoun, you must also include its antecedent. Without the antecedent, your readers (or listeners) won’t be able to figure out what the pronoun is referring to. Let’s look at a couple of examples:

  • Jason likes it when people look to him for leadership.
  • Trini does her hair and makeup every day—with no exceptions.

So, what are the antecedents and pronouns in these sentences?

  • Jason is the antecedent for the pronoun him.
  • Trini is the antecedent for the pronoun her.

Practice

Practice

Identify the antecedents and pronouns in the following examples:

  1. Itzel and Camila were the top-ranking doubles team at OSU. They hadn’t been defeated all year.
  2. People asked Jorge to review their papers so often that he started a small editing business.
  3. Henry called his parents every week.

So far, we’ve only looked at personal pronouns, but there are other types, too, including demonstrative and indefinite pronouns. Let’s discuss each of these in further depth:

Personal Pronouns

an icon showing three people

Personal pronouns are what most people think of when they see the word pronoun. Personal pronouns include words like he, she, and they. The following sentences give examples of personal pronouns used with antecedents (remember, an antecedent is the noun that a pronoun refers to!):

  • Danny and Sam decided that they didn’t want to go to the zoo on Saturday. (Danny and Sam is the antecedent of they)
  • Ben thought that he would rather turn in incomplete homework than pull another all-nighter. (Ben is the antecedent of he)
  • When she heard that Zak had spent all his lunch money again, Mary yelled at him and demanded that he use his funds more wisely. (Mary is the antecedent of she and Zak is the antecedent of he, him, and his)
  • The guy who stands on 4th street looks suspicious, but he actually just prefers to dress that way. (The guy is the antecedent of he)
Note: Pronouns like I, we, and you don’t always require an explicitly stated antecedent. When a speaker says something like “I told you the zoo was closed today,” it’s implied that the speaker is the antecedent for I and the listener is the antecedent for you.

Reflexive pronouns are a kind of pronoun that are used when the subject and the object of the sentence are the same.

  • Jason hurt himself. (Jason is the antecedent of himself)

This is true even if the subject is only implied, as in the sentence “Don’t hurt yourself.” You is the unstated subject of this sentence.

Reflexive pronouns include myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, itself, themselves. They can only be used as the object of a sentence—not as the subject. You can say, “I jinxed myself,” but you can’t say, “Myself jinxed me.”

Note: When the the first- or second-person reflexive pronoun is appropriate, object case and reflexive pronouns can often be used interchangeably:

  • The only person I’m worrying about today is me.
  • The only person I’m worrying about today is myself.
  • You don’t need to make anyone happy except you.
  • You don’t need to make anyone happy except yourself.

Why do you think this is? When would you use one or the other?

Practice

Practice

Read the following sentences. Should the reflexive pronoun be used? Why or why not?

  1. Aisha let (her / herself) in when she arrived.
  2. Feel free to let (you / yourself) in when you get here!
  3. Alec asked Joan if she would let (him / himself) in when (she / herself) arrived.

Pronouns may be classified by three categories: person, number, and case.

Person (separated into three categories-first, second, and third) defines how the author and the text relate to each other.

  • First person means that the author is also the subject or actor. People speak in first person, saying “I made,” “I thought,” “I said.”
  • Second person is when some other, separate entity is being directly addressed, saying, “you made,” “you thought,” “you said.”
  • Third person refers to an entity separate from both the speaker and the listener. Third person would contain phrases like “it made,” “she thought,” “he said.”

There are two numbers: singular and plural. As we learned with regard to nouns, singular pronouns refer to one thing or person while plural pronouns refer to more than one of a thing or person (I stood alone while they walked together).

English personal pronouns have two cases: subject and object. Subject-case pronouns are used when the pronoun is doing the action (I like to eat chips, but she does not). Object-case pronouns are used when something is being done to the pronoun (John likes me but not her).

Possessive pronouns are used to indicate possession (in a broad sense). Some must be accompanied by a noun: e.g., my or your, as in “I lost my wallet.” This category of pronouns behaves similarly to adjectives. Others occur as independent phrases: e.g., mine or yours. For example, “Those clothes are mine.”

The table below includes all of the personal pronouns in the English language. They are organized by person, number, and case:

singular plural
subject object subject object
first person I me we us
second person you you
third person, neutral it it they them
third person, feminine she her they them
third person, masculine he him they them
possessive adjective (singular) possessive adjective (plural) possessive pronoun
first person my our mine
second person your your yours
third person, neutral its their its
third person, feminine her their hers
third person, masculine his their his

Practice

Practice

In each sentence, fill in the blank with the correct pronoun. Explain why you selected the pronoun you did:

  1. André told me that it was ___ box of cereal, but I couldn’t remember having bought ___.
  2. Amelia and Ajani still haven’t arrived. I should check to see if ___ texted ___.
  3. You shouldn’t be so worried about what other people think. The only person ___ need to please is ___.
  4. George Washington was the first president of the United States. ___ set the standard of serving only two terms of office. However, ___ wasn’t illegal to serve more than two terms until 1951.

Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns substitute for things being pointed out. They include this, that, these, and those. This and that are singular; these and those are plural.

Icon of two location symbols connected by dotted lineThe difference between this and that and between these and those is a little more subtle. This and these refer to something that is “close” to the speaker, whether this closeness is physical, emotional, or temporal. That and those are the opposite: they refer to something that is “far.”

  • Do I really have to read all of this?
    • By using “this,” the speaker is indicating a text that is close to her.
  • That is not coming anywhere near me.
    • The speaker is distancing himself from the object in question, which he doesn’t want to get any closer. The far pronoun helps indicate that.
  • You’re telling me you sewed all of these?
    • The speaker and her audience are likely looking directly at the clothes in question, so the close pronoun is appropriate.
  • Those are all gross.
    • The speaker wants to remain away from the gross items in question, by using the far “those.”

Note: these pronouns are often combined with a noun. In such cases they act as a kind of adjective instead of as a pronoun.

  • Do I really have to read all of this contract?
  • That thing is not coming anywhere near me.
  • You’re telling me you sewed all of these dresses?
  • Those recipes are all gross.

The antecedents of demonstrative pronouns (and sometimes the pronoun it) can be more complex than those of personal pronouns:

  • Animal Planet’s puppy cam has been taken down for maintenance. I never wanted this to happen.
  • I love Animal Planet’s panda cam. I watched a panda eat bamboo for half an hour. It was amazing.

In the first example, the antecedent for this is the entire idea of the puppy cam being taken down. In the second example, the antecedent for it is the experience of watching the panda. In both cases, the antecedents aren’t explicitly stated and must be inferred by the reader.

Practice

Practice

In the following sentences, determine whether this, that, these, or those should be used.

  1. Lara looked at the meal in front of her. “____ looks great!” she said.
  2. Tyesha watched the ’67 Mustang drive past and head down the street. “What I wouldn’t give for one of ____.”
  3. “What do you think of ____?” Ashley asked, showing me the three paint samples she had picked out.

Indefinite Pronouns

dotted outline of a person

Indefinite pronouns, the largest group of pronouns, refer to one or more unspecified persons or things. For example: Anyone can do that.

These pronouns can be used in several ways:

  • They can refer to members of a group separately rather than collectively. (To each his own.)
  • They can indicate the nonexistence of people or things. (Nobody thinks that.)
  • They can refer to a person but without specifying first, second, or third person in the way that personal pronouns do. (One does not clean one’s own windows.)

The table below shows the most common indefinite pronouns:

anybody anyone anything each either every
everybody everyone everything neither no one nobody
nothing nobody else somebody someone something  one

Note: Sometimes third-person personal pronouns are used without antecedents, as in the following examples, which use a generic they and “dummy” pronoun:

  • You know what they say. (generic they)
  • It’s a nice day today. (“dummy” pronoun)

Practice

Practice

Identify the indefinite pronouns in the following sentences. Is the best indefinite used, or is there another indefinite that would fit better?

  1. Everyone should take the time to think critically about what he or she wants out of life.
  2. If I had to choose between singing in public and swimming with leeches, I would choose neither.
  3. Yasmin knew everything was wrong, but she couldn’t figure out what.
  4. If nobody else enrolls in this class, it will be canceled this semester.

Singular They

One attribute of indefinite pronouns is that the person’s gender is unspecified—they are by definition indefinite. This ambiguity causes no trouble (and may actually be desirable) in statements such as “I hear someone coughing.” We don’t know (or need to know) the gender of the someone who is coughing. Consider the following statements, though, in which the indefinite pronoun someone in the first sentence is also the antecedent for the pronouns in the second sentence:

  • I hear someone coughing. I wish he or she would stop.

“He or she” is grammatically correct here because it takes into account that the “someone” could be either gender. However, this construction can sound clunky, especially in casual conversation. Historically, the awkwardness has been addressed by using the masculine pronoun as the generic singular pronoun:

  • To each his own.
  • Everyone should get himself a new car at least once.

(Alternatively, some opt to use the feminine pronoun, instead, in order to balance out the gender bias. E.g.: “To each her own.”) With the trend toward more gender-inclusive language, however, today you are probably more likely to hear the plural pronoun they used in this way—as a singular pronoun—especially in everyday spoken English. For example: Somebody accidentally left their wallet at the cash register. Can you make sure they get it back?

While the singular they offers the advantage of being gender-neutral—and it may soon become the accepted norm—for now it is not considered to be proper usage, and you should avoid it in your academic writing. When in doubt, consult your instructor’s preferred style guide.

Additionally, many individuals neither identify as male nor female, and they have begun to use they as a singular pronoun to refer to themselves. In these cases, it is grammatically correct to use they as a singular pronoun (per the Chicago Manual of Style, one of the predominant authorities on grammar and style).[1]

Relative Pronouns

There are five relative pronouns in English: who, whom, whose, that, and which. These pronouns are used to connect different clauses. For example:

  • Belen, who had starred in six plays before she turned seventeen, knew that she wanted to act on Broadway someday.
  • My daughter wants to adopt the dog that doesn’t have a tail.

These pronouns behave differently from the other categories we’ve seen. However, they are pronouns, and it’s important to learn how they work. Two of the biggest confusions with these pronouns are that vs. which and who vs. whom. The two following videos will help you keep them straight:

That vs. Which

Who vs. Whom

Practice

Does the following paragraph use relative pronouns correctly? Explain why or why not for each relative pronoun.

Katerina, whom had taken biology once already, was still struggling to keep the steps of cellular respiration straight. She knew the process took place in animals, which take in oxygen and put out carbon dioxide. She also knew that plants underwent the process of photosynthesis. However, the individual steps of the process seemed beyond her understanding.

  1. The University of Chicago Press. "Grammar & Usage: Singular 'they'. Chicago Manual of Style, 2017, p. 241. ↵