Demonstrative and Possessive Pronouns

Demonstrative Pronouns

We know that ‘demonstrate’ means to show. Therefore, demonstrative pronouns are those that show us the nouns or point towards them.

The four demonstrative pronouns in English are this, that, these and those.

• Like other pronouns, they too are used to replace nouns.
• Demonstrative pronouns represent nouns which are already mentioned before or are to be understood from context.

Let us look at an example.

The noun which stands for the pronoun ‘This’ in the above sentence is unclear to us. It can only be clarified if

• There is an antecedent in the preceding sentence.

Here it becomes clear that the pronoun ‘This’ stands for ‘book’.

Or

• The speaker points towards the noun.

• Demonstrative pronouns such as ‘that’ and ‘those’ refer to nouns which are far from the speaker either in time or in distance.
• ‘This’ and ‘these’ refer to nouns which are close to the speaker either in time or in distance.
• ‘This’ and ‘that’ stand for singular nouns.
• ‘These’ and ‘those’ stand for plural nouns.

DemonstrativePronouns	Near	Far
Singular	This	That
Plural	These	Those

• A demonstrative pronoun can represent an entire noun phrase.

The stew that she made looks delicious.

That looks delicious.

Let us look at a few more examples:

Possessive Pronouns

• Possessive pronouns are used to show ownership or possession of nouns to pronouns.
• Pronouns like mine, yours, his, hers and its are known as singular possessive pronouns.
• Pronouns like theirs and ours are known as plural possessive pronouns.

In the above example, the possessive pronoun ‘his’ states to whom ‘the sneakers’ belong.

• Possessive pronouns are different from possessive adjectives because they do not qualify the noun.

Possessive Adjective	Possessive Pronoun
This is her house.	This house is hers.

• One should never use apostrophes with possessive pronouns to show possession.

Personal Pronouns

What is a Personal Pronoun?

Previously, we have learnt that a pronoun is a word used in place of a noun which has already been used in a sentence. A personal pronoun is used primarily to refer to a specific person, thing or idea. It is used to refer to the first, second or third person in a sentence.

First, Second and Third Person Pronouns

Personal pronouns can be categorised as first, second or third person pronouns.

• A first person pronoun is used by the speaker to refer to himself or herself.

• It can also be used to refer to the group the speaker is a part of.

• A second person pronoun is used by the speaker to refer to the person he or she is directly talking to.

• It can be used to address a particular person or an entire group.

• You, yourself are examples of second person pronouns.

• A third person pronoun is used by the speaker to refer to the person he or she is not directly addressing.
• He, she, it, they, him, her are examples of third person pronouns.

Singular and Plural Personal Pronouns

First Person	Singular	Plural
	I	We
Second Person	Singular	Plural
	You	You
Third Person	Singular	Plural
	He, she, it	They

Nominative and Objective Pronouns

According to the role they play in the sentence, pronouns can be categorised as nominative pronouns or objective pronouns.

Nominative	Objective
I	Me
You	You
He	Him
She	Her
It	It
They	Them
We	Us

Gender of Pronouns

Pronouns can be divided into three categories according to the genders of the nouns they represent.

Reflexive, Emphatic, Interrogative and Relative Pronouns

Reflexive Pronouns

The term reflexive can be split into two parts—‘re-’ (the prefix which means ‘back’) and ‘flex’ (the root which means ‘bend’).

• A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that ‘bends back’ to its antecedent*. In other words, it is used to refer to the object when it is the same as the subject.
• Pronouns like ‘myself’, ‘yourself’, ‘herself’, ‘himself’, ‘ourselves’ and ‘themselves’ are known as reflexive pronouns.

SUBJECT/ANTECEDENT	VERB	REFLEXIVE PRONOUN
Mrs De Winter	hurt	herself.

In the above example, we see that the noun ‘Mrs De Winter’ and the pronoun ‘herself’ refer to the same person. Both are the subject and the object of the verb ‘ hurt’. The pronoun ‘ herself’ bends back to the antecedent ‘Mrs De Winter’. Hence, ‘herself’ is a reflexive pronoun.

Emphatic Pronouns

• Pronouns like ‘myself’, ‘himself’, ‘herself’, ‘itself’, ‘themselves’ and ‘ourselves’ can also be emphatic pronouns. Functionally, however, emphatic pronouns are different from reflexive pronouns.
• While reflexive pronouns are used to refer to the antecedent, emphatic pronouns are used to lay emphasis on the antecedent.

SUBJECT/ANTECEDENT							EMPHATIC PRONOUN
Mrs Dalloway	said	she	would	buy	the	flowers	herself.

In the above example, ‘Mrs Dalloway’ is the antecedent of the pronoun herself. In this sentence, ‘herself’ functions as a word which lays emphasis on its antecedent.

Let us look at a few more examples.

Singular and Plural Reflexive/Emphatic Pronouns

Singular	Plural
Myself	Ourselves
Yourself	Yourselves
Himself, herself, itself	Themselves

Interrogative Pronouns

We know that the term ‘interrogate’ means to ask questions. Interrogative pronouns are those which are used for forming questions.

Who	Whom	Whose
Which	What	Whichever
Whoever	Whomever	Whatever

Let us look at a few examples.

Relative Pronouns

• Relative pronouns help us refer back to the antecedent.
• Although they may look like interrogative pronouns, their functions are completely different.

In this sentence, the pronoun ‘who’ refers to the antecedent ‘The warrior’.

• Relative pronouns are also used to join parts of sentences.

Usage of Relative Pronouns

Who and Whom	Both pronouns are used to refer to people. They can also be used to refer to animals. Who – used for referring to the subject This is the writer who wrote ‘The Grapes of Wrath’.(‘the writer’ is the one who ‘wrote’; ‘the writer’ is the subject) Whom – used for referring to the object The man whom I thought highly of turned out to be a fraud.(‘I’ thought of the ‘man’; ‘the man’ is the object)
Whose	The relative pronoun ‘whose’ is used to refer to people who possess something.This is the uncle whose house I live in.(The pronoun ‘whose’ refers to the uncle who owns the house)
Which	The relative pronoun ‘which’ is used to refer to objects or animals.The dog which the Fitzgeralds abandoned used to be their pet.(The pronoun ‘which’ refers to the dog)
That	That is used to refer to people, objects and animals.The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.(The pronoun ‘that’ refers to ‘the hand’)