Pronouns

  From "Kristine Setting Clark"

 

  Pronouns 

What Is a Pronoun?

Pronouns are used in place of nouns. They allow the speaker(s) to refer to something or someone without having to repeat the noun.

 

Life would be extremely boring and repetitious without pronouns. Read the following paragraph and you’ll know what I mean:

How monotonous! Now read the same paragraph with the necessary changes.

The words his, he and them are called pronouns. The word pronoun means “used for or in place of a noun.” Once the identity of a noun (person, place or thing) has been made clear, a pronoun can be used in its place.

 

Let’s look at one more example of a paragraph without pronouns.

Now let’s add pronouns to the same paragraph.

Pronouns referring to boys/men are known as masculine. Pronouns

referring to girls/women are known as feminine. See examples below.

The following sets of pronouns can be either masculine or feminine.

Personal Pronouns:

Personal pronouns indicate the speaker (first person), the person spoken to (second person) or the one spoken about (third person).

Remember; give variety to your writing. Use pronouns!

Exercise 1: In each sentence put one line under the pronoun and

parenthesize the word to which it refers.

 

1.    Brittany played with her friends at the playground.

2.    Brian opened the book and read from it.

3.    The dog and her pups slept on the bed.

4.    The volleyball team took their positions on the court.

5.    The boss did not allow his workers to eat while working.

6.    Donna said she would be here on time.

7.    The coach showed the team how they could do better.

8.    Jeannine’s family drove to their cabin in the mountains.

9.    The president took his vice president to England.

10. The teacher and principal said that they would be at the meeting.

11. The dog found a bone and hid it.

12. The cat chased the mouse until she caught it.