English Grammar: The Parts of Speech

Parts of Speech — Pronouns

You will often find it necessary to refer to a name a number of times in a single sentence. This repetition usually results in a sentence that is very awkward or monotonous. You can easily see what might happen from the following illustration:

Jack went to Jack's closet and took out Jack's suit because Jack was going to a dance given by Jack's company.

In this sentence the word Jack is repeated five times. This awkward repetition of the word Jack and Jack's could be avoided by substituting another part of speech for these words.

Jack went to his closet and took out his suit because he was going to a dance given by his company.

The words his and he used in the revision of the sentence are called pronouns. They are substitutes for the noun Jack. The prefix pro in the word pronoun means for. The word pronoun simply means for a noun, or in place of a noun.

The underlined words in the following illustrations are pronouns. The words to which they refer are bolded.

Mary came to America when she was five years old.

The men forgot their tickets.

The officer blew his whistle.

REMINDER: A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun or a name.

You should be familiar with the pronouns in common use. For that reason a list of pronouns is a handy reference guide. Whenever you are not certain whether a word is a pronoun, refer to the following list. In a short time you will be familiar with most of them.

	Commonly Used Pronouns
I	you	hers	what	whosoever
somebody	anybody	whoever	everybody	another
my	yours	who	both	several
its	it	whose	each	any
someone	other	no one	some	none
they	mine	your	whom	either
he	one	everyone	neither	all
me	his	their	this	that
him	theirs	these	we	few
them	many	those	anyone	nobody
our	she	ours	which	her
us