5

Pronouns

When you’re analyzing a sentence, breaking down the syntax of how the parts work together, the difference between nouns and pronouns is pretty unimportant. Both function as the head of a noun phrase, which itself can be a subject or an object.

Mary (noun phrase subject) is sleeping.

She (noun phrase subject) is sleeping.

Yet pronouns differ from nouns in some very interesting and important ways. For example, unlike nouns, pronouns don’t take determiners, including the articles the, a, and an, and demonstratives such as those, that, and these. There is no the I or those we. The pronouns I and we can’t be modified that way.

A more important difference between nouns and pronouns—one that causes more confusion than perhaps any other feature in the English language—is the way pronouns have different forms when they’re working as subject, object, or possessor (that is, when they’re in the nominative, objective, or genitive case). Regular nouns remain unchanged whether they’re subjects or objects. And in the genitive, they usually just add the possessive apostrophe and s.

John was hired by the company.

The company hired John.

John’s new job is going well.

He was hired by the company.

The company hired him.

His new job is going well.

Notice the word John doesn’t change form when it moves from nominative (subject) case to the objective case. But a pronoun standing in for John does. It’s he as a subject, him as an object, and his as a possessive determiner. This is why it can be useful to treat nouns and pronouns as separate word classes.

Pronouns come in quite a few different categories:

Personal Pronouns	I, you, he, she, etc., along with other cases and forms like me, my, and mine
Relative Pronouns	that, which, who/whom, whoever/whomever
Reflexive Pronouns	myself, yourself, himself, etc.
Indefinite Pronouns	anyone, somebody, one, all, any, etc.
Interrogative Pronouns	who, which, what, where, how
Demonstrative Pronouns	this, that, these, etc.
Reciprocal Pronouns	each other, one another
Conditional Pronouns	whatever, whichever, wherever, whoever, whomever

A lot of pronouns also have forms that function not as nouns but as determiners, meaning that, like adjectives, they refer to nouns.

This is great.

(This is functioning as a noun phrase, which is the subject of the verb.)

This meal is great.

(This is functioning as a determiner, introducing the noun meal.)

This is his.

(His is functioning as a noun phrase, a complement of the verb.)

This is his bike.

(His is functioning as a determiner, modifying the noun bike.)

Some pronouns don’t change at all when they’re used as determiners, as we saw with his in the last example. But others have specific forms for the job.

That is her bike.

That is hers.

Our meal is great.

Ours is great.

Take my car.

Take mine.

Notice how, when the pronoun is functioning as a noun phrase, it has a different form than it does when it’s doing the job of a determiner: her, our, and my versus hers, ours, and mine.

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns are the ones that come to mind when most people think of pronouns.

I

you

he

she

we

they

it

Those are the subject forms, of course. Here they are with their corresponding object forms, which are also personal pronouns.

I → me

you → you

he → him

she → her

we → us

they → them

it → it

Some of these pronouns reflect gender: he, she. Others don’t: we, they. All of them but you reflect number: I is singular; we is plural. He is singular; they is plural.

Pronouns are unique in that they vary a lot more than regular nouns to show gender and number. Regular nouns usually change by just one letter to reflect number—the added plural s that turns singular cat into plural cats—whereas the singular first person pronoun I is completely different from the plural first person pronoun we. Also, regular English nouns don’t really have a gender. That is, even though a woman is feminine, the word woman is not considered feminine or masculine. Only pronouns like he and she are said to have a gender.

In addition to subject and object forms, personal pronouns also have possessive, reflexive, and possessive determiner forms. Here’s a chart showing them all.

Subject	Object	Possessive Determiner	Possessive	Reflexive
I	me	my	mine	myself
you	you	your	yours	yourself, yourselves
he	him	his	his	himself
she	her	her	hers	herself
it	it	its	its	itself
we	us	our	ours	ourselves
they	them	their	theirs	themselves

Possessive determiners may have more in common with adjectives than with pronouns. They can’t function as noun phrases the way possessive pronouns can. Instead, they introduce nouns.

That is mine.

(Personal pronoun mine is functioning as a noun phrase.)

That is my umbrella.

(Possessive determiner introduces the noun umbrella.)

Hers is the fastest.

(Personal pronoun hers is functioning as a noun phrase.)

Her car is the fastest.

(Possessive determiner her introduces the noun car.)

So though possessive determiners are similar to, or, in the case of you and his, identical to their personal pronoun counterparts, they’re distinguished by their functions in a sentence.

Nominative Personal Pronouns (Subject Pronouns)

Using the subject pronouns I, you, he, she, we, it, and they is pretty straightforward. They function as subjects—noun phrases that perform the action in a verb.

I am on my way.

He is really nice.

We are booked for Tuesday.

They have nice things.

A subject pronoun also functions as the complement of a copular verb in formal contexts. In these situations, it’s called the predicate nominative. We’ll look at those in a minute.

Objective Personal Pronouns (Object Pronouns)

Object pronouns function as the objects of transitive verbs or of prepositions.

Jim saw her.

(Pronoun her is the object of the transitive verb to see.)

Jim talked with her.

(Pronoun her is the object of the preposition with.)

Object pronouns can work as either direct or indirect objects.

Jim saw her.

(Pronoun her is the direct object of the verb to see.)

Jim gave her the keys.

(Direct object of the verb to give is the keys, and the indirect object is her.)

As we saw in chapter 2, this page, indirect objects are essentially prepositional phrases with the preposition dropped and the noun phrase moved to a spot immediately after the verb.

Jim gave the keys to her.

(Direct object of the verb is the keys, and to her is expressed as a prepositional phrase.)

Jim gave her the keys.

(Direct object of the verb is the keys, and her becomes an indirect object by omitting to and moving to the place right after the verb.)

This ability is not limited to pronouns. Regular nouns work the same way, with the ability to function as indirect objects. But because regular nouns don’t change in any way in their jobs as subject and object, their use is simpler.

Jim gave the keys to Stella.

Jim gave Stella the keys.

The choice between object and subject pronouns causes a lot of confusion in contexts like between you and me and Thanks for driving John and me. We’ll discuss those issues at length in part 2, “Usage and Propriety,” including why subject pronouns are sometimes acceptable in such cases. But from a purely syntactical standpoint, between you and me requires the object pronoun me because between is a preposition. Similarly, in Thanks for driving John and me, the object pronoun me is correct because it’s the object of the transitive verb driving.

Sentences like This is she seem to defy the rules about object pronouns because they contain a subject pronoun like she in the predicate instead of an object pronoun like her.

This is called the predicate nominative, meaning that the nominative—that is, subject—is referred to in the predicate of the sentence. In other words, this and she refer to the same person, and one’s the subject and the other is in the predicate.

The reason hinges on the verb. Verbs of being, seeming, and appearing are called copular or linking verbs. More on them in chapter 6, this page. But for purposes of our pronoun discussion, note that be, seem, appear, feel, taste, and similar verbs of being and the senses refer back to the subject in a way that most other verbs don’t. The pronoun in the predicate restates the subject, which is why a subject form like she is more grammatical than an object form like her.

Special Jobs of the Pronoun It

Think about what the pronoun it is doing in this sentence:

It is raining.

If pronouns stand in for nouns, what noun does it represent here? How about in these sentences?

It is the thought that counts.

It is too bad that you never met her.

In these examples, there’s no noun functioning as an antecedent of it. There isn’t even an implied noun that could be its antecedent. So clearly, it has some special jobs that go above and beyond its fellow personal pronouns.

These special jobs have names: “prop it” (also called “empty it”), “cleft it,” and “anticipatory it.”

The sentence It is raining exemplifies prop it, which uses the pronoun it as subject even though it’s practically meaningless. Here, the verb phrase is raining needs a subject. But it’s not customary to use a substantive subject here. We don’t say the sky is raining or the weather is raining or the clouds are raining. The verb phrase is raining is all the information we need. But that verb phrase can’t stand alone. It needs a subject. So we put in the word it more to make the sentence grammatically complete than to represent anything meaningful.

Exemplified in the sentence It is the thought that counts, cleft it is used mainly for emphasis. Cleft sentences demote the main clause of the sentence to lower status and use it plus a copular verb like is as the main clause. Then a relative pronoun that or who is inserted before the verb.

Take the sentence The thought counts. Put It is in front and insert that before the verb:

The thought counts.

It is the thought that counts.

Rearranged this way, the sentence shines a spotlight on the noun phrase the thought, drawing more attention to it. That’s the basic idea of cleft it. Here’s another example of a regular sentence converted to a cleft sentence with the pronoun it.

He stole my wallet.

(Simple structure with he stole as the main clause.)

It was he who stole my wallet.

(Cleft structure with it was as the main clause.)

Anticipatory it, illustrated in the sentence It is too bad that you never met her, is very similar to cleft it, but the structure’s a little different. Like cleft it, anticipatory it usually combines it plus a form of the verb be as the main clause. But the structure that follows isn’t noun phrase plus relative pronoun plus verb phrase. Instead, what follows it is is usually descriptive information followed by the clause that’s being described.

That you never met her is too bad.

It is too bad that you never met her.

The subject of our first example is the whole subordinate clause that you never met her. It’s followed by the verb is, which is followed by the adjective phrase too bad. But using that clauses as subjects isn’t a very popular choice. Instead, speakers tend to balance out the sentence by starting with anticipatory it, followed by what had been the predicate (is too bad), which is then followed by the subordinate clause that used to be the subject (that you never met her).

Sentences built with anticipatory it allow us to leave the relative pronoun that implied.

It is too bad (that) you never met her.

If you were to convert that out of anticipatory it structure, the subject would need its that back (that you never met her is too bad), but the anticipatory it clause renders the relative pronoun optional.

Existential There

The word there is customarily an adverb, answering the question Where? in a sentence like Put it there. But it is also sometimes a pronoun.

There are people waiting for you.

This means the same thing as People are waiting for you. But the grammar and the intonation are different. Instead of just starting with people as a subject, existential there lets us state outright that there are people. It’s a whole clause dedicated to pointing out that the people exist. Hence the name “existential there.”

Once we’ve stated outright that the people exist, the grammatical dynamics of existential there are similar to those of cleft and anticipatory it. What would have been the grammatical subject, people, gets pushed back to a spot after the verb.

People are waiting for you.

There are people waiting for you.

The noun that had been the subject, people, is no longer the subject of the verb. That job now belongs to existential there. The noun that had been the subject, people, is now called the notional subject. It’s still the thing we’re talking about, but it’s no longer the grammatical subject of the sentence.

Reflexive Pronouns

Pronouns that end with self or selves are reflective pronouns. Here’s the complete list: myself, yourself, himself, herself, ourselves, themselves, itself, and oneself. As you can see, these reflexive pronouns correspond to personal pronouns: Myself refers to the same person as the pronoun I. Himself goes with he. And so on.

Reflexive pronouns have two jobs: they refer back to the subject of a clause or they add emphasis. That second one is simpler, so we’ll start there.

I, myself, know it to be true.

You, yourself, have seen the fallout.

The firing was a reflection on Darryl himself.

We’re doing the remodeling ourselves.

In each of these examples, the reflexive pronoun could be chopped out with nothing lost. These words add only emphasis. As far as understanding reflexives’ roles in underscoring a point in this way, there’s nothing more to know.

The job of reflecting back on the subject is also pretty easy to understand.

Tyler can dress himself.

No one knows me better than I know myself.

Nick sees himself in the mirror.

Lily gave herself a raise.

The subject of each sentence is also the object of either the verb or a preposition. In the first example, dress is a transitive verb, and the person being dressed, Tyler, is the same person doing the dressing. In the second example, I, the knower, is the same person as myself, the one known. The subjects are doing things to themselves. That’s a standard use of reflexive pronouns.

Contrary to what some language observers say, it’s not necessarily an error to use a reflexive pronoun in place of a personal pronoun—that is, to say Talk to John or myself instead of Talk to John or me. But it’s a calculated risk to do so. We’ll look at that more closely in part 2 of this book.

Indefinite Pronouns

Indefinite pronouns stand in for unspecified people or things. Like all pronouns, they function as noun phrases in a sentence. They include the following terms:

anybody

anyone

everybody

everyone

everything

somebody

someone

something

anything

all

another

each

few

many

none

one

several

enough

Some indefinite pronouns can also work as determiners, meaning they precede nouns and add information about things like proximity, quantity, and definiteness. We’ll discuss those determiners in chapter 11, this page. But for quick reference, this means that all, any, few, both, and other pronouns can function either as noun phrases or as qualifiers of adjectives (determiners).

Few live to see three centuries.

(Few is functioning as a noun phrase.)

Few people live to see three centuries.

(Few is a determiner of the noun people.)

He’s seen it all.

(All is a pronoun functioning as a noun phrase.)

All students get a grade of pass/fail.

(All is a determiner of the noun students.)

Both are good.

(Both is functioning as a pronoun.)

Both flavors are good.

(Both is functioning as a determiner.)

Note how the noun-versus-determiner comes into play with of-phrases:

All baggage is in the compartment.

All of the baggage is in the compartment.

Some guys were asking about you.

Some of the guys were asking about you.

These examples are all correct. They differ only in structure and emphasis. These differences are possible because all, some, and other indefinite pronouns can be determiners, too. So in all of the baggage and some of the guys, the pronouns are working as noun phrases that are modified by prepositional phrases. But in all baggage and some guys, those same two words are not pronouns but determiners of nouns. The choice is up to you.

The rest of this chapter deals with only the pronoun forms.

Overview of Indefinite Pronouns

Indefinite pronouns have different properties. Some are quantifiers, meaning they address the number or quantity of things discussed.

You’ll find some in the fridge.

(Some indicates approximate quantity.)

You won’t find any in the fridge.

(Any indicates quantity, in this case zero.)

Many are called, few answer.

(Many and few indicate approximate quantity.)

Some indefinite pronouns refer exclusively to people. These are the pronouns ending in -body or -one.

Anyone can apply.

Is anybody planning to bring plates and cups?

They saw someone behind the tree.

Other indefinite pronouns cannot refer to people. These primarily end with -thing.

Anything is possible.

Nothing would give me greater pleasure.

They saw something behind the tree.

Most can refer to both. These include some, any, one, many, most, few, all, another, and each.

Among the cups, you’ll find some are red and some blue.

(Some refers to cups.)

Among the guests, you’ll find some are members and some bought tickets.

(Some refers to people.)

When choosing a new car, one with good mileage is best.

(One refers to a car.)

When making a new friend, one with a kind heart is best.

(One refers to a friend.)

None of these books is what you’re looking for.

(None refers to books.)

None of these people has what you’re looking for.

(None refers to people.)

Pronouns like none, anything, and anybody are called non-assertives—pronouns that indicate either that there are none of the thing being discussed or that there may be none.

None is happy with the outcome.

(Not a single person is represented by the pronoun none.)

Anything you want we can get.

(The pronoun anything does not affirm any specific thing exists in the reference.)

In contrast, indefinite pronouns some, somebody, someone, and something are called assertives because they indicate that at least one or some of the thing being referenced is represented by the pronoun.

I’ll have some of that pizza.

(Affirms that there is some pizza available.)

Something moved.

(Affirms that a specific thing moved.)

Whether an indefinite pronoun is singular or plural varies from situation to situation. Many indefinite pronouns are by default considered singular and thus take a singular verb.

Everybody makes mistakes.

(The verb makes is conjugated for a singular subject.)

Someone is following you.

(Verb phrase is following is conjugated for a singular subject.)

Anything is negotiable.

(The verb is is conjugated for a singular subject.)

Others are presumed plural.

Most realize the importance of international alliances.

(The verb realize is conjugated for a plural subject.)

Many have tried.

(The verb have is conjugated for a plural subject.)

Few succeed.

(The verb succeed is conjugated for a plural subject.)

Other indefinite pronouns can take a singular or plural verb depending on the antecedent or presumed antecedent.

Of all the music we’re hearing, some is better than the rest.

(The verb is is conjugated in the singular to agree with the subject music.)

Of all the songs on the album, some are better than the rest.

(The verb are is conjugated in the plural to agree with the subject songs.)

The indefinite pronouns that customarily take singular verbs create a lot of confusion in more complicated sentences like Everyone keeps their car locked. Notice how everyone takes a singular verb but is later represented in the sentence by they, which is traditionally considered plural. For more on singular their, see chapter 15, this page. But for now note that they and its corresponding forms their and them are acceptable, if informal, for referring to singular subjects.

Generic Pronouns

Sometimes the pronouns you, we, they, and one are used in a generic sense to refer to unspecified people.

Gloria fell. That’s what happens when you don’t watch where you’re going.

In this example, you isn’t meant to refer to the listener, as it would in most cases. Instead, it’s used to mean something like a person or someone in situations where those terms would be wordy or awkward.

The indefinite pronoun they can be used even more loosely to refer to people in general or a subset of people in general.

They say it’s good to drink eight glasses of water a day.

We can also be so vague as to refer to people in general:

We can’t always get what we want.

In formal situations, the word one can work as a third person singular pronoun:

One must watch where one walks at all times.

The pronoun one has another, slightly different job. Notice how it’s working in the following examples:

I need a new sweater—one I can wear to work and to dinner.

A lot of people in my family have widow’s peaks: Dave has one and Jackie has one, too.

The one labeled “Don’t open till Christmas” is in my trunk.

That’s a good one.

In all these cases, one doesn’t mean the number one, but it clearly isn’t the formal third person pronoun, either. Instead, this one, called substitute one, stands in for a noun phrase that’s already understood by both the speaker and the listener.

Relative Pronouns

The relative pronouns are that, which, and who/whom, and some analysts put where and when in this category as well, though more often they’re classed as adverbs.

Relative pronouns have a pretty unique job in a sentence. See if you can understand what they’re doing in the following examples:

The car that I was driving is red.

His reason, which was specious at best, was not known to everyone in the room.

The man, who I know is unreliable, hasn’t been back.

The woman, whom I saw in the alley, was wearing a hat.

If you noticed that the relative pronouns are introducing whole clauses, you’re catching on. Those are called relative clauses. Now, tougher question: can you see what those clauses are doing?

Relative clauses postmodify nouns. That means exactly what it sounds like: they come after nouns and modify them, adding some kind of description or specificity. And because describing nouns is what adjectives are famous for, you can say that relative pronouns function adjectivally.

In the first example, The car that I was driving was red, the relative clause that I was driving modifies the noun car. It narrows down, or restricts, the noun itself. That is, by itself the car could refer to any of a large number of cars. But by adding the relative clause that I was driving, we’ve restricted the range of possibilities considerably. In this, since the speaker can drive only one car at a time, we’ve narrowed down the noun phrase the car to just one possible vehicle.

In the second example, His reason, which was specious at best, was not known to everyone in the room, the clause introduced by the relative pronoun which is modifying the noun reason.

We can break relative clauses up into two groups: restrictive and nonrestrictive. Restrictive relative clauses add specificity to the nouns they modify. That is, if you take them out, you lose some information about what thing is being talked about. Nonrestrictive relative clauses can be lifted right out of the sentence without losing either specificity of the noun or structural integrity of the main clause.

The menu, which is extensive, has pictures of the food.

If you take the relative clause out of this sentence, the stuff you lose is supplemental information. The menu has pictures of the food contains no less information about which menu we’re talking about, and it stands alone just fine as a grammatical sentence.

The menu that we perused has pictures of the food.

But in the above example, you can’t just take out the relative clause without losing something important. Take out that we perused and you get The menu has pictures of the food. Though that’s still structurally sound, the listener now has less information about which specific menu you’re talking about. Without the relative clause, you’re speaking as though the listener already knows which menu is the menu. But when the relative clause is there, you’re signaling to the reader: “You’re not expected to already be familiar with the menu. I’m telling you right now that we were perusing one at the time.”

In American English, the relative pronoun that usually introduces restrictive relative clauses, the relative pronoun which usually introduces nonrestrictive clauses, and who and whom have no tendencies in either direction. What’s more, nonrestrictive clauses are usually set off with commas.

Style guides like AP and Chicago specifically tell followers to avoid using which for restrictive clauses, as in The table which we built had three legs. Within either of those styles, the which should be that. But that’s a style rule, not a grammar rule. Native speakers’ judgment serves just fine to determine when that is better than which.

Another interesting property of relative pronouns is that they themselves can function as the subject of the clause, or they can introduce another noun phrase that does the job.

The family that plays together stays together.

(In the relative clause, the pronoun that is the subject of the verb plays.)

The family that we met was very nice.

(In the relative clause, the verb has its own subject, we, and the relative pronoun just introduces that clause.)

In many cases, you can drop the relative pronoun from a restrictive relative clause. This is called the zero relative.

The coffee that we sampled was excellent.

The coffee we sampled was excellent.

The man whom I saw in the store wore a hat.

The man I saw in the store wore a hat.

Who and whom customarily refer to people, with that and which usually referring to everything but humans.

the woman who bumped into me

the car that bumped into me

But while editing standards say to avoid using that for people, dictionary definitions of that are broad enough that it can mean a human subject.

the woman that bumped into me

(Acceptable but not favored in publishing.)

the woman who bumped into me

(Correct in all contexts.)

Avoid that for people if you’re concerned it will grate on your reader.

Nominal Relatives

The nominal relative pronouns are what, whatever, whatsoever, which, whichever, whichsoever, who, whoever, whosoever, whom, whomever, and whomsoever. Their job is to introduce whole clauses that themselves function as noun phrases and are thus called nominal.

Whatever works best is what you should do.

Identify the main verb in the example above. It’s is. Now ask yourself, what’s the subject of that verb? It’s the whole clause whatever works best. That whole clause is working like a noun, functioning as the subject of a verb. That’s what a nominal relative clause does. A few more examples follow:

I’ll buy whichever has the best warranty.

(Nominal relative whichever introduces a clause that’s the object of the verb buy.)

I don’t know what happened.

(Nominal relative what introduces a clause that’s the object of the verb know.)

We couldn’t see who was yelling.

(Nominal relative who introduces a clause that’s the object of the verb see.)

Like some other pronouns, nominal relatives are determiners when, instead of acting as the subject of a verb in the clause, they introduce a noun that acts as the subject. In I’ll buy whichever has the best product reviews, the nominal relative whichever is functioning as the subject of the verb has. So it’s a pronoun. But in I’ll buy whichever snowboard has the best product reviews, suddenly whichever is a determiner of the noun snowboard.

Conditional Pronouns

The conditional pronouns whatever, whichever, whoever, and whomever usually head up clauses. Their job is to offer a range of choices.

He’ll do whatever you say.

But they can also stand alone as noun phrases.

I’m up for whatever.

Conditional whoever is a subject pronoun like who. Whomever is an object pronoun corresponding to whom.

Whoever is last to leave should turn off the lights.

Give the promotion to whomever you like.

Errors with whom in general and whomever in particular are rampant. See chapter 16, this page, for a full explanation of how to avoid those errors.

Demonstrative Pronouns

The demonstrative pronouns are this, that, these, and those. They are pronouns in that they stand in for a noun phrase.

I like the brownies with the chocolate frosting. = I like those.

In this example, we see the demonstrative pronoun can stand in for the brownies with the chocolate frosting. Demonstrative pronouns’ unique property is that they’re designed to point toward the specific thing you’re talking about, to indicate which one or ones you mean.

In I like those, the pronoun specifically cues the listener that the speaker is distinguishing the types of brownies liked from other types. Compare that to I like them. This personal pronoun doesn’t send the same cue that the speaker is distinguishing one type of brownie from another.

Like a lot of other pronouns we’ve seen, demonstrative pronouns have doppelgangers that are determiners. Demonstrative determiners come before nouns and function like adjectives. But demonstrative pronouns function as noun phrases.

I like this salad dressing.

(Demonstrative determiner this works with noun phrase salad dressing.)

I like this.

(Demonstrative pronoun this functions as object of the verb.)

Reciprocal Pronouns

There are just two reciprocal pronouns: each other and one another. They let you show that two or more people did the same thing and experienced the same benefits or consequences of the action. They’re an efficient alternative to stating each action individually.

Robert and James were yelling at each other. = Robert was yelling at James and James was yelling at Robert.

Morgan and Ellie told one another all their secrets. = Morgan told Ellie her secrets and Ellie told Morgan her secrets.