English Grammar Drills - Mark Lester 2009
Personal pronouns
5 Pronouns
Part 1 Noun Phrases
In this chapter we will discuss two types of pronouns: personal and reflexive.
Personal pronouns
You are probably familiar with the traditional definition of pronoun: “a pronoun is a word that replaces one or more than one noun.” The “one or more than one noun” part of the definition deals with compound nouns (two nouns joined by and or or). For example, consider the following sentence:
Tom and Harry are good friends of mine.
We can replace the compound noun Tom and Harry with the single third-person pronoun they:
They are good friends of mine.
However, if we were to take the definition literally, we would have a problem. For example, consider the following sentence:
A tall young woman in the front row raised her hand.
If we were to replace the noun woman in the above sentence with she, we would get the following nonsensical result:
X A tall young she in the front row raised her hand.
Clearly, what the pronoun she really replaces is the entire noun phrase a tall young woman in the front row:
A tall young woman in the front row raised her hand.
She raised her hand.
Here is how we should rephrase the traditional definition of pronoun: a third-person pronoun is a word that replaces one or more than one noun and all the modifi ers of those nouns.
In grammatical terms, what the revised definition says is that third-person pronouns replace entire noun phrases. A noun phrase is a noun together with all of that noun’s modifiers. In the example, she replaces the noun woman along with all of the words that modify woman: the prenoun modifiers a tall young and the post-noun adjectival preposition phrase in the front row.
The noun in the noun phrase determines which third-person pronoun to use, as we can see in the following examples:
A tall young man in the front row raised his hand.
He raised his hand.
Two men in the back row both raised their hands at the same time.
They both raised their hands at the same time.
Here is the complete list of third-person pronouns that can replace noun phrases:
Here are examples of all of the third-person pronouns replacing noun phrases. In these examples, the noun is in italics and the entire noun phrase is underlined:
Subject
He: My grandfather on my mother’s side was a prospector in Alaska.
He was a prospector in Alaska.
She: The woman who was ahead of me in the line dropped all of her packages.
She dropped all of her packages.
It: A truck pulling a long trailer suddenly pulled out in front of me.
It suddenly pulled out in front of me.
They: All of the employees in the department went to Larry’s retirement party.
They went to Larry’s retirement party.
Object
Him: I signaled to the waiter who had taken our order.
I signaled to him.
Her: I signaled to the waitress who had taken our order.
I signaled to her.
It: Did you see the new car parked outside the restaurant?
Did you see it?
Them: The new telescope can detect planets that are circling distant suns.
The new telescope can detect them.
Exercise 5.1
Write the appropriate third-person pronoun above the underlined noun phrase. Use he/she or him/her for persons whose gender is not specified.
1. The Mississippi river system drains the central United States.
2. She really enjoyed photographing wild animals in their natural habitat.
3. All the senior executives of the company were called to a special meeting.
4. My brother intends to continue to run the farm that we inherited from our parents.
5. The screenwriter for that movie has been nominated for an Academy Award.
6. The whole family plans to celebrate our parents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary in July.
7. Both of my roommates at school come from Alabama.
8. The class interviewed the reporter who wrote the series on judicial misconduct.
9. The population of North Dakota is one of the few in the United States that is actually falling.
10. It is hospital policy to get blood samples from all patients with unexplained fevers.
11. The Southern Cross is the best-known constellation in the Southern Hemisphere.
12. I will vote for the candidate that has expressed the greatest concern for health costs.
13. My husband and his friends have taken the kids camping this weekend.
14. A good portfolio requires a mixture of both stocks and bonds.
15. The weather reporter on the 10 o’clock news is predicting more snow this weekend.
Third-person pronouns are unique among pronouns. The ability of third-person pronouns to substitute for noun phrases is not shared with first- and second-person pronouns, which do not replace anything.
The first-person pronouns (I, me, we, us) refer only to the speaker or writer of a sentence, and the second-person pronoun (you) refers only to the real or imagined audience of the sentence. For example, consider the following sentence:
I see you.
Here the first-person pronoun I and the second-person pronoun you do not substitute for other noun phrases. They are just themselves—speaker and audience respectively.
Personal pronouns have different forms depending on their person (first, second, or third), number (singular or plural), and form or case (subject, object, or possessive). The following chart represents all the personal pronouns, with form and person along the left axis of the chart and number across the top:
Notice that the possessive pronouns have two different sets of forms. The pronominal forms (mine, ours, yours, his, hers, its, theirs) act as true pronouns in the sense that they can play the standard noun roles of subject, object, and complement of linking verbs. For example:
Subject: Mine was the only correct answer.
Ours didn’t stand a chance.
Object: Bob couldn’t find his program, so I gave him yours.
The children lost theirs again.
Complement: The decision is yours.
The missing purse was hers.
Adjectival forms (my, our, your, his, her, its, their) act as adjectives modifying nouns. Here are some examples of this use:
My answer was the only correct one.
I gave him your program.
It was your decision to make.
Of particular importance are the possessive pronoun forms that are different from each other:
The adjectival and pronominal forms of his and its are the same. Here are some sentences that illustrate the difference between pronominal and adjectival forms:
Exercise 5.2
Select the proper form of the two italicized possessive pronouns by underlining the correct form.
Mary needs to see her/hers accountant about a tax matter.
1. I couldn’t make out what they were saying about their/theirs.
2. We were naturally very sad to hear about your/yours loss.
3. Nobody had anything to say about his or her/hers decision.
4. My team’s performance was even worse than your/yours.
5. My candidate has not been able to gather much support. How about your/yours?
6. In light of all the difficulties, you really have to admire their/theirs attitude.
7. I got mine. Did you get your/yours?
8. The poor quality of produce in the marketplace really made me want to get her/hers.
9. When the lights went out, nobody could find their/theirs way back.
10. Miss Jones was concerned about where she had left her/hers in the classroom.
We need to be careful when we use the masculine and feminine singular pronouns he and she. There is no problem using he to refer to males and she to females. The problem arises when we use them in a sexist or stereotyped way. One problem is using he to refer to people in general. Here is an example:
Whenever a person makes an investment, he should minimize sales commissions.
Many people would find this sentence to be objectionable because it sends a message that males are the only kind of people who make investments.
There are two ways of rewriting this type of sentence to eliminate the generic he. One way is to replace he with the compound he or she:
Whenever a person makes an investment, he or she should minimize sales commissions.
The other way is to replace he with the plural pronoun they. This solution will require the subject of the sentence to be rewritten as a plural (people rather than a person) so that they will have an appropriate plural antecedent:
When people first use computers, they tend to be completely overwhelmed.
Of the two solutions, the second alternative is usually better even though it requires more sentence revision. The option with he or she often seems clumsy.
A second problem is using he and she in a way that stereotypes occupations or tasks. For example:
Let’s find a pilot and see what he says.
Let’s find a nurse and see what she says.
The use of he in the first example and she in the second implies that all pilots are males and all nurses are females. Some people have become very sensitive to this kind of gender stereotyping. You should be careful to avoid it.
Again, we can solve the problem by using the compound he or she:
Let’s find a pilot and see what he or she says.
Let’s find a nurse and see what he or she says.
However, since the he or she compound is so awkward, a better solution would be to rewrite the sentences to avoid the pronoun altogether. For example:
Let’s see what a pilot would say.
Let’s see what a nurse would say.
Exercise 5.3
Rewrite the following sentences to avoid the inappropriate use of he and she. Do not use the compound he or she in your answers.
Every employee must wash his hands before returning to work.
All employees must wash their hands before returning to work.
1. A good writer chooses his words carefully.
2. A geologist spends most of his research time in the field.
3. A teacher should allow her students time to finish their work.
4. When a parent arrives, ask her to take a seat.
5. We need someone who will try his best.
6. Each farmer in the neighborhood has already harvested his crops by now.
7. Every painter has to learn how to keep his brushes in good condition.
8. Find an officer and tell him what happened.
9. Any secretary we hire must have Excel in her resume.
10. Any child who is invited here must mind his manners.
11. Call a doctor and tell him we have an emergency here.
12. No CEO would pass up an opportunity to improve his company.
13. We cannot hire any foreign citizen unless we see his green card.
14. If a visitor stops by, ask him to wait in the library.
15. No member of the Republican Party would lend his name to a cause like that.