Pronouns

Look at this story:

John Brown said that John Brown was hungry. Mary Brown said that Mary Brown was hungry, too.
When their mother heard that John and Mary were hungry, their mother gave John and Mary a piece of
cake each. John and Mary thanked their mother for the piece of cake and John and Mary ate the piece of
cake. Then John said, ‘John thanks his mother. John isn’t hungry now,’ and Mary said, ‘Mary thanks her
mother. Mary isn’t hungry now.’ Their mother said, ‘Did John and Mary enjoy the cake?’ and John and
Mary said together, ‘John and Mary enjoyed the cake very much.’
It sounds funny, doesn’t it? I’m sure you can see why. It’s because we keep repeating the nouns John
and Mary and mother and piece of cake. Now let’s try again, and this time, instead of always using these
nouns, we will use other words that stand for them. We’ll mark all the words that we use instead of the
nouns.
John Brown said that he was hungry. Mary Brown said that she was hungry, too. When their mother
heard that they were hungry, she gave them a piece of cake each. They thanked her for it and they ate it.
Then John said, ‘(I) Thank you. I’m not hungry now,’ and Mary said, ‘(I) Thank you. I’m not hungry
now.’ Their mother said, ‘Did you enjoy it?’ And they said together, ‘We enjoyed it very much.’
That sounds better, doesn’t it? We have used pronouns, words that we use instead of the nouns. The
pronouns in that story are the words I, you, he, she, we, they, them, her, him, it.
Words that stand instead of nouns are called pronouns.
Exercise
Pick out the pronouns in the following.
1. John is a boy. He is at home.
2. Mary is a girl. She is in the class.
3. They are brother and sister.
4. We know them very well.
5. They stayed with us last year.
6. John is a clever boy. I like him.
7. Mary is our friend. She is twelve years old. We like her.
8. They have a bicycle. It is yellow.
9. They have asked to me to visit them next year.
10. They live in Kingston. It is a big city.
11. Do you like these flowers? They are out of the garden.
12. Don’t you know how to do it?
Gender of nouns and pronouns
In grammar we say that the forms he and she (or him and her) show a difference of gender.
Words that stand for males are masculine gender. So the nouns man, boy, son, king, prince, etc., and
the pronouns he and him are masculine gender.
Words that stand for females are feminine gender. The nouns woman, girl, daughter, queen, princess,
etc., and the pronouns she and her are feminine gender.

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Words that stand for things are neutral gender. (Neutral means neither masculine nor feminine.) So
the nouns book, house, river, tree, city, etc., and the pronoun it are neutral gender.
Sometimes the pronouns used for animals are neutral gender.
Where is the cat? It is on the mat.
Where is the dog? It is in the garden.
The pronouns I, me, you, we, us can be either masculine or feminine. The pronouns they and them may
be masculine or feminine or neutral.
The boys have just come home. Ask them if they want their dinner. (masculine)
The girls have been to the cinema. Ask them if they enjoyed the picture. (feminine)
The apple-trees are covered with blossom. They will have plenty of apples on them in the autumn.
(neutral)
Exercises
A Answer these questions.
1. What is the gender of nouns or pronouns that stand for male persons?
2. What is the gender of nouns or pronouns that stand for female persons?
3. What is the gender of nouns or pronouns that stand for things or animals?
B
1. Write down four nouns in the masculine gender and four in the feminine gender.
2. Write down two pronouns in the feminine gender and two in the masculine gender.
3. Write down ten nouns or pronouns in the neutral gender.
4. Which two pronouns can be masculine, feminine and neutral?
5. Which pronoun is only neutral gender?
C Give the feminine of the following nouns and pronouns.
Example: grandfather (masculine)
Answer: grandmother (feminine)
1 he 6 husband 11 policeman 16 nephew
2 him 7 father 12 actor 17 uncle
3 boy 8 son 13 lion 18 duke
4 king 9 brother 14 gentleman 19 hero
5 prince 10 man 15 Mr 20 tiger

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Pronouns: singular and plural, persons
Singular and plural
The pronouns I, me, he, she, him, her are used for only one person. So they are singular.
The pronouns we, us, they, them are used for more than one person. They are plural.
You is both singular and plural.
You are a good boy (one boy, singular).
You are good boys (more than one boy, plural).
We call it a personal pronoun too, but we use it to mean an animal or thing. The plural of it is they or
them.
Persons
You have met the word persons, of course, meaning people. But in grammar, person (first person,
second person, third person) has another meaning.
The 1st person is the person speaking. (I am the teacher. Listen to me.)
The 2nd person is the person spoken to. (You are a pupil).
The 3rd person is the person spoken about. (Richard is looking through the window. The teacher is
pointing at him. They are pupils; she teaches them.)
Impersonal subject
There is also another use for it, as the impersonal subject in such sentences as,
It is raining.
It was a fine day yesterday.
It’s a long way from here to London.
Exercises
A Pick out the pronouns in these sentences. Write singular or plural after each of them.
Example: They are big horses.
Answer: They – plural.
1. He is playing football.
2. She is watching him.
3. They don’t see the teacher.
4. He sees them.
5. You are all working hard.
6. You are the boy I saw playing football.
7. We have a lesson every day.
8. Tell us what you told her.

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 9. It is hot today.
10. If you don’t understand this lesson, ask me about it.
B What do we mean by (a) the 1st person, (b) the 2nd person, (c) the 3rd person?
C Pick out the pronouns in these sentences. Say what person each one is.
Example: I love her.
Answer: I – 1st person; her – 3rd person.
1. You must do the work.
2. He is not working very hard.
3. We come to the class every day, and the teacher teaches us.
4. They can do it, if they try.
5. I asked him to come and see.
6. She asked me to bring the book to her.
7. You can sit next to them.
8. She doesn’t like me and I don’t like her.
9. We don’t like them and they don’t like us.
10. You don’t like him and he doesn’t like you.
Pronouns: subject and object
Subject Verb Object
The boy kicked the football
The cat caught a mouse
In English, nouns always have the same form whether they are the subject of the object.
Subject Verb Object
The boy hit the dog
The dog bit the boy
As you see, the nouns boy and the dog can be subjective or objective without any change of form. As
subject or as object they are b-o-y and d-o-g. But pronouns are different.
Subject Verb Object
I knows the boy
The boy knows me
He knows the teacher
The teacher knows him
She knows the teacher
The teacher knows her
We knows the teacher
The teacher knows us
They knows the teacher
The teacher knows them
Exercises
A Change the pronouns in these sentences from singular to plural. In some cases you will have to change
the verb too.

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Example: He likes me.
Answer: They like us.
1. I come to school every day.
2. He is hungry.
3. She can sing very well.
4. The teacher gives me an English lesson.
5. The teacher asked him a question.
6. I asked her to sing ‘Ten Green Bottles’.
7. He told me a story.
8. You are working hard.
9. I am English; what is he?
10. He doesn’t see me.
B Write out these sentences, but with pronouns instead of the words printed in italics.
1. John is a boy.
2. Margaret is a girl.
3. John and Margaret met the teacher.
4. Mrs Smith, the teacher, gave John a lesson.
5. Margaret is a nice girl. My wife and I like Margaret.
6. Here is my bicycle. My bicycle is black.
7. Mr Jones, the teacher, said, ‘Give the teacher your book.’
8. The lesson is easy. Mrs Smith, the teacher, explained the lesson.
9. Tom saw Mary. Tom spoke to Mary.
10. Linda and Carl said to Mr Sangster, ‘Is Mr Sangster pleased to see Linda and Carl?’
C Here is another story. Write it out again, but use pronouns instead of nouns where pronouns are
better.
Isaac Newton’s egg
Three hundred years ago, Isaac Newton was a great man of science. No man was a greater thinker, but
Newton was very absent-minded about small matters when Newton was thinking about a problem. One
morning Newton got up very early because Newton was working on a very difficult problem. Newton
was thinking about the problem so deeply that Newton would not leave the problem to go to breakfast.
But Mary, his housekeeper, thought Newton needed food, so the housekeeper took a pan of water and
an egg to his study. The housekeeper wanted to boil the egg and stay with Newton until Newton ate the
egg.
But Newton wanted to be alone, and Newton said, ‘Mary can leave the egg with Newton, and
Newton will boil the egg.’ The housekeeper put the egg on the table beside Newton’s watch, and the
housekeeper said, ‘Isaac must boil the egg for four minutes and then the egg will be ready.’
Then the housekeeper left the room. But the housekeeper was afraid that Newton might forget to
boil the egg. So the housekeeper returned about an hour later. The housekeeper found Newton standing
by the fireplace. Newton had put the watch in the saucepan, and Newton was boiling the watch. Newton
was holding the egg in his hand. But Newton was still thinking about his problem.

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