What is a pronoun? Learn English Grammar Lesson - How to use pronouns in English - LESSON ONE

Hi everybody, this is Misterduncan in England. How are you today? Are you okay? I hope so!

Are you happy? I hope so!

In today's lesson we are going to talk about pronouns.

So the first question must be...what is a pronoun?

A pronoun is a word that can be used as a noun by itself

and one that refers to either of those taking part in a conversation, such as 'I' or 'you',

or to someone or something mentioned elsewhere, such as a third person or a thing that is not present,

such as 'he' or 'she', 'it' or 'that'.

This might seem like a simple form of grammar, but sadly there are some complications,

which is to say; there are different types of pronouns.

In fact the use of pronouns in English is one of the most debated and contested parts of the whole English language.

Many heated exchanges have taken place over how these different types of pronouns should be used.

So let's dive straight in

and take a look at them...shall we?

A person pronoun forms a group of words that show contrasts of person, gender, number, and case, or occurrence.

The words are - I, you, he, she, it, we, they, me, him, her, us and them.

You will see that this set of words can be paired to show contrast.

For example - he and she contrast each other. That is to say, they can be compared.

The correct use of personal pronouns is one of the most debated areas of English usage.

A good case being the use of subjective personal pronouns.

This refers to the subject in question containing a personal pronoun.

As we have already seen - I, we, they, he and she are all subjective personal pronouns.

On the other hand, me, us, them, him and her are referred to as objective pronouns,

which means they are used as the object of a verb or preposition.

This is why it is incorrect to say

It should be...

You wouldn't say 'Me went to the shops.'

Using the pronoun alone makes the mistake very obvious.

It is also incorrect to say

The preposition in the sentence causes the pronoun to be 'me'.

'He came with me.'

A good way to check whether a pronoun works in a sentence, is to simplify it.

Of course not everything in English is so straight forward.

This is where the traditional analysis starts to break down.

Problems arise when a personal pronoun is used alone without the context of a verb or a preposition.

Traditionalists sometimes argue, for example that...

are incorrect and that the correct form is...

Of course for many native speakers, the first use sounds more natural.

So the dispute between traditionalists, who by the way base many of their arguments on the use of Latin,

and those who use English on a daily basis rattles on.

However nowadays is it generally acceptable to say - 'Who is it? It's me!', 'She's taller than him', 'I didn't do as well as her'.

Finally there is the impersonal pronoun, which fortunately is much easier to explain.

An impersonal pronoun expresses the use of 'it' when used without definite reference or antecedent.

An impersonal pronoun is used in sentences such as 'It was snowing' or 'It seems hard to believe'.

So that is all you need to know about pronouns.

A complete list of common pronouns will follow in a moment,

but for now this is Misterduncan in England saying thank you for watching me, teaching you and of course...

ta-ta for now.