Pronoun
A pronoun is a noun with a specific type of reference, but without a fixed referent. For example, "I" means specifically the person speaking, which is true whoever happens to be speaking, but the actual person "I" refers to depends on context.
There are several kinds of pronouns:
- personal pronouns: I, you, we
- possessive pronouns: mine, yours, ours (as opposed to possessive adjectives: my, your, our)
- demonstrative pronouns: this, that, those (as opposed to demonstrative adjectives: this car, that house, those people).
- reflexive pronouns: myself, herself, themselves
- relative pronouns: that, which, who
- interogative pronouns: who, when, what
- indefinate pronouns: some, a few, many
Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns are most commonly used to replace proper nouns. If you imagine a sentence without pronouns, it could sound cluttered.Compare these two sentences:
I saw John today and asked John if John prefers sugar in John's tea.
I saw John today and asked him if he prefers sugar in his tea.
The latter sounds much more natural.
Some personal pronouns change their form according to where they are in the sentence. This differs from language to language.
