The Use of Pronouns:Why do we use pronouns?

The Use of Pronouns:                   

Why do we use pronouns?

Read the following sentences:

Monika gets up early in the morning. Monika, first of all, washes her face. Then Monika goes to a nearby park. Monika does jogging exercises….

The answer is clear if you have read the above sentences carefully.

You must have seen the repetition of the word Monika.

The repetition of the word Monika is odd in the above sentences. It is against the rules of grammar.

 This word ‘Monika’ is a noun and the word which should be used in its place is Pronoun ‘she’

Conclusion: When the speaker does not want to repeat the same name being used again and again, in that case, pronouns are used.

What is a Pronoun?

The words which are used in place of nouns are called pronouns.

There are eight kinds of pronouns:

1. Personal Pronouns: These pronouns are used in place of persons or things.

Examples: He, she, it, I, you, etc.

2. Demonstrative Pronouns: These pronouns are used to indicate towards the things or the persons. Examples: These are rotten mangoes. This is my friend, Amit.

3. Interrogative Pronouns:     These pronouns are used to make questions.

Examples: What, who , which, etc.

·      What do you want?

·      Whom do you want to meet?

4. Reflexive Pronouns: These are used to lay stress on the pronouns.

      Examples: myself, yourself, himself, etc.

·      I, myself, distributed all the invitation cards.

5. Possessive Pronouns: Such pronouns show possession.

Examples:   his,  hers, yours, mine, , theirs, etc. This book is mine.

6. Indefinite pronouns: These pronouns are used in place of nouns that are not definite or specific in number, for example, all, many, several, etc.

The following words are used as both indefinite pronouns and determiners.

These are: all, some, many, everyone, everybody, each, several, none, either, neither, anyone, nobody, etc. Examples: All were present in the meeting. (All= pronoun),

All the boys were present in the class. (all= determiner)

7. Relative Pronouns: These are the pronouns as well as conjunctions. They establish the relationship of a noun with the one preceding it.

  For example,

·      The boy who is wearing a red cap is Mr. Khanna’s son.

   Relation: The boy who (the boy) is wearing……………………………..

  The other relative pronouns are: which, whose, whom, that

Let us discuss all the pronouns one by one.

1. Personal Pronouns:

See the table below:

Pronouns	Used as a subject	Used as an object	Used as possessive	Reflexive form	Remarks
First Person	I (singular) We (plural)	me us	mine ours	myself ourselves	--------
Second Person Singular Plural	You    (singular) You (plural)	you you	yours  yours	yourself yourselves	---------
Third Person Singular	He She It They(plural)	him her Its them	his hers Its theirs	himself herself itself themselves	---------

Nouns: Its Types and Functions

Nouns (Source: S. Chauhan Institute of English)

All words come in the category of  Parts of Speech in English

 language.

These are: Noun, Pronoun, Adjective, Verb, Adverb,

Preposition, Conjunction and Interjection

 Let us discuss each category of the words.

1. Noun

The name of a thing, a person, a place and an idea is called a noun.

Types of Nouns

1. Proper Noun 2. Common Noun 3. Collective Nouns  4. Abstract Noun

1. Proper Noun

1. The name of a particular or specific person, an institution,

 and a place is called

proper noun.

A proper noun always begins with a capital letter.

For example:

Names of persons: Mohan, Sohan, Rita, etc.

Names of places: Delhi, Calcutta, Ambala, etc.

Names of institutions: Kurukshetra University Kurukshetra,

 D.A.V. College, etc.

2. Common Noun: A common noun is the name given to include

the persons or the

things of the same kind.

For example

Car, truck, table, tree, hospital, temple, school. man, dog, etc.

 3. Collective Noun: The words which are used to denote or represent a collection of persons or things are called collective nouns. For example: Army, crowd, flock, fleet, etc.

1. Army is a collection of soldiers.

2. Crowd or a mob is a collection or group of people.

3. Flock is a collection of animals ,especially of sheep or birds

4. Fleet is a collection of ships.

5. A number of artistes, dancers, acrobats:  troupe

6. A number of ladies  : Bevy

7. A number of bees  :    swarm

8 A collection of books :   library

9. A number of cattle, swine   herd

10. A number of chicken hatched at the same time:    brood

11 A number of directors of a company:    board

12. A number of drawers :    chest

13. A collection of fish :   shoal/school

14.  A collection of flowers     :   bunch/ bouquet

15. A number of fruit trees :  orchard

16. A number of geese:  gaggle

17. A collection of grapes, bananas, keys:  bunch

18.A number of hounds, wolves: pack

19. A number of judges  :   bench

20. A number of people at a religious meeting: congregation

21. A number of people listening to a musical show

  or concert :   audience

22.A number of people watching a match :  spectators

23. A number of people collected or gathered

24. without any specific purpose   :   crowd

25. A number  of people gathered for

26. some common purpose:   assembly

27. A number of people gathered

   for some destructive purpose:  mob

28.A number of savage people:  horde

29.A number of pigs, puppies :  litter

30. A number of players, oxen or horses

yoked together:  team

31.A set of rooms  :  suite /swit/

32. A number of sailors  :  crew

33. A number of sheep :  flock

34.A number of ships, cars      :    fleet

35. A number of soldiers :  army, troop: battalion, regiment

36. A number of stars:  constellation

37.A collection of sticks  :   bundle

38.A number of thieves   : pack

39.A number of trees  :    clump

40. A collection of wood, hay piled together: stack

 

Abstract Noun:

It is the name given to a quality, an idea or a thought, an action

 and a state or condition.

For example:

Sympathy, kindness, truth, wisdom, smile, theft, attack

Abstract nouns are formed by adjectives, verbs and also from

common nouns.

For example: kind- kindness, honest - honesty,

Obey -  obedience,  grow -  growth

Child -  childhood,  mother -  motherhood

Nouns have further classification:

Number:     (a) Singular noun: a boy, a girl      

(b) Plural noun : boys, girls

Gender:      (a) Masculine Gender: boy     (b) Feminine Gender: girl

Pick out the nouns from the following sentences:

Test Exercise

1. Our cricket team should not play for the crowd.

2. Always believe in truth.

3. Why don’t you attend your class regularly?

4. He is a lecturer in Physics.

5. The committee will decide the case.

6. He was rewarded for his bravery.

7. Failures are the stepping stones to success.

8. Charity begins at home.

9. I love to remember the days of my childhood.

10.  Hope sustains life.

Characteristics of Nouns:

1. Nouns can be countable and uncountable

Countable

2. Countable Nouns can be singular and plural

3. Nouns can be in Feminine and Masculine Gender

4. Nouns can be the subject, object and complement to a subject

or an object

Nouns can be countable and uncountable

Countable Nouns: chair, book, rupee, car, bench, etc.

Uncountable Nouns: anger, honesty, money

Countable Nouns can be singular and plural

Singular Nouns            Plural Nouns

Pen                                Pens

Ox                                 Oxen

Woman                        Women

Man                              Men

Gentleman                   Gentlemen

Nouns can be in Feminine and Masculine Gender

Boy                   Girl

Man                Woman

Ox                    Cow

Cock                Hen

Nouns can be the subject, object and complement to a subject or an object

Noun as a Subject:

This boy is very sweet.

They have not done their work.

My elder brother studies in class XII.

determiners/Adjectives     Real subject

This                                     Boy

------                                   They(Pronoun)

My elder                             brother

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Nouns as objects:

He has helped me.

I am writing a letter.

He gave me a book to read.

I need your help

Determiners/adjectives               objects (real)

------                                                   me

a                                                         letter

a                                                         book

your                                                   help

Nouns as subject complements:

She is a teacher.

My friend is very sad these days.

This is not a right approach.

It is not true.

Subject                       Complement

She                              a teacher

My friend                    very sad

This                             a right  approach

 

Formation of Nouns

Abstract nouns can be formed by adding suffixes, such as,

acy, age, ance, al, dom, ence, hood, ity, ice, ment, ness, ship, sion, th, tion, ty, y,

Private      Privacy     short      shortage      break    breakage     arrive     arrival

Assist      assistance king      kingdom     absent    absence        boy         boyhood

Equal        equality     moral    morality      coward   cowardice   pay        payment

Blind         blindness friend    friendship   decide    decision       bear       birth

Act            action        repeat   repetition   loyal      loyalty          unite      unity

Some other abstract nouns

Verbs/ Adjectives    Abstract Nouns             Verbs              Abstract Nouns

Advise                   advice                      bind                 bond                     choose                   choice                do                      deed

Feed                        food                                       fly                   flight

Go                           gait                                        high                 height

Know                      knowledge                           lend                  loan

Lose                       loss                                       practise            practice

Prove                      proof                                    shake                shock

Sow                        seed                                      strike                stroke

Weigh                     weight                                 believe            belief

Brave                      bravery                               depart              departure

Fail                          failure                                  flow                flood

Give                        gift                                       hate                 hatred

Hot                         heat                                     laugh               laughter

Live                        life                                       please              pleasure

proud                    pride                                    see                   sight

sit                           seat                                   speak               speech

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOUNS PLURAL IN FORM USED AS PLURAL	PLURAL IN FORM USED AS SINGULAR	ONLY  SINGULAR FORM
These nouns have two parts but are joined together: Scissors, tongs, Pincers, spectacles, bellows, gallows, trousers, shoes, breeches, shorts, knickers, braces , Nouns used in plural are: premises, wages, intestines Thanks, assets, odds, remains, goods, annals, gallows,  the Himalayas, orders, and some adjectives used as nouns such as the old, the poor, the rich, etc.	News, physics, mathematics, innings, politics, summons, Economics, etc.	Advice, furniture, information,  luggage, nonsense, progress, rubbish, weather, fruit, audience, poetry, hair, advice, mischief, alphabet, abuse, scenery, issue, fleet, brick and stone, bread and butter, bread, on foot, machinery, work Note: never put a or an before them directly.