Chapter 3

Pronouns
Grammar
Generally (but not always) pronouns stand for (pro + noun) or refer to a noun (an individual or individuals
or thing or things). What it refers to becomes the pronoun’s antecedent whose identity is made clear earlier
in the text.
Sheetal is a good girl. She does not hurt anyone.
But not always,
They say that eating beef is bad for you.
They is a pronoun referring to someone, but who are they? Cows? Whom do they represent? Sloppy use of
pronouns is when the antecedent is not made clear.
However, not all pronouns will refer to an antecedent. When the meaning is clear the use is not sloppy or
unfair.
Everyone here is appearing for CAT.
The pronoun everyone has no antecedent.

Kinds of Pronouns: Personal, Demonstrative; Indefinite; Relative; Reflexive; Intensive; Interrogative;

Reciprocal. There are a few more. We will look at them too.

Personal Pronouns
I, You, He/She, It - (Singular) We, You, They (Plural) are personal pronouns. Depending on their function in
a sentence they have case, as tabulated below. A noun ‘cat’ is also shown for comparison.

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Usage Notes on Pronouns
Unlike English nouns, which usually do not change form except for the addition of an ‘s’ ending to create
the plural or the apostrophe + s (Cat’s) to create the possessive, personal pronouns (which stand for persons
or things) change form according to their various uses in a sentence.
Thus I is used as the subject of a sentence (I am happy.), me is used as an object in various ways (He hit
me, He gave me a book, Do this for me), and my is used as the possessive form (That’s my car).
The same is true of the other personal pronouns: the singular you and he/she/it and the plural you, they, and
we. These forms are called cases.
Personal pronouns can also be characterized or distinguished by person. First person refers to the speaker(s)
or writer(s) (‘I’ for singular, ‘we’ for plural). Second person refers to the person or people being spoken or
written to (‘you’ for both singular and plural). Third person refers to the person or people being spoken or
written about (‘he’, ‘she’, and ‘it’ for singular, ‘they’ for plural).
The person of a pronoun is also demonstrated in the chart above — Cases of the Personal Pronouns. As you
will see there, each person can change form, reflecting its use within a sentence. Thus, ‘I’ becomes ‘me’
when used as an object (She left me) and ‘my’ when used in its possessive role (That’s my car); ‘they’
becomes ‘them’ in object form (I like them) and ‘their’ in possessive (That’s just their way).

Subject and Object Pronouns

Object pronoun is used in two contexts:
1. As the object of a verb
2. As the object of a preposition.
As the object of the verb, which requires something else to complete its meaning. An example is:
He loves her.
(He loves what? — The verb needs an object to complete its meaning. If a pronoun is used, the object form
is called for. The grammatical object is the answer to the question what? put to the verb.)
As the object of a preposition (which requires something else to complete its meaning — and prepositions
will always require an object) an example is:

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 He is crazy after her.
He is crazy after what? — the preposition ‘after’ requires an object to complete the meaning of the
sentence. If you use a pronoun, the object form is called for.
There are no other instances in English where an object pronoun is used.
Correct: Mandar is taller than Manish
Incorrect: He is taller than me.
Correct: He is taller than I.
In the first sentence you have two nouns — the object and the subject forms do not vary. In the second
sentence you have two pronouns. The first one He is the subject, the second is neither the object of any
verb, not is there a preposition in the sentence. The use of the object case cannot be justified. In fact, the
second pronoun I is the subject of the abbreviated clause ‘I am tall’ that follows the conjunction than.
Which of these sentences is/are correct?
He would rather talk to her than I
He would rather talk to her than me.
Through these sentences what am I really trying to say? Am I trying to say, ‘He would rather talk to her
than to me’ or am I saying that ‘He would rather talk to her than I would’? As you can see, the meaning
will change depending on the pronoun you choose. Both the above sentences are correct, only they mean
different things.

‘It is I’ or ‘It is me’?

What follows any form of the verb ‘be’ is called its complement. In other words, verbs -— be, being, am,
is, was, are, were, has, have, had (forms of ‘be’) are followed by a complement and not an object. Hence,
an object pronoun is a misuse after such verbs.
Correct: It is I
Incorrect: It is me.
You will get better clarity on this if you try to continue this sentence, like, ‘It is I who came first’… or, ‘It
is me who came first…’ etc. You will most probably see that it is ridiculous to continue ‘me who…’

More on Subject vs Object Pronouns

When a personal pronoun is connected by a conjunction to another noun or pronoun, its case does not
change. We would write
I am taking a course in C++
If Priya is also taking that course, we would write
Priya and I are taking a course in C++
(Notice that Priya gets listed before ‘I’ does. This is one of the few ways in which English is a ‘polite’
language.)
The same is true when the object form is called for:
Professor Srinivas gave all his books to me.
If Priya also received some books, we’d write:
Professor Srinivas gave all his books to Priya and me.

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When a pronoun and a noun are combined (which will happen with the plural first- and second-person
pronouns), choose the case of the pronoun that would be appropriate if the noun were not there.
We students are demanding that the administration give us two hours for lunch.
The administration has managed to put us students in a bad situation.
With the second person, we don’t really have a problem because the subject form is the same as the object
form, ‘you’:
You students are demanding too much.
We expect you students to behave like adults.

The difference between ‘my’ and ‘mine’

Among the possessive pronoun forms, there is also what is called the nominative possessive: mine, yours,
ours, theirs.
This house is yours.
Theirs is really dirty.
Ours is beautiful
This new house is mine.
The difference between the two types of possessives (refer to the table) e.g. my and mine is that one (my)
will always precede the noun (as in my book) and the other (mine) will always follow the noun ( .. book is
mine).
This is my pen.
This pen is mine.
Words like, my, our …, etc. also qualify the nouns. They serve two purposes. They are used instead of
nouns and they qualify certain nouns. Therefore, besides being pronouns they are also termed as possessive
adjectives or pronominal adjectives.
The difference between Possessive adjective and a Possessive pronoun can be easily understood in the
above two sentences.

‘this’ and ‘that’ grammatically

this/that/these/those/such are called demonstrative pronouns. They can also function as determiners.
As pronouns, they identify or point to nouns.
That is incredible! (referring to something you just saw)
I will never forget this. (referring to a recent experience)
Such is my belief. (referring to an explanation just made)
When used as subjects, the demonstratives, in either singular or plural form, can be used to refer to objects
as well as persons.
This is my father.
That is my book.

who/whoever/which/that
The relative pronouns (who/whoever/which/that) relate groups of words to nouns or other pronouns
The student who studies hardest usually does the best.

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The word who ‘connects or relates’ the subject, student, to the verb (studies). That is why they are called
relative pronouns.
Choosing correctly between which and that and between who and whom leads to what are probably the
most Frequently Asked Questions about English grammar.
Generally, we use which to introduce clauses that are parenthetical in nature (i.e., that can be removed from
the sentence without changing the essential meaning of the sentence). For that reason, a ‘which’ clause is
often set off with a comma or a pair of commas. ‘That’ clauses, on the other hand, are usually deemed
indispensable for the meaning of a sentence and are not set off with commas. The pronoun which refers to
things; who (and its forms) refers to people; that usually refers to things, but it can also refer to people in a
general kind of way. With this preamble let us look at the usage concerns about who, that, and which.

‘who’, ‘which’, or ‘that’?

Who refers to people. That and which refer to groups or things.
Roy is the professor who teaches us quant.
She belongs to an organization that specializes in information systems.
That introduces essential clauses while which introduces nonessential clauses.
I do not like Hindi movies that are copies of English movies.
We would not know which Hindi movies are being discussed without the clause (copies of English
movies). It would be gross injustice to say that the speaker does not like Hindi movies. He dislikes only the
copies. ‘That’ clauses are hence essential clauses.
To understand the use of which, clearly read the above sentence with which and work out the meaning.
I do not like Hindi movies, which are copies of English movies.
That the speaker does not like Hindi movies at all is what the sentence suggests. It is as if the reason for his
dislike is that they are copies of English movies. Besides, ‘which’ clause can also be separated from the
other clause by a comma. The comma is not possible with the ‘that’ clause.
If that has already been used in the sentence, use which to introduce the essential clause that follows.
Correct: That is a decision which you must live with for the rest of your life.
Incorrect: That is a decision that you must live with for the rest of your life.
If the essential clause starts with this, that, these, or those, use which to connect.
Correct: Those ideas which were discussed on Tuesday will be put in the minutes of the meeting.
Incorrect: Those ideas that were discussed on Tuesday will be put in the minutes of the meeting.
However, if you have an option which begins, ‘The ideas discussed on Tuesday…..’ choose it for your
answer.

‘whoever’ and ‘whomever’

The expanded form of the relative pronouns — whoever, whomever, whichever, whatever — are known as
indefinite relative pronouns. Read these examples to understand why they are called indefinite.
Correct: The IIMs select whomever they like.
Correct: The teacher seemed to say whatever came to mind.
Correct: Whoever crosses this line first will win the race.

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To choose correctly among the forms of who, re-phrase the sentence so you choose between he and him. If
you want him, write whom; if you want he, write who.
Whom did you meet at the Seminar? (Did you meet him at the Seminar?)
Give the prize to whomever you please. (Give the prize to him.)
But a peculiar problem arises when the rephrasing can be done in both ways.
The IIMs issue calls to whomever/whoever has cleared the CAT.
First of all, use the ever suffix when who or whom can fit into two clauses in the sentence. Rephrasing it
with he/him, you get
The IIMs issue calls to him. He has cleared the CAT.
Because we can substitute ‘him’ and ‘he’ in both the clauses, we must use the ‘ever’ suffix. Now, to
determine whether to use whoever or whomever, follow this rule: him + he = whoever; him + him =
whomever
Therefore,
Correct: The IIMs issue calls to whoever has cleared the CAT.
We will hire whoever/whomever you recommend.
Rephrasing you get,
We will hire him. You recommend him.
Correct: We will hire whomever you recommend.

‘every one’ or ‘everyone’?

The indefinite pronouns (everybody/anybody/somebody/all/each/every/some/none/one) do not substitute for
specific nouns but function themselves as nouns. Barring all, some and none all these pronouns will take a
singular verb.
Correct: Everyone is eagerly awaiting the CAT.
Though ‘everyone’ feels plural a plural verb creates an error with ‘every’. (Everybody is present.). Think
of it as ‘every single one’.
When you use ‘everyone’ it means ‘everybody’. When you use ‘every one…’ it is followed by of. ‘Every
one of the boys… ‘.
The indefinite pronoun none can be either singular or plural, depending on its context. None is nearly
always plural except when something else in the sentence makes us regard it as a singular, as in ‘None of
the food is fresh.’ (See subject-verb agreement ‘none’ Chapter 2)
Some can be singular or plural depending on whether it refers to something countable or non-countable.
Correct: Some students were not present
Correct: Some of the milk has been spilt.
With some what follows the of will decide whether the verb is singular or plural.

‘anyone’ or ‘any one’?

The usage issue related to ‘Anyone’ and ‘any one’ is different from that of ‘everyone’ and every one of…’
though they have a lot in common. First, any can take either a singular or plural verb depending on how it
is construed:

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 Correct: Any of these boys is good enough for the leader’s post.
Correct: Are any of these boys good enough for the leader’s post? (here the meaning is ‘are some of
these boys’)
Anyone like ‘everyone’ is always singular. Anyone and anybody are singular terms and always take a
singular verb.
The one word anyone means any individual. Or anybody.
Anyone may enter the class (means any person can enter the class)
Any one may enter the class (means any one person only may enter the class)
When followed by of, as it should be after separating any and one see the difference in meaning. Now,
study these sentences for better clarity.
Correct: Any one of the girls (not anyone) could have reported the matter.
Correct: Have any of the girls (some) reported the matter?
Correct: Any one of the classes (CL, IMS, CF… ) is enough.
Correct: Are any seats available?

‘myself’
The self-pronoun (myself, yourself, herself, ourselves, themselves) have two names: Emphatic (intensive)
Pronouns and Reflexive Pronouns. Though the form is the same it gets different names because the
functions are different.
The emphatic or intensive pronouns is used to add emphasis to the noun.
I myself don’t know the answer
He has completed the work himself.
Reflexive Pronouns are used to indicate that the subject also receives the action of the verb. In other
words the action in the verb reflects to the subject.
Correct: Students who cheat in this exam are only fooling themselves.
Correct: You can congratulate yourself.
Correct: She encouraged herself to do well.
What this means is that whenever there is a reflexive pronoun in a sentence there must be a person to whom
that pronoun can ‘reflect’. In other words, if the reflexive pronoun has nothing to reflect to that sentence
will be incorrect.
Incorrect: Please hand that book to myself (there is no “I” in that sentence for the “myself” to reflect
to).
Incorrect: Manish and myself are responsible for this decision.
Correct: Manish and I are responsible for this decision.
Incorrect: These decisions will be made by myself.
Correct: These decisions will be made by me.
When pronouns are combined, the reflexive will take either the first person
Manish, Srinivas, and I have deceived ourselves into believing in my uncle.
or, when there is no first person, the second person:
You and Manish have deceived yourselves.

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The difference between ‘which’ and ‘what’
The interrogative pronouns (who/which/what) introduce questions.
What is that?
Who will help me?
Which do you prefer?
Which is generally used with more specific reference than what. If we’re taking a quiz and I ask “Which
questions give you the most trouble?”, I am referring to specific questions on that quiz. If I ask “What
questions give you most trouble”? I could be asking what kind of questions on that quiz (or what kind of
question, generically, in general) gives you trouble.

‘each other’ and ‘one another’

The reciprocal pronouns are each other and one another. They are convenient forms for combining ideas.
My mother and I give each other a hard time.
If more than two people are involved (let’s say a family of six members), we would say that they gave one
another a hard time.
This rule (if it is one) should be applied cautiously. It’s quite possible for a whole lot of students in a book
club to exchange books between individuals, making ‘each other’ just as appropriate as ‘one another’.
Reciprocal pronouns can also take possessive forms:
They borrowed each other’s ideas.
The students in Career Launcher often use one another’s books.

On the uses of one

As a pronoun, one can function in an impersonal, objective manner, standing for the writer or for all people
who are like the writer or for the average person or for all people who belong to a class.
If one fails, one must try harder next time.
When the pronoun one is used in the numerical sense, a different pronoun can be used in a subsequent
reference.
One [student] pulled out her kerchief and offered it to him.
However, it is generally regarded as a bad idea to mix the impersonal or generic pronoun one with another
pronoun, especially in the same sentence.
Incorrect: If one fails, then he/you must simply try harder.
One’s Reflexive and Possessive Forms
Correct: One must be conscientious about one’s dental hygiene.
Correct: One must learn from one’s mistakes.
Incorrect: One must be clear about his or her career goal.
Oneself is used in formal writing and speech as the proper reflexive form of one:
If one slipped on this icy walk, one could hurt oneself badly.
The phrases one in and more than one always take a singular verb:
One in four professors recommends this textbook.
There is more than one reason for this.

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 More than one boy has lost his heart to this girl.
Obviously, the one in the phrase more than one controls the number of the verb. (Did someone tell you that
English is sometimes illogical? There is more than one reason to agree.)

Note: The indefinite ‘one’ is another source of trouble and is frequently the cause of disagreeable scenes.
Such a sentence as ‘One loves one’s friends’ is considered by some persons to be stilted, and such persons
insist that ‘One loves his friends’ is permissible. It is not permissible, however, because ‘one’ is indefinite
and ‘his’ is definite and the combination is rhetorically impossible.

A few more usage issues

Pronouns never need apostrophes to show the possessive, though all other nouns need them. (mine, yours,
his, hers, its, ours, theirs). The confusion is mainly with it’s and its. It’s is a contraction of ‘it is’ or ‘it has’.
Correct: It’s a holiday tomorrow. (It is a holiday …..)
Correct: The thermometer reached its highest reading. (possessive)

Agreement in number of the pronouns

The inconsistency in the number (singular/plural) of pronoun use arises mostly when students use the
possessive form.
Incorrect: Not one of the neighbours offered their support.
Correct: None of the neighbours offered their support. OR
Correct: Not one of the neighbours offered support.
Incorrect: In the beginning everyone has problems setting up their personal computer.
Correct: In the beginning everyone has problems setting up his/her personal computer.

Revision Exercise
Choose the correct pronoun. Strike off the wrong word.

1. It was she/her at the window.

2. Payal and she/her have quit CL.
3. They asked he/him and I/me to join the academic team.
4. That call was for I/me, not he/him.
5. An invitation was sent for he/him and she/her.
6. I am as willing as he/him to work hard.
7. Rohit is more nervous than she/her.
8. It will be we/us who decide on this matter.
9. If you were I/me, would you accept the job?
10. One must have faith in himself/herself/ oneself.
11. She is the woman who/whom we employed last year.
12. Of who/whom were you speaking?
13. Who/whom do you think will do the work best?
14. I will vote for whoever/whomever you suggest.
15. Give the information to whoever/whomever requests it.
16. Tonight we shall find out whoever/whomever won.
17. We intend to notify whoever/whomever ranks highest on the list.

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18. These are a few good politicians who/whom I feel, you should acknowledge.
19. The prize will be given to whoever/whomever writes the best essay.
20. Give the recipe for the vegetarian chilli to whoever/whomever calls for it.
21. Books have been discovered that/which address the horrors of Auschwitz.
22. That book about Auschwitz, that/which was discovered in the basement of the library, will be published
next year.
23. That is a book that/which I have not yet read.
24. The law that/which banned logging sandalwood began at the grassroots level.
25. The law to ban logging sandalwood, that/which began at the grassroots level, has gained the attention
of lawmakers at the national level.

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