Pronouns and Antecedents
"Use personal, possessive, and demonstrative pronouns accurately in context."
A Today you'll learn
- Use personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, they) and object pronouns (me, him, her, us, them) correctly
- Understand the noun a pronoun replaces (antecedent)
- Ensure agreement in number (singular/plural) and gender between pronouns and antecedents
B Let's understand
A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun to prevent repetitive, clunky sentences. Instead of saying "Vikram called Vikram’s dog because Vikram wanted to feed the dog," we say "Vikram called his dog because he wanted to feed it." The noun that a pronoun refers to or replaces is called its antecedent. Pronouns must agree with their antecedents in number (singular pronouns for singular nouns, plural for plural) and gender (he/him for males, she/her for females, it for objects and animals). Subject pronouns do the action (he, she, they), while object pronouns receive the action (him, her, them).
C See it step by step
- Pronouns: "she" and "them".
- "she" replaces the singular female noun "Mira". (Antecedent: Mira).
- "them" replaces the plural noun "glasses". (Antecedent: glasses).
- Test by removing "My brother and": Would you say "I built" or "Me built"?
- "I built a sandcastle" is correct because it is the subject of the sentence.
- Correct: "My brother and I built a sandcastle."
D Your turn
E Ready to practise?
Key idea 1
Pronouns take the place of nouns to avoid repetition.
Key idea 2
The antecedent is the noun that the pronoun refers back to.
Subject pronouns
Subject pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, they.
Object pronouns
Object pronouns: me, you, him, her, it, us, them.
Key idea 5
Singular nouns take singular pronouns; plural nouns take plural pronouns.