Types of Pronouns:

English grammar has nine types of pronouns. These are made on the bases of various situations. Majorly, on the basis of position of noun in a sentence, case of noun, type of noun and role of noun.

Let us have a look at the brief description of each type of pronoun.

PERSONAL PRONOUN:

The word ‘personal’ means belonging to a particular person. Similarly, personal pronouns are used in place of those nouns, which are humans, thing, or a group of humans. Personal pronouns help in avoiding the repetition of the name of a person or thing which is already mentioned before.

Some personal pronouns are- I, We, My, Our, Ours, He, She, It, They, Their, You and Yours.

They vary according to the gender of the noun, person of the noun, noun number and the case of the noun.

Examples:

Shaun is my student. Shaun is fifteen years old.
Shaun is my student. He is fifteen years old.

My name is Samantha. Samantha loves basketball.
My name is Samantha. She loves basketball.

DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUN:

There only four demonstrative pronouns: This, That, These, Those.

These pronouns are used to point towards a specific noun in the space domain. Sometimes demonstrative pronouns are also used to emphasise an already mentioned noun.

This and That are used for singular nouns, and These and Those are used for plural nouns.

Also, This and These are used for closer spatial distance (near) and That and Those are used for distant spatial distance (far).

Examples:

Is this the movie you were talking about yesterday?
Those are a rare variety of mangoes, only found in north India.
That was the time when we just started our business and faced a great loss.

REFLEXIVE PRONOUN:

Reflexive pronouns are used as objects in a sentence when we have the same noun as subject and object. They can be either direct or indirect objects. Reflexive pronouns are formed by adding -self (singular) or -selves (plural) at the end of certain personal pronouns.

Singular: Myself, Himself, Herself, Itself, Yourself

Plural: Yourselves, Themselves, Ourselves

They can be objects of both transitive and intransitive verbs. They can also be objects of prepositions.

Examples:

The team avenged itself of the past defeat by winning three straight matches.
She gave herself one more chance to become a successful entrepreneur.
You can redeem yourself in the next test.

EMPHATIC PRONOUN:

Emphatic pronouns are used emphasize the subject. They intensify the subject to show that the subject does an action. Thus, they are also known as Intensive Pronouns. Emphatics pronouns are nothing but reflexive pronouns with a changed role.

These are also formed by adding -self (singular) or -selves (plural) at the end of certain personal pronouns. They depend on the number and gender of the noun.

Singular: Myself, Himself, Herself, Itself, Yourself

Plural: Yourselves, Themselves, Ourselves

Examples:

The teacher herself is sick and had taken two days off.
Our son himself paid his college fees.
She decorated the room and prepared the meal herself.

RELATIVE PRONOUN:

Relative pronouns, as their name suggests they show the relation of a noun or pronoun preceding them with the rest of the sentence. They relate a noun or pronoun with a piece of extra information with the help of relative clauses.

Words like who, whom, which, that, whose are some common relative pronouns. Other relative pronouns are when, where, whoever, whatever, whenever, wherever, and whichever.

Examples:

They saw the man who was missing for the last two years.
They purchased the same Hyundai car, which we bought last month.
Meet Jonathan, he is the writer whose book you were reading last week.

INTERROGATIVE PRONOUN:

Interrogative pronouns are pronouns used for making questions about an unknown noun. They replace that unknown noun in the sentence and thus form a question.

In English, there are five interrogative pronouns: Who, Whom, Which, What and Whose.

Interrogative pronouns can also act as relative pronouns in some cases.

Examples:

What are you looking for in your dream house?
Which place in Asia are you planning to visit next year?
Your mother consulted whom for her bloating issue?

INDEFINITE PRONOUN:

Indefinite pronouns point to some unspecified noun. They never talk of a unique known rather give an idea about it, Though they make it the noun talked about quite obvious.

We use them when we want to refer to the number of nouns but not as a group, rather individually.

Each, Every, Everybody, Several, Everyone, Somebody, Someone, Something, Anybody, Anyone, Anything, Nobody, No one, Nothing and None are some of the indefinite pronouns.

Examples:

Several voted against her, and so she lost the position of president.
You should call someone to fix it for you.
Everyone was satisfied with his score and performance in the exams.

DISTRIBUTIVE PRONOUN:

Pronouns that distribute the effect of the verb on more than one person or thing taken one at a time are known as distributive pronouns. They refer to more than one nouns but not as a group, rather individually. These pronouns talk about particular members of a group.

Each, Either, and Neither are the distributive pronouns.

‘Each’ is used to refer to each member of a large group.

‘Either’ is used when the quantity of the nouns being referred to is two. It means one of the two.

‘Neither’ is also used when the quantity of the noun being referred to is two. It is negative of either. It means no one out of the two nouns.

Examples:

She told me to select either of the two books.
The teacher scolded each of the students who failed to submit his project.
Neither of them responded to my call.

RECIPROCAL PRONOUN:

Reciprocal pronouns are used to refer to nouns that mutually perform and experience a verb.

Word reciprocal means ‘did in return‘. It also means equal and opposite. And so is the use of reciprocal pronouns.

‘Each other’ and ‘One another’ are the two reciprocal pronouns. Each other is used when we are talking about two nouns. And when we are talking about more than two, we use One another.

Examples:

All the members of the association came together to help one another in these tough times.
Both brothers looked after each other after their parent’s death.