pronouns Personal Pronouns are a subset of pronouns which stand in for people, places, things and ideas Personal Pronouns • When we replace proper nouns, we use personal pronouns: • Alice looked at Alice's reflection in the mirror before washing Alice • She looked at her reflection in the mirror before washing herself OBJECT PRONOUNS When we replace object of a sentence, we use object pronouns (me / you/ her/ him / it / us , you them) • Alice looked at the cat Alice looked at it • John is looking for Mary John is looking for her • William took the ball and then he kicked it Possessive Adjectives We use possessive adjectives with nouns to show possession or ownership There are seven possessive adjectives in the English language: • my (sth belongs to me - I own it) • your (sth belongs to you (singular) - you own it) • his (sth belongs to him - he owns it) • her (sth belongs to her - she owns it) • its (sth belongs to it - it owns it) • our (sth belongs to us - we own it) • your (sth belongs to your (plural) - you own it) • their (sth belongs to them - they own it) • Her hair is beautiful • I like her smile Possessive Pronouns • Possessive pronouns are pronouns used to show ownership They tell us who owns what • mine (sth belongs to me - I own it) • yours (sth belongs to you (singular) - you own it) • his (sth belongs to him - he owns it) • hers (sth belongs to her - she owns it) • its (sth belongs to it - it owns it) • ours (sth belongs to us - we own it) • yours (sth belongs to your (plural) - you own it) • theirs (sth belongs to them - they own it) • As with all pronouns, possessive pronouns replace a noun (the word pronoun comes from Latin and means in place of a noun) In fact, pronouns are used to avoid repetition • This is my bag That’s hers Reflexive Pronouns • A reflexive pronoun is a special kind of pronoun used to talk about the same person or thing that was mentioned in the subject: • Alice looked at herself in the mirror • They enjoyed themselves at the beach • We use reflexive pronouns when the person who does something, and the person who has something done, are the same Note the difference between: • They looked at each other • They looked at themselves In the first example, each person looked at the other people; In the second example the each person looked only at himself or herself These are some examples of the reflexive use: • I hope you enjoy yourself on holiday • Can I have a biscuit, please? - Go on, help yourself • I'm going out now, children, so behave yourselves • We use reflexive pronouns to give emphasis to the subject, to stress that the subject worked alone • I did all this work myself • She designed all the decorations herself