Pronoun Fact Sheet

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Section: ____

Date: ____________________

6^th Grade English

Pronouns

1. A pronoun stands in for a noun or noun phrase..

a. A pronoun's antecedent is the noun or noun phrase it refers to.

b. Pronouns can make your writing flow more smoothly, and make it less choppy.

c. Pronouns can also be confusing if the antecedent is not clear.

d. The test for a pronoun is to replace it with a noun or (sometimes) to try adding the articles "a" or "the" before it.

e. There are five types of pronoun: personal, demonstrative, indefinite, relative, and interrogative.

2. Personal pronouns

a. Stand in for a specific noun or noun phrase.

b. Can have person, number, and case.

i. person: the speaker, the person being spoken to, and the person being spoken about.

ii. number: singular (one) or plural (more than one)

iii. case: subjective, objective, possessive, reflexive, and intensive.

1. subjective: acting as the subject of a sentence, or the predicate nominative.

2. objective: acting as the object of a sentence or prepositional phrase. To figure out what the objective case of a personal pronoun is, put "to" in front of it.

3. possessive: showing ownership. Possessive pronouns never use apostrophes. "its" causes many problems to writers.

4. reflexive: showing action on the self.

5. intensive: used to emphasize or distinguish. A test for the intensive is to leave the "self" word out. If the sentence still makes sense, it's intensive.

6. pronouns show case with inflection, or changes in form.

c. Sometimes "it" is not a pronoun, but an expletive

3. Demonstrative pronouns point out a specific noun.

a. There are only four demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, and those.

b. Show closeness (this and these are closer than that and those)

c. Can act like nouns or adjectives.

4. Indefinite pronouns

a. Are used to take the place of a noun that can't be named specifically.

b. Include the –one, -body, and –thing pronouns: anyone, anybody, anything, someone, somebody, something, everyone, everybody, everything, no one, nobody, nothing.

c. Includes number and amount words, such as another, enough, many, each, either, both, none, little, much, most, and the cardinal and ordinal numbers such as one, first, two, second, ten, tenth, and so on.

d. Can have possessive case.

e. Some are singular, some are plural, and some could be either. If it ends in –one, -body, or –thing, it is always singular.

f. Do not have gender. People argue over whether to write, "Everyone will get his turn," or "Everyone will get their turn." (or his or her turn)

5. Relative pronouns.

a. Are used to join clauses

b. Include who, whose, whom, which, and that.

c. Who, whose, and whom are used for people, and have case like personal pronouns.

i. "who" is subjective case.

ii. "whose" is possessive case.

iii. "whom" is objective case.

d. Which is used for nonrestrictive clauses, and set off with commas.

e. That is used for restrictive clauses and not set off with commas.

f. Often, the relative pronoun "that" is left out, but it is still understood.

6. Interrogative pronouns

a. Are used to ask a question.

b. Include who, whom, whose, which, and what.

c. Who, whose, whom, and which are interrogative when they are used to ask a question and relative when they are used to join clauses.

d. Just as with the relative pronouns, who, whose, and whom have case.

Notes:

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Pronoun Vocabulary:

antecedent............................... The word to which a pronoun refers. Pronounced "AN-tee-see-dent."

cardinal................................... A number or quantity

case........................................ The way a pronoun shows its function in a sentence.

demonstrative.......................... Pointing out something.

gender..................................... Male, female, or neuter.

indefinite.................................. Substituted for something unknown.

inflection.................................. changes in form of a word to show its function in a sentence. Pronouns are inflected to show case.

interrogative............................. Asking a question.

nonrestrictive........................... Not essential to a sentence's meaning.

number.................................... Singular (one) or plural (more than one)

objective................................. Acting as the object of a verb or prepositional phrase.

ordinal..................................... Showing the order of something.

person..................................... The role played by a pronoun: The speaker (first), the one spoken to (second), or the one being spoken about (third). Can also describe the point of view in writing.

personal.................................. A personal pronoun talks about a specific thing or individual.

possessive............................... Showing ownership or relation.

pronoun:.................................. A word standing in for a noun or noun phrase.

reflexive................................... Objective pronouns used when the subject and the object are the same thing.

relative.................................... A pronoun referring to a noun in another clause of the sentence.

restrictive................................. Essential to the meaning of a sentence.

subjective................................ Used as the subject of a sentence, or in the predicate nominative.

Personal Pronoun Inflection

	Subjective		Objective		Possessive		Reflexive		Intensive
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1^st	I	we	me	us	my, mine	our, ours	myself	ourselves	myself	ourselves
2^nd	you	you	you	you	your, yours	your, yours	yourself	yourselves	yourself	yourselves
3^rd	he, she, it	they	him, her, it	them	his, her, hers, its	their, theirs	himself, herself, itself	themselves	himself, herself, itself	themselves

Relative and Interrogative Pronoun Inflection

Subjective	Objective	Possessive
who	whom	whose