8th Class English Pronouns Introduction

    Introduction

Pronoun is a word which is used in the place of noun.  

See the following sentence where pronouns are not used:

Steve saw a snake in the garden, this snake Steve thought would hurt Steve, unless Steve killed the snake with a stick, this stick Steve had in Steve's hand. The above given sentences appear very poor because of the repetition of noun.  

See the following sentence where pronouns have been used to avoid the repetition of noun.

Steve saw a snake in the garden, which he thought would hurt him, unless he killed it with a stick which he had in his hand.

Now the same sentence appears as a proper one.  

      Points to keep in mind

• Since a Pronoun is used instead of a Noun, it must be something equivalent to a Noun.
• Since a Pronoun is used instead of a Noun, it must be of the same number: gender, and person as the Noun it stands for.  

      Look at the following sentences:

(i) The principal rewarded Steve because of his academic excellence.

(ii) James purchased a laptop. It cost him Rs.40000.

(iii) Serena runs a shop in the vicinity of her town. Actually she owns this shop.

In the above given sentences, the words his, it and she have been used in places of Steve, laptop and Serena (all Nouns). All these words are pronouns.  

NOTE: A Pronoun can be used as a subject and as an object.