Pronouns
Pronouns are words like I, me (personal pronouns) or my, mine (possessive pronouns).
| Personal Pronouns | Possessive | Reflexive Pronouns | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| subject | object | adjective | pronoun | ||||
| I | me | my | mine | myself | |||
| You | You | Your | yours | yourself | |||
| He | Him | His | His | himself | |||
| She | Her | Her | Hers | Herself | |||
| It | It | Its | itself | herself | |||
| We | Us | Our | ours | ourselves | |||
| You | You | Your | yours | yourselves | |||
| They | Them | Their | theirs | themselves | |||
Reflexive Pronouns
Relative Pronoun
| Subject | Object | Possessive |
|---|---|---|
| who | who / whom | whose |
| which | which | whose |
| that | that |
- to introduce relative clauses
Uses:
- who and whom - people
- which - things
- that - people and things
Kinds:
- We use relative clauses to make clear which person or thing we are talking about:
Marie Curie is the woman who discovered radium.
This is the house which Jack built.
In this kind of relative clause, we can use that instead of who or which:
Marie Curie is the woman that discovered radium.
This is the house that Jack built.
- We also use relative clauses to give more information about a person, thing or situation Lord Thompson, who is 76, has just retired. We had fish and chips, which I always enjoy. I met Rebecca in town yesterday, which was a nice surprise.
Relative pronouns with Prepositions
When who(m) or which have a preposition, the preposition can come at the beginning of the clause or at the end of the clause I had an uncle in Germany, from who(m) I inherited a bit of money. I had an uncle in Germany, who(m) I inherited a bit of money from. We bought a chainsaw, which we cut all the wood up with. We bought a chainsaw, with which we cut up all the wood.
But when that has a preposition, the preposition always comes at the end: I didn't know the uncle that I inherited the money from. We can't find the chainsaw that we cut all the wood up with.
We can use when with times and where with places to make it clear which time or place we are talking about: England won the World Cup in 1966. It was the year when we got married. I remember my twentieth birthday. It was the day when the tsunami happened. Do you remember the place where we caught the train? Stratford-upon-Avon is the town where Shakespeare was born.
