Pronouns are stand-in words. They take the place of nouns so we don't have to repeat the same name over and over — turning "Maria put Maria's coat in Maria's locker" into something much smoother.
A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. Without pronouns, we'd repeat names constantly. The noun a pronoun stands in for is called its antecedent.
Here, Maria is the antecedent, and the pronouns she and her point back to her. Read it without pronouns — "Maria grabbed Maria's coat because Maria was cold" — and you can hear why we need them!
Wondering if a word is a pronoun? Ask: "Could I replace a name or noun with it?" If a word stands in for someone or something already mentioned — like he, it, or they — it's a pronoun.
Pronouns come in several families, each with a different job:
Stand in for people or things: I, you, he, she, it, we, they
Show ownership, standing alone: mine, yours, hers, ours, theirs
Point back to the subject: myself, yourself, herself, themselves
Point things out: this, that, these, those
Ask questions: who, whom, whose, what, which
Refer to no one in particular: someone, anyone, everything, nobody
Personal pronouns change form depending on their job in the sentence. A subject pronoun does the action; an object pronoun receives it.
| Subject (does the action) | Object (receives the action) |
|---|---|
| I called. | Call me. |
| He won. | We cheered for him. |
| She sang. | We heard her. |
| We left. | They saw us. |
| They arrived. | I met them. |
Not sure whether to say "Jake and I" or "Jake and me"? Try the pronoun alone. "Me went to the park" sounds wrong, so it's "Jake and I went." But "She called I" is wrong, so it's "She called Jake and me."
This is the big overlap with adjectives. Possessive words come in two flavors, and the difference is where they sit.
It describes a noun, so it's working as an adjective: "my book," "their house." (More on these on the Adjectives page.)
It replaces the noun entirely, so it's a pronoun: "That book is mine," "The house is theirs."
| Before a noun (adjective) | Stands alone (pronoun) |
|---|---|
| my book | that is mine |
| your hat | the hat is yours |
| her bike | the bike is hers |
| our team | the team is ours |
| their dog | the dog is theirs |
Possessive pronouns never use apostrophes. Watch these mix-ups: its (belonging to it) vs it's (it is), your vs you're (you are), and their vs they're (they are). If you can swap in "it is" or "you are," use the apostrophe one!
A reflexive pronoun ends in -self or -selves and points back to the subject — used when someone does something to themselves.
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
| myself | ourselves |
| yourself | yourselves |
| himself, herself, itself | themselves |
"Hisself" and "theirselves" are not standard English — the correct forms are himself and themselves. And don't use a reflexive when a plain pronoun will do: say "between you and me," not "between you and myself."
A pronoun must agree with its antecedent — the noun it replaces. If the noun is plural, the pronoun must be plural too. And the antecedent should always be clear.
"When Sam met Tom, he smiled." — but who smiled? When a pronoun could point to more than one antecedent, rewrite it so there's no confusion: "Sam smiled when he met Tom."
Click or tap every pronoun in each sentence — the words standing in for nouns. When you've found them all, check your answer!
Skip the possessives my, your, his, her, our, and their. They come before a noun, so they're acting as adjectives here — tapping one won't help or hurt your score.