In English grammar, pronouns are a type of generic noun that can represent any other noun. Their job is to make communication faster and more efficient because you don’t have to repeat the same word over and over again. Some pronoun examples include:
- I
- me
- us
- you
- themselves
- who
- that
Pronouns are one of the eight traditional parts of speech, and they are also sometimes understood as making up a small subcategory of nouns. The distinguishing characteristic of pronouns is that they can be substituted for nouns. For instance, if you’re telling a story about your sister Sarah, the story will begin to sound repetitive if you keep saying or writing Sarah over and over again:
Sarah has always loved fashion. Sarah announced that Sarah wants to go to fashion school.
You could try to mix it up by sometimes referring to Sarah as “my sister,” but then it sounds like you’re referring to two different people:
Sarah has always loved fashion. My sister announced that Sarah wants to go to fashion school.
Instead, you can use the pronoun she to refer to Sarah after introducing her:
Sarah has always loved fashion. She announced that she wants to go to fashion school.
Pronouns can replace both proper and common nouns. Certain pronouns have specific rules about when they can be used, such as the way it should never be used to refer to a human being. We explain all of the different types and their associated rules below. Notice that some pronouns (such as which and whose) can function as more than one type, depending on how they’re deployed in a sentence.
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