Practical Spoken English (Basic)

Pronouns are words we use in the place of a full noun.

There are many different kinds of pronouns.

• personal pronouns
• it and there
• you and they
• possessive pronouns (see possessives:- pronouns)
• this, that, these and those
• one and ones
• questions
• reflexive pronouns
• reciprocal pronouns: each other and one another
• indefinite pronouns
• relative pronouns

·         personal pronouns

 

·         Pronouns are words we use in the place of a full noun.

·         We have both subject and object pronouns:

Subject	Object
I	me
you	you
he	him
she	her
it	it
we	us
you	you
they	them

·         We use he/him to refer to men, and she/her to refer to women. When we are not sure if we are talking about a man or a woman we use they/them.

·         This is Jack. He’s my brother. I don’t think you have met him.
This is Angela. She’s my sister. Have you met her before?
Talk to a friend. Ask them to help you.
You could go to a doctor. They might help you.

·         Subject pronouns

·         We use subject pronouns as subject of the verb:

·         I like your dress.
You are late.
He is my friend
It is raining
She is on holiday
We live in England.
They come from London.

Warning
Remember: English clauses always have a subject: His father has just retired. Was a teacher. > He was a teacher. I’m waiting for my wife. Is late.  > She is late. If there is no other subject we use it or there. We call this a dummy subject.

·          Object pronouns

·          We use object pronouns:

·         • as the object of the verb:

·         Can you help me please?
I can see you.
She doesn’t like him.
I saw her in town today.
We saw them in town yesterday, but they didn’t see us.

·         • after prepositions:

·         She is waiting for me.
I’ll get it for you.
Give it to him.
Why are you looking at her?
Don’t take it from us.
I’ll speak to them. 

·         it and there

 

·         English clauses always have a subject:

·         His father has just retired. Was a teacher. > He was a teacher.
I’m waiting for my wife. Is late. > She is late.
Look at the time! Is half past two.> It’s half past two.

·         except for the imperative (see more)

·         Go away.
Play it again please.

·         If we have no other subject we use there or it.

·         there

·         We use there as a dummy subject with part of the verb be followed by a noun phrase. (see Clauses, sentences and phrases):

·         • to introduce a new topic:

·         There is a meeting this evening. It will start at seven.
There has been an accident. I hope no one is hurt.

·         • with numbers or quantities:

·         There was a lot of rain last night.
There must have been more than five hundred in the audience.

·         • to say where something is:

·         There used to be a playground at the end of the street.
There are fairies at the bottom of the garden.
I wonder if there will be anyone at home.

·         • with an indefinite pronoun or expressions of quantity and the to-infinitive:

·         There is nothing to do in the village.
There was plenty to read in the apartment
There was nothing to watch on television.
There is a lot of work to do

If we want to show the subject of the to-infinitive we use for:

·         There is nothing for the children to do in the village.
There was plenty for us to read in the apartment
There was nothing for them to watch on television.
There is a lot of work for you to do.

·         • with an indefinite pronoun or expressions of quantity and an -ing verb:

·         There is someone waiting to see you.
There were a lot of people shouting and waving.

·         We use a singular verb if the noun phrase is singular:

·         There is a meeting this evening. It will start at seven.
There was a lot of rain last night.
There is someone waiting to see you.

·         We use a plural verb if the noun phrase is plural:

·         There are more than twenty people waiting to see you.
There were some biscuits in the cupboard.
There were a lot of people shouting and waving.
 

·         It

·         We use it to talk about:

·         • times and dates:

·         It’s nearly one o’clock.
It’s my birthday.

·         • weather:

·         It’s raining.
It’s a lovely day.
It was getting cold.

·         • to give an opinion about a place:

·         It’s very cold in here.
It will be nice when we get home.
It’s very comfortable in my new apartment.

·         • to give an opinion followed by to-infinitive:

·         It’s nice to meet you.
It will be great to go on holiday.
It was interesting to meet your brother at last.

·         • to give an opinion followed by an -ing verb:

·         It’s great living in Spain.
It’s awful driving in this heavy traffic.
It can be hard work looking after young children.

·           

·         Using "it" to talk about people

·         We use it to talk about ourselves:

·         • on the telephone:

·         Hello. It’s George.

·         • when people cannot see us:

·         [Mary knocks on door] It’s me. It’s Mary.

·         We use it to talk about other people:

·         • when we point them out for the first time:

·         Look. It’s Sir Paul McCartney.
Who’s that? I think it’s John’s brother.

·         • when we cannot see them and we ask them for their name:

·         [telephone rings, we pick it up] Hello. Who is it?
[someone knocks on door. We say:] Who is it? 

·         you and they

·         We use you to talk about people in general including the speaker and the hearer:

·         You can buy this book anywhere > This book is on sale everywhere.
You can’t park here > Parking is not allowed here.
They don’t let you smoke in here > No smoking here

·         We use they or them to talk about people in general:

·         They serve good food here.
Ask them for a cheaper ticket.

·         … especially about the government and the authorities:

·         They don’t let you smoke in here.
They are going to increase taxes.
They are building a new motorway.
They say it’s going to rain tomorrow.

·         possessives: pronouns

·         Can you match these possessive pronouns to the right personal pronouns and possessive adjectives?
 

·         yours, mine, theirs, ours, hers, his

Subject	Object	Possessive adjectives	Possessive pronouns
I	me	my
You	you	your
He	him	his
She	her	her
It	it	its
We	us	our
They	them	their

·         We can use a possessive pronoun instead of a noun phrase:

Is that John’s car?		No, it’s [my car]	>	No, it’s mine.
Whose coat is this?		Is it [your coat]?	>	Is it yours?
Her coat is grey, [my coat]is brown		Her coat is grey,		mine is brown.

·         We can use possessive pronouns after of.

·         We can say:

·         Susan is one of my friends.
or
Susan is a friend of mine.
but not
Susan is a friend of me

·         or

·         I am one of Susan's friends.
or
I am a friend of Susan's.
but not
I am a friend of Susan

·         possessives: questions

·          

·         We use whose to ask questions:

Pattern A		Pattern B
Whose coat is this?	or	Whose is this coat?
Whose book is that?	or	Whose is that book?
Whose bags are those?	or	Whose are those bags?

Reciprocal pronouns: each other and one another

We use the reciprocal pronouns each other and one another when two or more people do the same thing. Traditionally, each other refers to two people and one another refers to more than two people, but this distinction is disappearing in modern English.

• Peter and Mary helped one another.
  = Peter helped Mary and Mary helped Peter.
• We sent each other Christmas cards.
  = We sent them a Christmas card and they sent us a Christmas card.
• They didn’t look at one another.
  = He didn't look at her and she didn't look at him.

We also use the possessive forms each other’s and one another’s:

They helped to look after each other’s children.
We often stayed in one another’s houses.

NOTE: We do not use reciprocal pronouns as the subject of a clause.

indefinite pronouns

The indefinite pronouns are:

somebody	someone	something
anybody	anyone	anything
nobody	no one	nothing
everybody	everyone	everything

We use indefinite pronouns to refer to people or things without saying exactly who or what they are. We use pronouns ending in -body or -one for people, and pronouns ending in -thing for things:

Everybody enjoyed the concert.
I opened the door but there was no one at home.
It was a very clear day. We could see everything.

We use a singular verb after an indefinite pronoun:

Everybody loves Sally.
Everything was ready for the party.

When we refer back to an indefinite pronoun we normally use a plural pronoun:

Everybody enjoyed the concert. They stood up and clapped.
I will tell somebody that dinner is ready. They have been waiting a long time.

We can add -'s to an indefinite pronoun to make a possessive.

They were staying in somebody’s house.
Is this anybody’s coat?

We use indefinite pronouns with no- as the subject in negative clauses (not pronouns with any.)

Anybody didn’t come >> Nobody came.

We do not use another negative in a clause with nobody, no one or nothing:

Nobody came.
Nothing happened.

We use else after indefinite pronouns to refer to people or things in addition to the ones we already mentioned.

All the family came, but no one else.
If Michael can’t come we’ll ask somebody else.
So that's eggs, peas and chips. Do you want anything else?

relative pronouns

 The relative pronouns are:

Subject	Object	Possessive
who	who(m)	whose
which	which	whose
that	that

We use who and whom for people, and which for things.
Or we can use that for people or things.

We use relative pronouns:

• after a noun, to make it clear which person or thing we are talking about:

the house that Jack built
the woman who discovered radium
an eight-year-old boy who attempted to rob a sweet shop

• in relative clauses to tell us more about a person or thing:

My mother, who was born overseas, has always been a great traveller.
Lord Thompson, who is 76, has just retired.
We had fish and chips, which is my favourite meal.

But we do not use that as a subject in relative clauses.

We use whose as the possessive form of who:

This is George, whose brother went to school with me.

We sometimes use whom as the object of a verb or preposition:

This is George, whom you met at our house last year.
This is George’s brother, with whom I went to school.

But nowadays we normally use who:

This is George, who you met at our house last year.
This is George’s brother, who I went to school with.

When whom or which have a preposition the preposition can come at the beginning of the clause...

I had an uncle in Germany, from who[m] I inherited a bit of money.
We bought a chainsaw, with which we cut up all the wood.

… or at the end of the clause:

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 can use that at the beginning of the clause:

I had an uncle in Germany, that I inherited a bit of money from.
We bought a chainsaw, that we cut all the wood up with.