Pronouns for Class 10

Definition of Pronoun

Pronouns acts as a noun or noun phrase substitution. For example, Next week, her uncle will be on vacation.

Types of Pronouns

1. Personal Pronoun

Personal pronouns are used to replace proper nouns like names. Examples are I, you, he, she, we, it, us, them, they, him, her, etc.

Personal Pronoun Subjective Case

1. Subjective case pronouns are also known as nominative cases.
2. Pronouns or words that are used in a sentence as the subject of a verb are called subjective case pronouns.
3. For example, She is trying to find out the solution.

Personal Pronoun Objective Case

1. Objective case pronouns are the pronouns that occur in the object of the sentence.
2. It acquire the action in a sentence.
3. For example, Did you tell him about our new plan?

2. Relative Pronoun

Pronouns which are used to relate clauses of the sentence are called relative pronouns. List of relative pronouns are who, that, whom, whose, which, where

Examples of relative pronouns in sentences:

→ This is the cafe where I always went as a child. ‘Where’ is a relative pronoun in the above sentence that links dependent and interdependent clauses.
→ My favourite time of my life was when I used to go to university. In the above sentence ‘when’ is used as the relative pronoun.

3. Reflexive Pronoun

Pronouns that link back to the sentence’s subject are referred to as reflexive pronouns. List of reflexive pronouns are yourself, myself, herself, himself, oneself, themselves, ourselves, itself and yourselves

Examples of reflexive pronoun use in sentences:

→ We are preparing lunch for ourselves. The speaker in this sentence is preparing lunch for themselves therefore ‘ourselves’ is a reflexive pronoun.
→ The injury healed itself. Itself is a reflexive pronoun used in this sentence.

4. Intensive Pronoun

1. Intensive pronouns are quite similar to reflexive pronouns as these types of pronouns have suffixes ‘-self’ and ‘selves’. The difference between intensive pronouns and reflexive pronouns is that unlike reflexive pronouns, if we remove intensive pronouns the meaning of the sentence will not suffer.
2. Emphatic or Intensive pronouns, as the name suggests, are used for putting stress.

Uses of intensive pronouns in sentences:

→ Did he do it himself? ‘Himself’ is an intensive pronoun because if we remove this word the above sentence will still make sense.
→ It looks like I have to go to the store myself. ‘Myself’ is an intensive pronoun as removing it will not make the sentence unclear.

5. Demonstrative Pronoun

Pronouns that point to a particular object are known as demonstrative pronouns. Examples of demonstrative pronouns are these, those, this, that, etc.

Uses of demonstrative pronouns:

→ These important documents are mine. ‘These’ is the demonstrative pronoun that is used to show multiple things near us.
→ This is my grandparent’s favourite antique. ‘This’ is the demonstrative pronoun that is used to show a thing near us.

6. Indefinite Pronoun

Indefinite pronouns do not specifically refer to any one place, person or thing. Examples of indefinite pronouns are somebody, something, somewhere, anywhere, nobody, no one, someone, anybody, etc.

Look at the following sentences :

→ Has everyone submitted the project? ‘Everyone’ is an indefinite pronoun as it does not specify any one person.
→ We can go anywhere to eat. ‘Anywhere’ is an indefinite pronoun as it does not specify any specific place.

7. Distributive Pronoun

Distributive pronouns are pronouns that denote people or things of a group separately. Examples of distributive pronouns are no one, none, any, neither, either, everyone, each, etc.

Distributive pronouns used in sentences:

→ She doesn’t reply to any of my messages. ‘Any’ is a distributive pronoun as it refers to the messages separately.
→ Neither of them is a good singer. ‘Neither’ refers to people separately therefore it is a distributive pronoun.

8. Possessive Pronoun

Possessive pronouns are the pronouns that claim the ownership of something. Examples of possessive pronouns are mine, his, hers, its, yours, theirs, etc.

Possessive pronouns used in sentences:

→ That car parked in front of the building is hers. ‘Hers’ is a possessive pronoun which indicates the ownership of the car.
→ His new organisation is popular among teens. ‘His’ indicates the ownership of an organisation.

9. Interrogative Pronoun

Queries or questions are always asked by using interrogative pronouns. Examples of interrogative pronouns are who, whom, what, where, whose, etc.

Uses of interrogative pronouns in sentences:

→ Who is your doctor? ‘Who’ is an interrogative pronoun which is used to inquire about people.
→ Where do you go for swimming? ‘Where’ is an interrogative pronoun used to ask questions about places.

10. Reciprocal Pronoun

Reciprocal pronouns express mutual relationships between people. There are only two reciprocal pronouns: each other and one another.

Uses of reciprocal pronouns:

→ They always guide each other.
→ Students in a class should interact with one another.

Pronouns Rules and Orders

Order of Pronouns

1. If there is a compound subject (two or more subjects) or a compound object (two or more objects) that includes me or I, I or me pronoun is always placed last.
   For example: You, she and I will go to watch a movie tonight.
2. The right order to use pronouns when there is a compound subject is second person, third person and first person.
   For example: You, he and I are a part of this committee.

Rules for Pronouns

1. Personal pronouns are used in place of nouns, thus they must be of the same number, gender and person as the noun which it replaces.

For example:

1. Johnny is a helpful employee. He helped Joseph with his tasks.
2. Those beggars are lazy. They don’t want to work hard.
   
   

2. When we use pronouns for collective nouns, it must be in the singular number or neuter gender if the collective noun is viewed as a whole.

For example: The team celebrated its victory.

3. If a collective noun implies that various individuals collectively make up a whole, we must use plural pronouns.

For example: The class clapped for their new teacher. Here the ‘class’ gives the ideas of several individuals or students as a whole.

4. If two or more singular nouns are joined by ‘and’, we use plural pronouns.

For example: James and Kyle were working all day. They are tired.

5. If two singular nouns are joined by "and" and refer to the same thing or person, use singular pronouns.

For example: The teacher and the principal is responsible for her duty. In this sentence, "the teacher" and "the principal" refer to the same person. Therefore, we use a singular pronoun like "her" to maintain agreement. The correct sentence would be: The teacher and the principal are responsible for their duty.

6. When two singular nouns joined by 'and' are preceded by 'every' or 'each', use singular pronouns.

For example: Every teacher and student should not use their phone during class. In this sentence, "every teacher" and "every student" are referred to individually. Since they are separate entities, use a singular pronoun for each. The correct sentence would be: Every teacher and student should not use his or her phone during class.

7. When two or more singular nouns are connected by ‘or’ or either or, neither nor, generally we use singular pronouns.

For example: Jacob or George forgot to take his documents.

8. When a plural noun and a singular noun are joined by ‘or’ or ‘nor’, we should use plural pronouns.

For example: Either the mother or her son buys their groceries every weekend.

9. When a pronoun refers to more than one pronoun or noun of different individuals, it should be of the first personal plural in preference to the second, and of the second personal plural in preference to the third.

For example: You and I have to do our tasks.

10. Each of the personal pronouns (like I, he, she, they, we) has a different form for the accusative case ( like me, him, her, them, us). Many students use I for me, when a pronoun is connected by a conjunction like ‘and’ or ‘or’ with some other word in the accusative case.

For example: She is looking for you and me.

FAQs

1. What are the pronouns for class 10?

Answer: Pronouns are the words which are used to replace nouns in a sentence or a paragraph. For example, You can invite whomever you want.

2. What are the types of pronouns for class 10?

Answer: Types of pronouns for class 10 are:

1. Personal Pronoun
2. Possessive Pronoun
3. Reflexive Pronoun
4. Relative Pronoun
5. Intensive Pronoun
6. Demonstrative Pronoun
7. Indefinite Pronoun
8. Distributive Pronoun
9. Interrogative Pronoun
10. Reciprocal Pronoun

3. What are some examples of pronouns?

Answer: Examples of pronouns are I, you, he, him, whoever, no one, someone, anybody, this, that, those, these, we, our, etc.