Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns. They provide a shortcut to avoid repeating any persons, places, or things. Some examples of pronouns include his, her, she, he, their, and it.
Examples
Melina is writing a letter to her mother. (Her stands in for Melina’s.)
When Jack and Jill fell down, they had to go to the hospital. (They stands in for Jack and Jill.)
Rules to follow when using pronouns
Each pronoun must obey the following conventions:
Agree in person, gender, and number with the noun it replaces.
Provide Samantha with her class schedule.
Provide the students with their class schedules.
For clarity, pronouns often appear after the specific noun to which it is referring (or the antecedent).
The car was damaged after it hit a pole. (It clearly refers to car.)
After the car hit a pole it was damaged. (It is unclear whether it refers to car or pole.)
Errors encountered when using pronouns
When referring to a company or institution, use the pronoun it.
Incorrect: Saint Mary’s University accepts letters of appeal from their students.
Correct: Saint Mary’s University accepts letters of appeal from its students.
Only use the pronoun you when referring to one specific person
Incorrect: In the 1900s, you were not able to vote.
Correct: In the 1900s, women were not able to vote.
Depending on how they are used, pronouns ending with –self or –selves can be either reflexive or intensive. Use reflexive pronouns like myself, yourself, or themselves as the object of a verb or preposition, and not the subject of a sentence. When used as intensive pronouns, these same words reinforce the subject of a sentence.
Incorrect: Myself and Adam bought movie tickets.
Reflexive: I bought myself a movie ticket. Or I bought a movie ticket for myself.
Intensive: I bought the tickets myself. Or I myself bought the tickets.
Practice ↓
Rewrite the following paragraph for correct pronoun usage. If it is are unclear to who or what the pronoun is referring, replace it with a noun.
Me and Mary decided to volunteer to do research projects. Josh wanted to go along with us to do them but he was not a Saint Mary’s student, and therefore, could not receive any bonus points. Everyone from SMU gets bonus points if they participate in research projects. Her and me went to our first experiment where a person named Mike asked us to fill out a questionnaire. He explained what it was about; he was very informative and reassuring. He and his partner’s experiment was well thought out and she enjoyed doing it. Mike wanted valid results for Mike’s survey so he did not tell her the real purpose of it until after she completed it. It went well.
Answers ↓
Mary and I decided to volunteer to do research projects. Josh wanted to go along with Mary and I to do the experiments but he was not a Saint Mary’s student, and therefore, could not receive any bonus points. Mary and I went to our first experiment where a person named Mike asked us to fill out a questionnaire. Mike explained what the study was about; he was very informative and reassuring. Mike and his partner’s experiment was well thought out and Mary enjoyed doing the experiment. Mike wanted valid results for his survey so he did not tell Mary the real purpose of the experiment until after Mary completed it. The experiment went well.
