Pronoun Types You Need to Know! (Part 2)

In case you’ve forgotten, pronouns are words that we use in place of other nouns. Without being able to do this, sentences would often be long and full of repetition. But different pronouns work differently, so it’s crucial to understand how each type is used.

In our previous post, we covered personal, demonstrative, relative and reciprocal pronouns. Today, we’re looking at four more pronoun types: indefinite, interrogative, reflexive and intensive.

1. Indefinite Pronouns

As the name suggests, indefinite pronouns are used when referring to something nonspecific (e.g. ‘everyone’ or ‘everything’) or something unknown (e.g. ‘someone’ or ‘something’). They can be broken down into singular, plural and singular/plural pronouns:

Whether an indefinite pronoun is singular or plural determines the kind of verbs they are used with. For instance, in ‘each has a cherry on top’, we use the singular verb ‘has’ to match the singular indefinite pronoun ‘each’. In ‘many have cherries on top’, on the other hand, we use the plural verb ‘have’ instead to fit with the plural pronoun.

Singular/plural indefinite pronouns can be used with both forms of verb, depending on the context.

Indefinite pronouns also differ slightly from other pronouns in that they often replace other nouns completely rather than referring to a noun used previously (e.g. we don’t have to name every single person in a room before we can refer to them as ‘everybody in the room’).

2. Interrogative Pronouns

You’ll probably be glad to hear that interrogative pronouns are a little simpler. These are pronouns we use for asking questions, such as ‘who’ or ‘what’:

Who broke this lamp? And what are we going to do about it?

We use ‘who’ (subject), ‘whom’ (object) and ‘whose’ (possessive) when referring to people, while ‘which’ and ‘what’ can be used to ask questions about either people or things.

3. Reflexive Pronouns

Reflexive pronouns are used when the subject of a sentence is also the object of the sentence, such as in:

I punched myself in the face.

Here, ‘myself’ is used as the object of the sentence (the thing that got punched) and refers back to the subject ‘I’ (the thing doing the punching). Other reflexive pronouns include:

• Singular – myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself
• Plural – ourselves, yourselves, themselves

As you can see, these terms are formed by adding ‘-self’ or ‘-selves’ to a personal pronoun.

4. Intensive Pronouns

Intensive pronouns are actually the same words as reflexive pronouns but function differently. In this case they add emphasis, like in the sentence:

She mastered pronouns all by herself!

Here, ‘herself’ refers to the subject of the sentence (‘she’) to stress that the achievement was hers alone. As with reflexive pronouns, intensive pronouns are formed by adding ‘-self’ (singular) or ‘-selves’ (plural) to a personal pronoun.

And there you go! Those are the different types of pronoun. If you still have difficulty knowing when to use specific terms, getting your work proofread by a professional is a great way of receiving feedback and enhancing your writing style.