In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a word that substitutes for a noun or noun phrase. It is a particular case of a pro-form.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not limit them to a single class because of the variety of functions they perform, including that of the personal pronouns, relative pronouns, interrogative pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, possessive pronouns, and indefinite pronouns
Pronouns can be divided into several categories: personal, indefinite, reflexive, reciprocal, possessive, demonstrative, interrogative and relative...
Personal pronouns may be classified by person, number and case. In the English language, there are three persons (first, second and third), each of which can be divided into two forms by number (singular and plural), as in the table. Third person also distinguishes gender (male, female or neuter).[
English has two cases, subject and object.
Reflexive Reflexive pronouns are used when a person or thing acts on itself, for example, John cut himself. In English they all end in -self or -selves and must refer to a noun phrase elsewhere in the same clause.
Reciprocal Reciprocal pronouns refer to a reciprocal relationship (each other, one another). They must refer to a noun phrase in the same clause. An example in English is: They do not like each other.
Possessive Possessive pronouns are used to indicate possession or ownership. Some occur as independent noun phrases: mine, yours, hers, ours, yours, theirs.
Demonstrative
Demonstrative pronouns (in English, this, that and their plurals these, those) often distinguish their targets by pointing or some other indication of position; for example, I'll take these. They may also be anaphoric, depending on an earlier expression for context, for example, A kid actor would try to be all sweet, and who needs that?
Indefinite Indefinite pronouns, the largest group of pronouns, refer to one or more unspecified persons or things. One group in English includes compounds of some-, any-, every- and no- with -thing, -one and -body, for example: Anyone can do that. Another group, including many, more, both, and most, can appear alone or followed by of.
Distributive pronouns are used to refer to members of a group separately rather than collectively. (To each his own.)Negative pronouns indicate the non-existence of people or things. (Nobody thinks that.)
Relative Relative pronouns (who, whom, whose, what, which and that) refer back to people or things previously mentioned: People who smoke should quit now. They are used in relative clauses.[2]:56 Indefinite relative pronouns have some of the properties of both relative pronouns and indefinite pronouns.
Interrogative Interrogative pronouns ask which person or thing is meant. In reference to a person, one may use who (subject), whom (object) or whose (possessive); for example, Who did that? In colloquial speech, whom is generally replaced by who. Non-personal pronouns (which and what) have only one form.
