1. Proper Nouns

English contains two forms of nouns: Common nouns and proper nouns that refer to an unspecified person, place, or thing. Proper nouns name specific people, places, things, or ideas. Proper nouns are capitalized, common nouns are not (unless at the beginning of a sentence, of course!).

Names:

• Lieutenant Commander Bobby Hernandez (people and their titles)

• Fido (pets)

• R.M.S. Titanic (boats - note also that boat names are italicized or underlined when written)

• The Louvre (buildings)

• Seoul, Ontario, Namibia (cities, provinces/states/territories, countries)

• Japanese (languages and nationalities)

• Of Mice and Men (book titles - note also that only significant words in titles are capitalized, and the whole title is italicized when typed or underlined when written)

• Market Street Bistro (businesses)

• Death Valley (specific geographic features)

• Thursday, January 4, 2018 (days of the week and months)

• The Middle Ages (historical periods)

• The Protestant Reformation (political, social, and philosophical ideas and movements)

• New Year’s Eve (holidays)

Acronyms and the first-person singular subject pronoun (I) are capitalized:

• CPR, NASA, NAFTA, OPEC, DNA

• You will like how I make my chili.

Family members:

• Lowercase: “I went sailing with my mom and dad last year.”

• Capitalized: “I went sailing with Mom and Dad last year.”

In the first sentence, mom and dad are used like a cast because they are preceded by the possessive pronoun my. (You can easily replace "my mom and dad" with "my boss" and neither option needs to be capitalized.

In the second sentence, "Mama" and "Papa" are used as proper nouns. i.e. in upper case. (You can easily replace "Mom and Dad" with "Tabitha," "Bob," or "Uncle Caden." All of these options must be uppercase.)

Pronouns take the place of proper names or generics. Very common in everyday English.

Some Common Pronouns

• All

• I

• Some

• Both

• It

• Them

• Each

• Many

• These

• Few

• Neither

• They

• He

• Nobody

• We

• Her

• None

• Who

• Him

• One

• You

• His

• She

• Me

The correct use of English language pronouns takes into consideration:

• pronoun type

• noun/pronoun agreement

  • masculine vs. feminine vs. neuter

  • number

  • pronoun case

2. Personal Pronouns

Subject Pronouns (renames nouns in subject position)

If the sentence is not repeated, use the subject pronoun as the subject of the sentence in comparative constructs (more... than, less... than, than... than, etc.). Add the missing sentence to clarify the subject position of the pronoun.

No one in the classroom was as surprised as I was.

No: …like me.

He worked longer than she (worked) today. No: … like them.

peculiar

First Person: Me

Second person: she

3rd person:

Men (representing men, boys): he

Female (female, girl's name): you

Neutral (the name of a noun without gender): that

Plural

• 1st person: we

• 2nd person: you

• 3rd person: they

Example:

Gaetan recently graduated from college; he now has a degree in nursing.

• Gaetan (singular, 3rd person, masculine)

• he (singular, 3rd person, masculine)

Possessive Determiners (assigns possession)

• Use possessive determiners before gerunds (-ing verb forms). Possessive determiners can also be called possessive adjectives.

Examples:

His singing has often been admired.

not: …He singing
The class was shocked by his studying for the exam.

not: …him studying

Their playing was much improved from last week’s game.

Singular

• 1st person: my

• 2nd person: your

• 3rd person:

Masculine: his

Feminine: her

Neuter: its

Plural

• 1st person: our

• 2nd person: your

• 3rd person: their

Example:

That piece of paper is my boarding pass. (The boarding pass belongs to the speaker, who is singular and 1st person.)

Possessive Pronouns (replace nouns and show possession)

These do not mark nouns, as the possessive determiners do; rather, they replace nouns.

Singular

• 1st person: mine

• 2nd person: yours

• 3rd person:

Masculine: his

Feminine: hers

Plural

• 1st person: ours

• 2nd person: yours

• 3rd person: theirs

Take note that no apostrophes are used in these pronouns, even though they indicate possession.

Example:

Gabriela told the flight attendant that the boarding pass is hers.

• Gabriela (singular, 3rd person, female)

• hers (singular, 3rd person, female) - The boarding pass belonged to her (Gabriela).

Object Pronouns (rename nouns in object position)

These are used as indirect and direct objects in verb phrases and as objects of prepositions.

Singular

• 1st person: me

• 2nd person: you

• 3rd person:

Masculine: him

Feminine: her

Neuter: it

Plural

• 1st person: us

• 2nd person: you

• 3rd person: them

Let’s look at a correctly-matched noun-pronoun pair in a sentence:

Andel wondered why everyone kept staring at him during dinner.

• Andel (singular, 3rd person, masculine)

• him (singular, 3rd person, masculine) (object of the preposition at)

Reflexive Pronouns (rename the subject in object position)

These are used when the subject is also the object of the verb.

Singular

• 1st person: myself

• 2nd person: yourself

• 3rd person:

Masculine: himself

Feminine: herself

Neuter: itself

Plural

• 1st person: ourselves

• 2nd person: yourselves

• 3rd person: themselves

Consider the following example:

If we (plural, 1st person) don’t win this game, boys, we’ll be kicking ourselves (plural, 1st person) tomorrow. (The subject group of boys represented by “we” is kicking "themselves" — the same group of boys.)

3. Relative vs. Indefinite Pronouns

In addition to the preceding personal pronouns, you must distinguish between two more types of pronouns: relative and indefinite pronouns.

Relative pronouns: used to identify people, places, and objects in general.

The relative pronouns who, whom, and whose refer to people.

The relative pronouns which, what, that, and whose refer to places and objects.

The relative pronoun whose is used for all nouns: people, places, and objects.

Relative pronouns: These are used to identify nouns at the beginning of relative clauses.

Subject

• Non-human: which/that

Bob likes popsicles that are grape-flavored. (Some popsicles are grape-flavored.)

• Human: who

Anita is looking for a mechanic who has experience with carburetors. (Some mechanic has experience with carburetors.)

Object

• Non-human: which/that

I finally got back the DVD that John borrowed. (John borrowed the DVD.)

• Human: whom

Vada has not yet been paid by the client whom she billed last week. (Vada billed the client.)

For more about the difference between who and whom, see the lesson "Commonly Misused Words".

Possessive

Non-human or human: whose

Mrs. Ianthe loves Edgar Allan Poe, whose poems and stories give her chills. (Edgar Allan Poe’s poems and stories give her chills.)

Indefinite pronouns: used to represent an indefinite number of persons, places, or things. Indefinite pronouns are treated as singular pronouns.

Examples:

Everyone gather around the campfire!

There will be a prize for each of the children.

One of my sisters always volunteers to drive me to school.

Some are friendlier than others.

Singular Indefinite Pronouns

• In many of these examples, the italicized pronouns may look and sound awkward or wrong, and they might look and sound better if you replaced “his or her” with “their” and “he or she” with “they.” Yet “their” or “they” in any of the sentences would be wrong.