Pronouns and determiners
Personal, possessive, reflexive, demonstrative and indefinite pronouns, plus each/every/both/either/neither and relative pronoun basics.
Pronouns replace nouns so we do not have to repeat them, and determiners go in front of nouns to show which or how many we mean. Personal pronouns act as the subject (I, he, they) or the object (me, him, them) of a verb, while possessive adjectives (my, your, their) sit before a noun and possessive pronouns (mine, yours, theirs) stand alone. Reflexive pronouns (myself, yourself, themselves) point the action back to the subject, and demonstratives (this, that, these, those) point to things near or far. Indefinite pronouns such as someone, anyone, everyone, no one, something and nothing refer to people or things in a general way and take a singular verb. Determiners like each, every, either and neither also work with a singular noun and verb, while both takes a plural one. For example: 'Everyone in the class has finished their test, but neither of the two teachers has marked it yet.'
Rules
- 1Use subject pronouns (I, he, she, we, they) before the verb and object pronouns (me, him, her, us, them) after a verb or preposition.
- 2A possessive adjective (my, your, his, our, their) comes before a noun; a possessive pronoun (mine, yours, his, ours, theirs) replaces 'possessive + noun' and stands alone — never use an apostrophe (its = belonging to it, not it's).
- 3Reflexive pronouns (myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves) are used when the subject and object are the same person.
- 4Indefinite pronouns (someone, anyone, everyone, no one, nothing) and the determiners each, every, either, neither are singular and take a singular verb; both is plural.
- 5Use 'who' for people, 'which' for things, and 'that' for either, to introduce a relative clause (the woman who called, the book which/that I read).
Practice
10 easy · 10 medium · 10 hard