Pronouns

Language Arts-8

Personal Pronouns A personal pronoun is a word that is used in place of a noun or another pronoun.

Personal Pronouns Personal pronouns are used to refer to nouns that name people or things.

Look at the following examples:

Jane put on Jane’s boots. Then Jane went hiking. (awkward)

Jane put on her boots. Then she went hiking. (improved)

Note Did you notice how the personal pronoun her helps the writer avoid repeating the same noun? Also notice how the pronoun she acts as a bridge to connect the two sentences.

Jane put on her boots. Then she went hiking.

In Writing You should use personal pronouns to make your writing concise, but first you must understand how they are classified.

By Person Pronouns are classified by

person:

Personal PronounsFirst Person

I,my,me,we, our,us

Refers to the person(s) speaking.

Second Person

you,your, yours

Refer to the person(s) spoken to.

Third Person

he,his,him,she, hers,her,it,its,they,their,them

Refer to some other person(s) or thing(s) that is being spoken of.

Identify the pronoun and tell what person (1st,2nd,3rd) the pronoun is

1) She is my favorite singer.2) My dog is a pitbull.3) I am going shopping this

weekend.4) We should have a birthday party

for the class.5) You really need to pay attention.

Pronouns are Classified by Gender

Pronouns in the masculine gender refer to male people.

Pronouns in the feminine gender refer to female people.

Pronouns in the neuter gender refer to animals or things.

How would you rewrite the following paragraph to make it more concise using pronouns?

Everyday when Mrs. Burwell comes to class Mrs. Burwell sees students studying hard. The students are great pupils. The students want to get good grades, so the students focus in class and do all of the assigned homework without complaining. If only every teacher had students like Mrs. Burwell.

Homework Time!!!!