Introduction to pronouns

Pronouns are words that stand in for other words, such as nouns or phrases. Pronouns avoid repetition and make writing clear and concise. Examples of pronouns are she, he, they, and it, which can replace names or objects that have already been mentioned.

What is a pronoun?

Meet the personal pronouns! These words help us talk about ourselves (like "I" and "we"), others (like "you"), and different people or things (like "he", "she", "they", or "it").

Personal pronouns

Possessive and reflexive pronouns

Possessive pronouns show who has something. There are two types of possessive pronouns. Some act like adjectives and modify nouns, like my, our, your, her, his, its, and their. Others act like nouns and can stand alone, like mine, ours, yours, hers, his, i

Possessive pronouns

What are reflexive pronouns? When a subject and an object of the sentence are the same thing, it's time to use a reflexive pronoun, as in "I saw myself in the mirror". The subject is "I", and the object is "me", but it's not grammatical in Standard English

Reflexive pronouns

Relative pronouns link independent and dependent clauses in sentences. They are who, whom, whose, that and which. Who, whom, whose and that can refer to people, while whose, that and which can refer to things. Which does not work with people.

Relative pronouns 

Wondering when to use "that" and "which"? Remember two things: "that" doesn't like commas, and "which" isn't used for people.

"That" versus "which"

When do you use who vs. whom? Our language is changing, and it's becoming more appropriate to use "who" all over the place. But the basic rule is that "who" is the subject form ("Who is calling, please?") and "whom" is the object form ("Whom did you see in

"Who" versus "whom"

Subject, object, person, and number

Before we get any further with pronouns, let's cover what the difference between a subject and an object pronoun is, because the distinction between those two concepts will start coming up a good deal.

Subject and object pronouns

There's this idea in grammar called grammatical person that helps describe who's being talked about in a sentence. David, KA's Grammar Fellow, explains.

Grammatical person and pronouns

The difference between something being singular or plural is what we call 'grammatical number' in English. Here's how that idea applies to pronouns!

Pronoun number

Indefinite pronouns, pronoun vagueness, and emphatic pronouns

David, Khan Academy's Grammar Fellow, covers three nifty features of indefinite pronouns, which are pronouns that are just a little vague, y'know?

Indefinite pronouns

Sometimes we use reflexive pronouns like "myself" and "ourselves" for emphasis in a sentence, like, "If you won't help me, then I'll do it myself!" KA's Grammar Fellow, David, explains this usage.

Emphatic pronouns

You may have been hearing a lot about the "singular they" recently. But what is it? How does it work, what is its history, and is it grammatical? Let's find out. 

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