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9 Types of Pronouns in English with Useful Examples

Published on January 12, 2022 | Updated on June 19, 2024

There are different types of pronouns in English and sometimes it is hard to keep track of all of them so this guide will help you remember them all.

These are the 9 types of pronouns in English.

Personal PronounsDemonstrative Pronouns
Interrogative PronounsIndefinite Pronouns
Possesive PronounsReciprocal Pronouns
Relative PronounsReflexive Pronouns
Intensive Pronouns

There are different types of pronouns and with this guide, you will get a pretty good idea of what they are and when to use them.



Personal Pronouns in English

The first type of pronouns are personal pronouns

personal pronoun is a short word we use as a simple substitute for the proper name of a person.

Each of the English personal pronouns shows us the grammatical person, gender, number, and case of the noun it replaces. 

I, you, he, she, it, we they are personal pronouns

Examples:

  • I don’t have any money
  • You don’t play soccer really well
  • She loves me
  • He is not that into you
  • They are not my friends
  • We like Game of Thrones

Demonstrative Pronouns in English

The second type or pronouns are demonstrative pronouns

A demonstrative pronoun is a pronoun that is used to point to something specific within a sentence.

These pronouns can indicate items in space or time, and they can be either singular or plural.

We use this (singular) and these (plural) as pronouns to talk about people or things near us.

We use that (singular) and those (plural)  to talk about things that are not near us.

Examples

  • I don’t like that car
  • You don’t like that house by the lake
  • She wants to buy that car
  • We hate those guys
  • They really like these good teachers

Interrogative Pronouns in English

The third type of pronouns are interrogative pronouns

An interrogative pronoun is a pronoun which is used to make asking questions easy. There are just five interrogative pronouns.

Who, which, who, whose and whom are interrogative pronouns

Examples

  • What’s your name?
  • Whose bag is this?
  • Where do you live?
  • Who took my backpack

Indefinite Pronouns in English

The fourth type of pronouns are Indefinite pronouns

An indefinite pronoun does not refer to any specific person, thing or amount. Some indefinite pronouns are: all, another, any, anybody,anyone, anything, each, everybody, everyone, everything, few, many, nobody, none, one, several, some, somebody,someone

Examples:

  • Nobody cares about me
  • Somebody knows our location
  • Everyone likes this guys

Possessive Pronouns in English

The fifth type of pronouns in English are possessive pronouns

Possessive pronouns include my, mine, our, ours, its, his, her, hers, their, theirs, your and yours. These are all words that demonstrate ownership.

Examples:

  • That’s my car
  • This laptop is mine
  • That’s her life
  • She is our beautiful daughter

Reciprocal Pronouns in English

The sixth type of pronouns in English are reciprocal pronouns

A reciprocal pronoun is a pronoun used to identify an action or feeling that is reciprocated. For this reason, it always refers to more than one person

  • Each other
  • One other

Examples

  • We love each other
  • Let’s love one another

Relative Pronouns in English

The seventh type of pronouns are relative pronouns

Relative pronouns introduce relative clauses. The most common relative pronouns are who, whom, whose, which, that.

The relative pronoun we use depends on what we are referring to and the type of relative clause.

Examples

  • She is the woman who took my money
  • He is the man that stole my car

Reflexive Pronouns in English

The eight type of pronouns in English are reflexive pronouns

We use reflexive pronouns when the subject and object of a sentence are the same person or non-person.

There are nine reflexive pronouns:

MyselfYourself
HimselfHerself
OneselfItself
OurselvesYourselves
Themselves

Examples

  • They love themselves
  • I cut myself with a knife
  • She cut herself
  • You can do this to yourself
  • I almost shot myself
  • We did this to ourselves

If you need more information about this type of pronouns in English, you can check my guide about Reflexive Pronouns


Intensive Pronouns in English

The ninth type of pronouns are intensive pronouns

An intensive pronoun emphasizes a preceding noun. Intensive pronouns look exactly the same as reflexive pronouns, but they are only used for emphasis.


Examples of Different Pronouns in a Reading

Let me give  you an example about how they are used in a sentence

  • I am  the new guy around here , This is a picture of me, that ‘s my dog, the house is mine and I am very proud because I built it myself.
  • I went home for christmas and I  found my parents there and a friend of mine, they told me how much they love me and how I have devoted myself to living a  good life.
  • You did all the work  by yourself , you  were persistent, your  friends have been touched by the choices you have made, they love you  and  this victory is all  yours.

Manuel Campos

Manuel Campos

I am Jose Manuel, English professor and creator of EnglishPost.org, a blog whose mission is to share lessons for those who want to learn and improve their English