- What are pronouns?
- Personal pronouns
- Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns
- Possessive pronouns
- Demonstrative pronouns
- Interrogative and exclamatory pronouns
- Relative Pronouns
- Numeral pronouns
- Indefinite pronouns
We explain what pronouns are, what are the characteristics, uses and examples of each type of pronoun.
What are pronouns?
A type of pronoun is called word or grammatical category that does not have a fixed and universal referent, but depends on the context of their enunciation, that is, of who, how and where they use them. Thus, pronouns actually indicate a type of relationship between persons, things or other types of references.
Pronouns exist in all human languages, to which they provide greater economy by substituting certain referents within the sentence chain, or bringing them up without having to constantly reiterate them, which would make sentences very long and cumbersome.
In each idiom They can present variations and obey different rules, but in general they tend to respond to the gender and number of the referent, as well as to the grammatical case, depending also, of course, on the type of pronoun that it is. In some languages, such as Spanish, pronouns may coincide in shape with other words, such as adjectives or determinants, with which they can share certain senses.
For example, there are possessive adjectives (“me father ") and possessive pronouns (" the Own”), Depending on whether they accompany the noun or replace it, respectively. This is even easier to see with personal pronouns: "I" can stand in for different nouns, depending on who pronounces it.
In the Spanish language there is a significant number of pronouns of different types, which we will try to detail separately below.
Personal pronouns
As its name indicates, personal pronouns are those that normally refer to a person or a name, freeing us from the need for a noun, or even a whole noun phrase. Thus, they always express the person, the number, the gender and the case of the referent, and are classified into two categories:
- Tonic or independent personal pronouns, which can be used as an independent response or as elements disassociated from the rest of the prayer. They are the first to be learned when acquiring a language, and they define verbal persons for grammatical conjugation. In Spanish these pronouns can often be omitted in the sentence, when it is clear who we are referring to, and they are the following:
| Person | Pronoun | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | Me | I come from another country. |
| 2nd singular (informal) | You | Who are you? |
| 2nd singular (formal) | You | You don't know what it says. |
| 3rd singular | He she | He is my friend / She is my friend. |
| 1st plural | Us / us | We came by train. We came by train. |
| 2nd plural | you guys | Where did you guys come from? |
| 3rd plural | They / they | They have money / They have money. |
There is also an exclusive form of the peninsular Spanish of the 2nd person plural informal: “ye” (you are my friends), of minority use in the Hispanic speakers of the world. The same happens with the use of "vos" instead of "tú" (you know who I am), typical of different regions Hispano-American women, a phenomenon known as voseo.
On the other hand, in the event that these stressed pronouns appear under the prepositional regime (that is, introduced by a preposition), they will be transformed in some of their cases, which are shown below:
| Person | Pronoun | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | Me / with me | Everybody was laughing at me.
They were all with me yesterday. |
| 2nd singular (informal) | You / With You | At home they always ask about you.
They said they would date you. |
| 2nd singular (formal) | You | The public is crying out for you. |
| 3rd singular | If I get | He spoke to himself / She spoke to herself.
He was with himself / She took his things with her. |
| 3rd plural | With him | They had the money with them. |
- Unstressed or dependent person pronouns, which are not usually used independently, but as additions to the end of certain words (clitics) or as a replacement in the sentence of the direct or indirect object. Depending on the shape of the verbThey can go before or after it. Is about:
| Person | Pronoun | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | I | Don't make me bother. Think you can help me? Did you bring me a gift? |
| 2nd singular (informal) | Tea | Maria called you on the phone. We were about to forget you. We are accompanying you to work. |
| 2nd singular (formal) | You | We came to see you, Garcia. I'm not going to tell you everything again, sir. |
| 3rd singular | It / it I / I | I have it in my mind / I have it in my mind. We came to see it / We came to see it. He has no patience for his mother. The dress does not work for her. Your cousin was taken by the police. Maria gave everything to her lawyer. |
| 1st plural | Us | We won a preferential ticket. They said we should go. |
| 2nd plural | Se / Les | Did you notice that it rains? You are going to have to return. I brought you breakfast. |
| 3rd plural | The Les / Se | They are looking for you / They are looking for you. Did you give them my regards yesterday? They look a little weak. |
Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns
They are very specific pronouns that indicate the direction that the action of the verb takes, and that it goes towards the verb itself. subject (reflexive), or in the case that it is a multiple subject, it goes from one subject to the other and vice versa (reciprocal). They can be, as in the previous cases, clitic or not (that is, they can go separately before the verb, or next to it, at the end).
- Reflexives pronouns
| Person | Pronoun | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | I | I'm dressing / I'm dressing. |
| 2nd singular (informal) | Tea | Did you wash your hands? / Wash your hands. |
| 2nd singular (formal) | I know | Have you seen yourself in a mirror? / Stand up! |
| 3rd singular | I know | He sat on the floor
She sat on the couch. He didn't want to stop. She didn't want to stop. |
| 1st plural | Us | Do we dress up?
Let's touch up our makeup. |
| 2nd plural | I know | Did you change clothes in the bathroom?
They have to calm down. |
| 3rd plural | I know | They tear their garments.
Your clothes are drying on the balcony. |
- Reciprocal pronouns
| Person | Pronoun | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1st plural | Us | She and I love each other madly.
That night we were kissing. |
| 2nd plural | I know | You have each other.
Don't get hurt in the discussion. |
| 3rd plural | I know | They contradict each other all the time.
They held hands to dance. |
Possessive pronouns
Although they are normally considered a case of personal pronouns, they can be classified separately since they indicate a very specific relationship between the parties: that of belonging or provenance. These pronouns can express a single possessor (of one or more things) or several possessors (of one or more things).
| Person | Pronoun | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | Mine / mine mine / mine | That car is blue, mine is black. Can I borrow a cup? I left mine at home. Give me mine at once. Those are your children, these are mine. |
| 2nd singular (informal) | Yours / yours yours / yours | I don't remember what yours is like. Are those shirts like yours? |
| 2nd singular (formal) | Yours his / hers | The idea was discussed before yours, boss. Those receipts are not yours, licensee. |
| 3rd singular | Yours his / hers | Did you give your ex all of his? He wants this house to be his. I told him that my pets are not his. |
| 1st plural | Our / our Our / Our | They approved that project instead of ours.
All the cakes arrived except ours. |
| 2nd plural | Yours his / hers | There are all the children, but I don't see yours. We forgot the card, would you pay with yours? If we buy cups, they will be yours. |
| 3rd plural | Yours his / hers | We gave them gifts and they don't want theirs. They don't need a blanket, they brought theirs. Did they leave you your bags and did you lose yours? |
Demonstrative pronouns
Demonstrative pronouns are those that serve to carry out a certain degree of deixis or demonstration, that is, to replace a referent to which it is alluded, distinguishing it from the other possible ones. Thus, unlike personal pronouns, they do not respond to all grammatical persons, but to the gender and number of the referent.
In Spanish, these pronouns are organized based on three different series, each one expressing a different degree of proximity or closeness (physical or figurative) of the speaker with respect to what he refers to, and traditionally accented to distinguish it from the demonstrative adjectives they have the exact same shape.
- First series: this. It is the set of pronouns that transmit the greatest proximity on the part of the speaker with respect to the reference referred to. This closeness can be physical, temporal or of another nature, and the pronouns used are:
| Referrer | Pronoun | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Singular masculine | East | I want this one, not the one over there. Is this your father? |
| Singular feminine | Is | And who does she think she is? We did not resolve that account, but this one. |
| Neutral | This | Is this all you have? I don't know if this is enough. |
| Masculine plural | These | Do you know who these are? We have these, the other books are out. |
| Feminine plural | Are | These are the most beautiful flowers in the world.
But what nonsense are these? |
- Second series: that. In this case, the pronouns express a greater degree of distance than the previous one, although not as much as in the following case.
| Referrer | Pronoun | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Singular masculine | That | That over there is my boyfriend.
Which one, that one by the tree? |
| Singular feminine | That | That is not a valid excuse.
Don't buy that one, there are better houses available. |
| Neutral | That | Did you see that?
That shouldn't stop you. |
| Masculine plural | Those | Those were the commandments of the time.
I'll trade you my shoes for those. |
| Feminine plural | Those | What questions are those?
Those are not for sale. |
- Third series: that. Finally, these pronouns indicate a maximum degree of physical, temporal or other distance from the speaker.
| Referrer | Pronoun | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Singular masculine | That | The one behind everyone was my grandfather. Hide behind a tree, like that one. |
| Singular feminine | That | What an incredible time that was! My pen is not that one, but that one. |
| Neutral | That | That which we do not know, summons us.
You have to see what I told you once. |
| Masculine plural | Those | Who are those with the dog?
Be suspicious of those who do not greet you. |
| Feminine plural | Those | There are no songs like those anymore.
Are my things those or these from here? |
Interrogative and exclamatory pronouns
As their name indicates, they are pronouns used exclusively to ask or exclaim directly, which is why they are usually accompanied by question marks (¿?) Or exclamatory marks (¡!), Although they may not be. They must always be stressed and have a more or less fixed meaning within the sentence.
| Pronoun | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| What | Ask or express yourself about a thing or situation. | What's that? How gorgeous! He didn't say what he wanted. What does it matter to me. |
| Who who | Asking or expressing oneself about a person or subject. | Whom? Who'd say! I know who you date. |
| Which, which | Ask for an element taken from a set or a list of possible elements. | What is your name? Tell me which one is your favorite. What will it be? |
| How much how many | Ask or express yourself about a certain amount. | How much longer am I going to wait? I don't know how much it will cost. How much has passed! |
| How | Ask or express yourself about a way or a situation. | How is that? As you say? No idea how you plan to come. |
Relative Pronouns
Relative pronouns always refer to an already mentioned or known antecedent within the sentence, which is generally a noun phrase or a noun, and which exceptionally may not appear explicitly. Thus, when substituting a noun or a whole noun phrase, these pronouns fulfill the same functions as they do within the sentence.
Relative pronouns are not stressed, and are usually accompanied by articles or prepositions.
| Pronoun | Example |
|---|---|
| That | I met the man you were telling me about yesterday. The woman who greeted us is my wife. |
| Which, which | The friend we were talking about is coming to visit. There was only one door, which we opened wide. |
| How much / how much few few | She refused everything her kidnappers suggested. He gave money to how many homeless there were. He greeted everyone who approached him. |
| Where | The place where we are going is very far away. |
| Who who | Those are the friends I told you about. The relative of whom we had no news has arrived. |
| Whose / whose whose / whose | I mean the child whose parents are engineers. I read it in a book whose cover was torn. We arrived at a site whose photos we had already seen. |
Numeral pronouns
These are those that serve to indicate an exact number within a sentence or expression. These are non-personal pronouns, which can be cardinal (when they express order) or ordinal (when they express quantity), and they are virtually infinite. Thus, in situations where it is obvious, instead of saying "I have a gift", we can say "I have one." Or instead of saying “let's go up to the third floor”, we can say “let's go up to the third floor”.
Indefinite pronouns
Finally, the indefinite pronouns are those that express different notions of quantity, proportion, identity or some other idea, but in a vague or imprecise way, generally because the speaker is not interested in handling much margin of determination. They generally act as nouns or as adjectives in some cases, and have very abundant and varied forms.
Some of the most common are:
| Case | Pronouns | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Male | one / ones some / some none Many other / others so / so various | Then one from the other team came and said ... I don't know if any of them will have something to say. None seem to have failed. Many wanted to be taken into account. Some had pencils, others had pens. I have so much to tell you. There were several wanting to fight. |
| Feminine | one / some some / some other / other all little so much many several | Only one rose and asked to speak. Maybe there are some who want to dance. Some complained, others preferred to leave. The night is young, we have it all. We didn't give you cake because there was little left. Patience? I don't have as much as before. Many were surprised to be on the list. There were several willing to go to trial. |
| Neutral | something little bit much too any so much | I don't think there is anything that satisfies you. Yesterday we had little to do. Tomorrow I will give you much more than today. We have too much pending in the office. I have nothing for you. Did you get that much in the mail? |