Читать книгу Practical Grammar and Composition - Thomas Wood - Страница 5

PRONOUNS

17. Pronoun and Antecedent.APronounis a word used instead of a noun. The noun in whose stead it stands is called itsAntecedent.Johntook Mary'sbookand gaveittohisfriend. In this sentencebookis the antecedent of the pronounit, andJohnis the antecedent ofhis.

18. Pronouns should agree with their antecedents in person, gender, and number.

19. Personal Pronounsare those that by their form indicate the speaker, the person spoken to, or the person or thing spoken about.

Pronouns of theFirst Personindicate the speaker; they are:I, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours.

Pronouns of theSecond Personindicate the person or thing spoken to; they are:you, your, yours. There are also the grave or solemn forms in the second person, which are now little used; these are:thou, thee, thy, thine, andye.

Pronouns of theThird Personindicate the person or thing spoken of; they are:he, his, him, she, her, hers, they, their, theirs, them, it, its.

Few errors are made in the use of the proper person of the pronoun.

20. Gender of Pronouns.The following pronouns indicate sex or gender; Masculine:he, his, him. Feminine:she, her, hers. Neuter:it, its.

In order to secure agreement in gender it is necessary to know the gender of the noun, expressed or understood, to which the pronoun refers.Gender of nouns is important only so far as it concerns the use of pronouns. Study carefully thePage 14following rules in regard to gender. These rules apply to the singular number only, since all plurals of whatever gender are referred to by