pronoun

[ proh-noun ]

noun

, Grammar.

1. any member of a small class of words found in many languages that are used as replacements or substitutes for nouns and noun phrases, and that have very general reference, as I, you, he, this, it, who, what. Pronouns are sometimes formally distinguished from nouns, as in English by the existence of special objective forms, as him for he or me for I, and by nonoccurrence with an article or adjective.

pronoun

/ ˈprəʊˌnaʊn /

noun

1. one of a class of words that serves to replace a noun phrase that has already been or is about to be mentioned in the sentence or context pron

pronoun

1. A word that takes the place of a noun . She , herself , it , and this are examples of pronouns. If we substituted pronouns for the nouns in the sentence “Please give the present to Karen,” it would read “Please give it to her .”

Grammar Note

Although not generally accepted as good usage, between you and I is heard occasionally in the speech of educated persons. By the traditional rules of grammar, when a pronoun is the object of a preposition, that pronoun should be in the objective case: between you and me; between her and them. The use of the nominative form ( I, he, she, they, etc.) arises partly as overcorrection, the reasoning being that if it is correct at the end of a sentence like It is I, it must also be correct at the end of the phrase between you and …. The choice of pronoun also owes something to the tendency for the final pronoun in a compound object to be in the nominative case after a verb: It was kind of you to invite my wife and I. This too is not generally regarded as good usage.

Word History and Origins

Origin of pronoun¹

First recorded in 1520–30; from Middle French pronom, from Latin prōnōmen (stem prōnōmin- ). See pro- ¹, noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of pronoun¹

C16: from Latin prōnōmen, from pro- ¹+ nōmen noun

Example Sentences

Oh, the heaven and hell wrought by the casual use of a pronoun.

From The Daily Beast

He placed particular emphasis on the pronoun when he spoke the title aloud.

From The Daily Beast

There's UP and US, and UT—an old name for the first (and last) tone, do, and WE (the funnest pronoun) and WO, which is woe.

From The Daily Beast

The pronoun is deliberate: the Sims was one of the first games to be played by women in significant numbers.

From The Daily Beast

He asks, “What magic is there in the pronoun ‘my,’ that should justify us in overturning the decisions of impartial truth?”

From The Daily Beast

The subject pronoun, when unemphatic, is not expressed, but understood from the termination of the verb.

From Project Gutenberg

The relative object pronoun is often repeated as a personal pronoun, so that the verb has its object expressed twice.

From Project Gutenberg

The third personal pronoun—he, she, it—in all its cases is especially uncertain in its references.

From Project Gutenberg

That is my excuse for the free use of the personal pronoun, not to make prominent the person, but to emphasize the reality.

From Project Gutenberg

The disjunctive forms of the pronoun are also sometimes preserved before verbs and adjectives.

From Project Gutenberg