Entries for the ‘Pronouns’ Category

Demonstrative Pronouns

Tuesday, June 12th, 2007

“The harder you fight to hold on to specific assumptions, the more likely there’s gold in letting go of them.” - John Seely Brown

Demonstrative Pronouns - Pronouns that point to specific things.

Demonstrative pronouns are indicated with this, these, that or those. They indicate distance. The antecedent can be in another clause or sentence. Sometimes the reference is too vague to denote a specific antecedent.

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Interrogative Pronouns

Tuesday, June 12th, 2007

“One’s first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one’s last is to come to terms with everything.” - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Interrogative - of, pertaining to, or conveying a question

Interrogative Pronouns introduce questions.

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Relative Pronouns

Tuesday, June 12th, 2007

“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” - Hans Hoffman

Relative Pronoun - A pronoun that introduces a relative clause and has reference to an antecedent.

Relative Clause - a clause introduced by a relative pronoun; “‘who visits frequently’ is a relative clause in the sentence ‘John, who visits frequently, is ill’”

Ok, so I have a definition to define my definition that uses the term I’m attempting to define within it - Aaaaaargh! This is why English sucks.

Let’s break this down a bit more…

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Personal Pronouns

Tuesday, June 12th, 2007

“Wisdom is what’s left after we’ve run out of personal opinions.” - Cullen Hightower

Personal Pronoun - A pronoun designating the person speaking (I, me, we, us), the person spoken to (you), or the person or thing spoken about (he, she, it, they, him, her, them).

Personal pronouns are seperated by person, case and number.

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Pronouns

Tuesday, June 12th, 2007

Mayonnaise: One of the sauces which serve the French in place of a state religion. - Ambrose Bierce

Pronoun - The part of speech that substitutes for nouns or noun phrases and designates persons or things asked for, previously specified, or understood from the context.

A pronoun takes the place of another noun.

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