Other Pronoun Recognition Practice

Besides personal pronouns there are other pronouns you should be able to recognize and use correctly. They are:

Possessive: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs.
Demonstrative: this, that, these, those (without noun following...if there is a noun following, these words are adjectives)

Examples:
This is mine. ("this" and "mine" are pronouns)
This book is my book. ("This" and "my" are adjectives)

Relative: who, whom, whose (these introduce a dependent clause)

Example:
John is the boy who will be coming to the classroom today.

Interrogative: who, what, which, whom (these introduce a question without a noun following...if there is a noun following, these words are adjectives)These are pronouns that do not seem to refer to a particular person, place, or thing. For this reason, you need to look for the noun they refer to in the sentence or in a previous sentence.

The following indefinite pronouns can be either singular or plural...it depends on what they refer to in the sentence: all, any, most, none, some

Examples:
Most of the food - most is singular and refers to food and food is singular
Most of the passengers - most is plural and refers to passengers

It is important to watch what the pronoun refers to - if the noun is singular, use a singular verb. If the noun the pronoun refers to is plural, use a plural verb.

These indefinite pronouns end in -body or -one or -thing and thus are singular, so you need to use a singular verb. Remember, many times a singular verb ends in -s.

The following indefinite pronouns are plural, so you should use a plural verb with them: both, few, many, ones, others, several.

1. Most of the story (take, takes) place in Ohio.
2. Everyone (is, are) ready for the play.
3. Several of the students (rides, ride) the bus to school.
4. All of the teachers (is, are) prepared for the beginning of school.
5. Some of the characters (was, were) heroes in the story.
6. Nobody (understands, understand) the assignment.
7. None of them (seem, seems) to want a failing grade.
8. Many (offers, offer) Alice advice.
9. One of the animals (wiggle, wiggles) its ears.
10. Few (has, have) seen the movie.