Pronoun

What is a pronoun?

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun.

Here are a few examples: he, she, it, they, someone, who

That means that a pronoun can do all of the things that a noun can do. It can be modified by an adjective, and it can perform any of the noun jobs in a sentence (subject, direct object, indirect object, object of the preposition).

Heck, the word pronoun even has the word noun in it!

What is a pronoun? It is a word that takes the place of a noun.

---

Let's look at a few example sentences:

Erik Weihenmayer is a blind mountain climber. (noun)

He is a blind mountain climber. (pronoun)

See how the pronoun he took the place of the noun Erik Weihenmayer?

Here is another example:

Not only is Erik Weihenmayer a mountain climber,
he is also a motivational speaker.

Notice how this example is a little different than the first one. Here, the noun and pronoun are found in the same sentence.

Remember how the definition of a pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun? Well, from the above example, you can see that the pronoun he takes the place of the noun Erik Weihenmayer

We could have written the sentence like this:

Not only is Erik Weihenmayer a mountain climber, but Erik Weihenmayer is also a motivational speaker.

But that doesn't sound good!

Thank goodness for pronouns!

If we didn't have them, we would have to keep saying Erik Weihenmayer every time that we wanted to refer to him. (Oh- look! I just used the pronoun him to refer to Erik Weihenmayer!)