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Pronoun List

Personal

Subject – he, she, I, you, it, they, we

Object/Indirect Object – me, you, it, him, her, them, us

Possessive

my, your, his, her, their, our, ours, mine, yours, hers, theirs, its

Reflexive

myself, yourself, himself, herself, themselves, itself

Demonstrative

this, that, these, those

Relative

who, which, that, whose, what

Indefinite

all, another, any, anybody, both, each, either, few, many, everything, anyone, nothing

Pronoun activities and printable worksheets

Picture Activities          Functional/Etc.            Fill in the Blank            Dice Activities/Etc.

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Subject Pronoun Pix   Pronoun Blanks  Possessive Choices   Possessive Pix    Sentence Search

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Possessive               Subject/Object               Possessive                  Reflexive

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Possessive Pronouns       Demonstratives      Reflexive Pronouns  Possessive Pronouns

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Background Pronoun Information

Pronouns serve both syntactic and semantic functions within sentences.  They can serve as subjects, objects, direct objects, and indirect objects; they can do anything that nouns can do.  Pronouns reduce both redundancy (a good thing) and specificity (a not so good thing).  One main difference between nouns and pronouns is that pronouns do not allow adjectives to modify them – you can say “a big car,” but not “a big it” (Crystal, 1995).  Pronouns are often a source of syntactic ambiguity when their referents are confused.  For example, in the sentence, “Elizabeth gave Mary her coat.” it may not be evident to the listener which girl the word her refers to without knowledge outside of the sentence.

Unlike many areas of language acquisition, the specific order of pronoun development has been studied extensively (Owens, 1996).  Much of the research suggests that pronoun development is variable, although there is some agreement on basic pronouns, such as I, it, and you. (Chiat, 1986).  According to Roseberry-McKibben and Hegde, normally developing children begin using first pronouns, such as “I” and “me” at 2-3 years of age, “you,” “they,” “us,” and “them” at 3-4 years of age, most pronouns, including possessives by 4-5 years of age, and all pronouns by 5-6 years of age (Roseberry-McKibben and Hegde, 2000).

Pronouns are classified by case (subjective, nominative, possessive, and reflexive) and person (first, second, and third).  They can also change according to the referent’s number (singular or plural).  Advanced difficulties with pronouns are frequent, and include problems such as gender confusion (“Each child must listen to his or her parents.”) and subject-object confusion in phrases (“The teacher spoke with him and me.” not “The teacher spoke with him and I.”)  Relative pronouns may be specifically addressed if working on clauses.  Other types of pronouns include intensive, interrogative, and reciprocal.  Assessments with pronouns include the OWLS, SPELT, PLS, and CELF series of tests.

Elicitation Ideas

Pronoun Goal Suggestions

Artemis will identify objects and pictures when given personal and possessive pronouns, for example, “He is smiling,” or “Where is your shirt?”

Artemis will identify objects and pictures when given reflexive, demonstrative, and/or indefinite pronouns, for example, “Pat fed himself,” or “Point to that cat.”

Persephone will label personal and possessive pronouns in response to questions, for example, “Whose shoes are those?” or “Who is wearing that shirt?”

Persephone will label reflexive, relative, and/or indefinite pronouns in response to questions, for example, “Who was he talking to?” (himself), and “Which bug is walking?” (that one).

Hercules will use personal pronouns in sentences, for example, “They are eating.”

Hercules will use possessive pronouns in sentences, for example, Their books are new.”

Hercules will use reflexive, demonstrative, and/or indefinite pronouns in sentences, for example, “Do you have any money left?”