The pronoun is an independent part of speech. Its peculiarity is that it indicates an object, property, quantity, but does not name them. The word “pronoun” itself speaks of the replacement function of this part of speech. The term is tracing paper from the Latin pronomen, and it is from the Greek antonymia, which literally translates “instead of a name”.
Pronouns are one of the most frequent words. They occupy third place in frequency of use. In the first place are nouns, in the second are verbs. However, out of the 30 most frequent words, as many as 12 pronouns. 5 of them are personal, the rest are divided into different categories. Third-person pronouns in the Russian language occupy an important niche. There are 3 of them among the most frequent words - he, she, they.
Pronouns
At school, the topic of pronouns begins to be studied from grade 4.
There are such groups of pronouns as personal, possessive, reflexive, interrogative, relative, indefinite, negative, indicative, definitive.
Personal pronouns denote a person or object: I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they.
Possessive persons indicate belonging to someone and answer the question: “Whose?”. This is mine, yours, his, hers, ours, yours, theirs and a faceless one - mine .
Refundable ( oneself, oneself ) - towards self -directedness.
Interrogative ( who, what, when , etc.) are used in interrogative sentences.
Relative (those who, like others, but in subordinate clauses) play the role of allied words.
Undetermined (for example, someone, some , etc.) are used when we do not know the quantity, object or attribute.
Negative ( nobody, nobody, anywhere , etc.) indicate the absence of all that is indicated.
The indicative ones direct our attention to specific objects and signs, and the indicative ones ( self, whole, other , etc.) help to clarify them.
Face category
The category of person shows the relationship of the action to the speaker. It is possessed by verbs and some pronouns. As you know, there are 3 persons. The first person indicates the speaker (s) or belonging to the speaker (s): I, we, mine, ours . The second person is on the interlocutor (s) or belonging to the interlocutor (s): you, you, yours, yours. Third - indicates the subject, phenomenon or person who is being talked about or belonging to that person (s). Which pronouns refer to 3 persons? He, she, it, they, him, her, them.
The category of person is in personal and possessive pronouns. Personal pronouns can be related to nouns. They perfectly replace them in sentences and have the same categories: gender, number and case. They indicate an object, phenomenon or person and play the role of the subject in the sentence. And possessives are similar to adjectives. They also have a gender, number and case, but they are consistent with nouns and indicate a sign of an object - its belonging.
Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns play a huge role in language. With the word "I" begins the self-awareness of each child. As soon as the baby begins to talk about himself in the first person, and not in the third, calling himself by name, a new period of development begins. Usually this happens in three years.
Without the words “you” and “you” it would be much more difficult for us to contact our interlocutor. And the third person pronouns - he, she, it, they - reduce speech and help to avoid unnecessary repetitions and unnecessary searches for a synonym.
First person pronouns - me and we. The second is you and you . Third - the most numerous because of the presence of the category of the genus. There are as many as 3 pronouns of the third person singular - he, she, it. And just one thing in the plural - they. Just like adjectives, it is devoid of gender and universal for all genera, therefore there is only one.
How inclined personal pronouns of the third person in cases?
You may notice an interesting pattern. In indirect cases, third person pronouns have the endings of its adjectives (cf .: blue ). However, in the pronoun, it is the form of the genitive and accusative case of her is an exception. Adjectives in these cases will have endings - for her ( blue ) and - for yu (blue).
Declination of pronouns without prepositions
Nominative (who, what?) - He, she, it, they.
Genitive (whom? What?) - him, her, him, them.
Dative (to whom? Why?) - him, her, him, them.
Accusative (whom? What?) - him, her, him, them.
Creative (by whom? What?) - to them, to her, to them, to them.
Prepositional (about whom? About what?) - about him, about her, about him, about them.
Why in the latter case could it have done without an excuse? As you know from the school course, the prepositional case is so called precisely because it is impossible to use nouns and pronouns devoid of prepositions.
Prepositions
Let's see how third-person pronouns are inclined with prepositions.
In the nominative case, prepositions do not apply.
The prepositions of the genitive case include: Without, y, s, from, to, from, about, near, beside, for ( him, her, them )
In this case, the pronoun answers a wider range of questions. To the questions of the genitive case “ whom? "," What? "Prepositions are added:" Without whom? - without him. Of what? - from him . " In all indirect cases, a question with a spatial meaning appears: "Where? Where? Where? Where?"
Prepositions of the dative case - to and by ( him, her, him ) Questions "Where? Where?" - to her!
Prepositions of the accusative case - on, for, under, in, in, through, about ( him, her, them ) Questions also "Where? Where?"
Prepositions of the instrumental case - above, behind, under, before, with, from, between ( him, her, them )
Prepositions of the prepositional case - in, about, about, on, with ( him, her, them ). They answer the question "About whom? About what? Where?"
Mysterious letter n
You may notice that when using all these prepositions, n- is added at the beginning of the pronouns: with it, along it, for it, between them. The exception is derived prepositions: due, contrary to contrary, to meet. For example, to meet him.
Where did the mysterious letter n come from? Several centuries ago, the prepositions in, to and with had a different look - vn, kn, pr. They consisted of 3 sounds. The letter Kommersant sounded like a muffled vowel. It turns out that pronouns with prepositions were written like this: vn him, kn her. Prepositions were simplified over time, but the consonant n took root in the language and began to be perceived as part of the pronouns themselves. Therefore, the use of this letter has spread to other prepositions, which initially it did not apply.
Some more history
You may notice another strange feature. The form of the nominative case of the pronouns does not seem to correspond to the indirect ones. This is no coincidence. Indeed, once in the language there existed such indicative pronouns: for the masculine - and, for the feminine - I, for the middle - e. It was their forms that were familiar to him, him, her, ... But these short pronouns were easily confused with the union and, as well as the pronoun I.
There were other indicative pronouns: the familiar to us he, she, it. However, they were inclined differently:
The nominative is he.
Genitive - thereof.
Dative - onom.
The creative one is that.
Prepositional - about it .
A third-person plural pronoun also existed - the ones or the ones .
Because of convenience, the nominative case of the first pronouns (and, I, f) was replaced by the nominative case of the second. But indirect forms remained. Indirect cases from the pronoun "he" also have not disappeared. They were used in the language and some of them are still alive. They are archaic or ironic in nature: during it, for lack of it.
Possessive third-person pronouns
Possessive pronouns of the first person - this is mine, ours . The second is yours . The third is him, her and them . Why are there one less of them? Where did the pronoun of the middle gender go? The fact is that it coincides with the masculine pronoun - his.
But possessive third-person pronouns in cases are not inclined. All of them correspond to the forms of the genitive or accusative case of personal pronouns: him, her, him, them . In sentences, they do not change ( her cap is her cap ), unlike the same first and second person pronouns: ( my cap is my cap, your cap is your cap ).
Mistakes in using personal pronouns
One possible mistake is to skip the letter –n after prepositions. “Trees grew near him,” “came to visit her,” sounds illiterate.
Using pronouns as alternate words can give rise to ambiguity. Therefore, you cannot use a pronoun if there is no replaceable word in the previous sentence. This situation is especially insidious if the sentence contains another word of the same number or kind. This can even create a comic effect.
Lensky went on a duel in trousers. They parted, and a shot rang out.
Here, although one of the participants in the duel is named, there is a word in the plural. Therefore, "they" are referred to the word "drawers". Here's how to carefully handle third-person pronouns! Examples reach the point of absurdity:
Gerasim was very loyal to the lady and drowned her.
The situation is similar, only the pronoun "her" and a similar noun are in the same sentence. The word "dog" or the name "Mumu" was lost somewhere in the previous sentences, and the "lady" was in a dangerous neighborhood of the pronoun.
If a sentence contains several nouns of the same gender or number, then in the next sentence or the second part of a complex sentence, it is also incorrect to use replacement pronouns.
From the USA, a package arrived in the mail. Soon it closed for lunch (Mail or parcel?)
In colloquial speech, pronouns are used much more often and it is permissible to use them in the absence of substitute words. The fact is that in life the situation itself often tells what is being discussed, and facial expressions and intonation can help the speaker. But in writing or in oral presentation, such errors must be avoided.
Mistakes in the use of possessive pronouns
Since possessive third-person pronouns coincide with the forms of the genitive and accusative cases of personal pronouns, it is erroneous to form them on the model of other possessive pronouns and add the suffix –– and the ending –– / characteristic for adjectives. Everyone knows that the non-existent word “theirs” in a person’s speech does not characterize his culture and literacy for the better. A talented writer can play on mistakes in speech. To reproduce the colloquial writing style of a peasant boy, A.P. Chekhov, in addition to other words, also uses the erroneous form of the pronoun: "... And she took a herring and with her face began to poke me in a mug ." But nevertheless, writers are also masters of the word that are well aware of the norms of the language and precisely because of this can play deviations from these norms.
conclusions
Thus, third-person pronouns are short, but very important words, and in speech it is almost impossible to do without them. Therefore, it is important to know the rules of their decline and use well and use these words wisely.