PERSONAL,POSSESIVE and REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS

PERSONAL PRONOUNS

Definition

In English grammar, a personal pronoun is a pronoun that refers to a particular person, group, or thing. Like all pronouns, personal pronouns can take the place of nouns and noun phrases.

These are the personal pronouns in English:

• First-person singular: I (subject); me (object)
• First-person plural: we (subject); us (object)
• Second-person singular and plural: you (subject and object)
• Third-person singular: he, she, it (subject); him, her, it (object)
• Third-person plural: they (subject); them (object)

Note that personal pronouns inflect for case to show whether they are serving as subjects of clauses or as objects of verbs or prepositions.

Also note that all the personal pronouns except you have distinct forms indicating number, either singular or plural. Only the third-person singular pronouns have distinct forms indicating gender: masculine (he, him), feminine (she, her), and neuter (it). A personal pronoun (such as they) that can refer to both masculine and feminine entities is called a generic pronoun.

Examples (in each pair, the first sentence shows a subject pronoun, the second anobject pronoun):

• I like coffee. / John helped me.
• Do you like coffee? / John loves you.
• He runs fast. / Did Ram beat him?
• She is clever. / Does Mary know her?
• It doesn't work. / Can the man fix it?
• We went home. / Anthony drove us.
• Do you need a table for three? / Did John and Mary beat you at doubles?
• They played doubles. / John and Mary beat them.

POSSESIVE PRONOUNS

Definition

A possessive pronoun is a part of speech that attributes ownership to someone or something. Like any other pronoun, it substitutes a noun phrase and can prevent its repetition. For example, in the phrase, "These glasses are mine, not yours", the words "mine" and "yours" are possessive pronouns and stand for "my glasses" and "your glasses," respectively.

Examples

This is our house. It's ours.
This is my bedroom. It's mine.
This is my brother's bike. It's his.

Note

1. A possessive pronoun differs from a possessive adjective.

Examples:

• What color is your brother's jacket?
  His jacket is black.
  (your and his are possessive adjectives; your and his modify the noun jacket in both examples)
• What color is yours?
  Mine is blue.
  (yours and mine are possessive pronouns - yours functions as a subject complement in the first example; mine functions as a subject in the second example)

2. "It's" is not a possessive pronoun or adjective; it is a contraction of it is or it has.

Example:

• It's not my book = it is not my book
• It's got five bedrooms = it has got five bedrooms

REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS

Definition

In English grammar, a reflexive pronoun is a pronoun ending in -self or -selvesthat's used as an object to refer to a previously named noun or pronoun in a sentence. Also called simply a reflexive.

Reflexive pronouns usually follow verbs or prepositions.

Reflexive pronouns have the same forms as intensive pronouns: myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, itself, oneself, and themselves. Unlike intensive pronouns, reflexive pronouns are essential to the meaning of a sentence.

The singular reflexive pronouns are:

Myself

Yourself

Himself, herself, itself

Plural reflexive pronouns include:

Ourselves

Yourselves

Themselves

All of the above pronouns are used to rename the subjects of action verbs and function as different types of objects. If the reflexive pronoun is taken out of the sentence, it won’t make sense. Let’s look at a few examples.

Examples of reflexive pronouns

The following sentences are examples of the correct and incorrect use of reflexive pronouns.

Non-reflexive: Adam e-mailed him a copy of the report.

In this sense the italicized words are not the same person. Him is not a reflection of Adam therefore it is not a reflexive pronoun.

Reflexive: Adam e-mailed himself a copy of the report.

Here are the italicized words are the same person. Himself reflects back to the subject of the sentence which is Adam.

Non-reflexive: Allison accidentally cut her with the scissors.
Reflexive: Allison accidentally cut herself.

Non-reflexive: Brandon blames you.
Reflexive: Brandon blames himself.

Non-reflexive: Can you feed my guests?
Reflexive: Can you feed yourselves?

Non-reflexive: They cannot help the angry mob.
Reflexive: They cannot help themselves.

Non-reflexive: Carol poured her a glass of milk.
Reflexive: Carol poured herself a glass of milk.

Non-reflexive: The young girl was singing happily to them.
Reflexive: The young girl was singing happily to herself.

More examples of reflexive pronouns:

He cut himself on the broken glass.

She made herself a cup of tea and sat down in front of the television.

Parents often blame themselves for the way their children behave.

reference :

http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/perspronounterm.htm

https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns-personal.htm

http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-lesson-possessive-pronouns.php

http://www.k12reader.com/term/reflexive-pronouns/

http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/refpronounterm.htm