Pronoun — सर्वनाम
🎯 Why This Chapter Can Win You Easy Marks
Every English paper in SSC GD, SSC MTS, RRB Group D and State Police exams contains questions where a single wrong pronoun — *he/him, who/whom, each/every* — decides your mark. The good news: pronoun questions are rule-based, not luck-based. Master the 12 Golden Rules in this chapter and these become your fastest, safest marks in the paper.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter you will be able to:
- Identify all types of pronouns (personal, possessive, reflexive, relative, indefinite, demonstrative, interrogative, reciprocal).
- Apply the 12 Golden Rules to spot pronoun errors in seconds.
- Avoid the classic Hindi-speaker traps (e.g., *"Myself went to Delhi"*).
- Solve error-spotting and fill-in-the-blank questions within the 15-second rule.
1. What is a Pronoun?
A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun to avoid repetition.
> *Ravi is a boy. Ravi goes to school. Ravi plays cricket.* ❌ (awkward)
> *Ravi is a boy. He goes to school. He plays cricket.* ✅
The noun that a pronoun replaces is called its antecedent. In the example above, *Ravi* is the antecedent of *he*.
Golden Principle: A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number, person and gender.
🧠 Active Recall: What is an antecedent? In the sentence *"Sita lost her bag,"* which word is the pronoun and which is the antecedent?
2. Types of Pronouns
| Type | Words | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Personal | I, we, you, he, she, it, they / me, us, him, her, them | *She gave me a pen.* |
| Possessive | mine, ours, yours, his, hers, theirs | *This book is mine.* |
| Reflexive | myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves | *He hurt himself.* |
| Relative | who, whom, whose, which, that | *The boy who came is my friend.* |
| Demonstrative | this, that, these, those | *These are my books.* |
| Interrogative | who, whom, whose, which, what | *Whom did you meet?* |
| Indefinite | everyone, everybody, someone, somebody, anybody, nobody, none, all, some | *Everyone is present.* |
| Reciprocal | each other, one another | *They love each other.* |
⚠️ Note: *Each* and *every* are determiners, not pronouns — they come before a noun (*each boy, every student*). But the pronouns built from them — *each one, everyone, everybody* — are indefinite pronouns and follow the singular rule (Rule 5 below).
🧠 Active Recall: Which type is *"whom"* in *"Whom did you call?"* — relative or interrogative? Why?
3. The 12 Golden Rules of Pronouns ⭐
Rule 1 — Pronoun after "let": Use the objective case after *let*.
✅ *Let him go.* ❌ *Let he go.*
Rule 2 — Subject vs Object case: After a verb or preposition, use the objective case (me, him, her, us, them).
✅ *Between you and me, he is wrong.* ❌ *Between you and I…*
Rule 3 — "Each other" vs "One another": *Each other* for two; *one another* for more than two.
✅ *Ram and Shyam help each other.* / *The players help one another.*
Rule 4 — Reflexive pronouns cannot be subjects.
❌ *Myself went to the market.* ✅ *I went to the market myself.*
Rule 5 — Indefinite pronouns (everyone, everybody, somebody, anybody, nobody, each one) take a SINGULAR pronoun/verb. The determiners *each* and *every* before a noun also make it singular.
✅ *Everyone should do his duty.* ❌ *…their duty.*
✅ *Every student has done his work.*
Rule 6 — "Each of / Every one of / Either of / Neither of" → singular pronoun.
✅ *Each of the boys has done his work.*
Rule 7 — Two nouns joined by "and" → plural pronoun; joined by "or/nor/either…or/neither…nor" → pronoun agrees with the NEARER subject.
✅ *Neither the teacher nor the students did their best.*
✅ *Neither the students nor the teacher did his best.*
Rule 8 — "Who" for persons, "which" for things/animals, "that" for both (especially after superlatives, all, only, any).
✅ *This is the best book that I have read.*
✅ *The boy who came first won the prize.*
Rule 9 — "Who" vs "Whom": *Who* = subject (he); *whom* = object (him).
✅ *Whom did you invite?* (You invited him.)
Rule 10 — Possessive pronouns never take an apostrophe.
✅ *The book is hers.* ❌ *her's* / *it's* (= it is!)
Rule 11 — After "than/as" in comparisons, choose the case by completing the sentence.
✅ *She is taller than I (am).* / *I love you more than (I love) her.*
Rule 12 — "One" as subject takes "one/one's", not "his/their".
✅ *One should do one's duty.*
🧠 Active Recall: Without looking — which case follows *let*? When do we use *one another* instead of *each other*? Why is *"Everyone did their best"* wrong in exam English?
4. ⚠️ Examiner's Trap Box
> Trap 1 — The "Between you and I" trap: After prepositions (*between, to, for, with*), always use the objective case: *between you and me*. Examiners love the polite-sounding but wrong *"between you and I"*.
>
> Trap 2 — The "Everyone… their" trap: In modern speech people say *"Everyone should do their duty,"* but in SSC/Bank exam English, *everyone/everybody/each one* is singular → *his* (or *his or her*). Don't fall for the sound-right option.
>
> Trap 3 — The "Myself" trap: *Myself/himself* can never be the subject. *"Myself and Ravi went"* is always wrong → *"Ravi and I went."*
5. 🔁 Linguistic Bridge (Hindi → English)
| Hindi thought | ❌ Common error | ✅ Correct English |
|---|---|---|
| मैं खुद गया | *Myself went there.* | *I went there myself.* |
| तुम और मैं | *You and me will go.* | *You and I will go.* |
| यह किताब मेरी है | *This book is mines.* | *This book is mine.* |
| उसने मुझे मारा | *He beat to me.* | *He beat me.* |
| हर एक ने अपना काम किया | *Everyone did their work.* | *Everyone did his work.* |
Remember: Hindi has no case-change problem (मैं/मुझे feel interchangeable in speech), but English strictly separates I/me, he/him, who/whom.
6. Mnemonic 🧩
"S-O-S for Pronouns" — Subject does the action, Object receives it, Singular for each/every/everyone.
Or remember the object-case list with: "M-H-H-U-T" — *Me, Him, Her, Us, Them* — all come after verbs and prepositions.
7. Summary Table
| Situation | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| After *let* / preposition | Objective case | *Let him come.* |
| Subject of sentence | Nominative case | *He and I went.* |
| Two persons, mutual | each other | *Ram and Shyam…* |
| More than two, mutual | one another | *The team members…* |
| everyone/everybody/each one | Singular pronoun | *Everyone… his* |
| or/nor joining subjects | Agree with nearer | *Neither he nor they… their* |
| Superlative/all/only + clause | that | *the best that…* |
| Object question word | whom | *Whom did you see?* |
📌 Review after 2 days: Re-read the 12 Golden Rules and the Examiner's Trap Box, then attempt Practice Sets 1–2. Revise again after 7 days with the Flashcards.