Video:Quick Tip: What is a Pronoun?with Heather Kamins
Pronouns are a part of speech that are used to replace nouns so that the same words aren't repeated. Watch this About.com video to learn more examples of pronouns.See Transcript
Transcript:Quick Tip: What is a Pronoun?
Hi, I'm Heather Kamins for About.com, and I'm here to talk to you about what a pronoun is.
How Pronouns Are Used
A pronoun is a part of speech that stands in for a noun. These are words like he, she, it and they. You can use pronouns in your writing so you don't have to keep repeating the same word over and over. So for example, take these couple of sentences:My friend's bicycle is red. It has a bell and a basket, and my friend rides it everywhere.
It's important to be clear which noun the pronoun is standing in for. That noun is called the antecedent. Usually the antecedent will be the last noun in the sentence or passage that matches the pronoun in terms of gender and number. If your antecedent is unclear, your sentence or passage can be confusing or example: My dog, Sam, loves the mailman. He always barks happily when he arrives. In that example, it sounds like the mailman is the one barking.
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