This is Lesson 13 of our Basic English Series.
Parts of Speech 2.4
Pronouns Part 4 – Interrogative, Demonstrative and Indefinite Pronouns
Interrogative, demonstrative and indefinite pronouns are not difficult to identify. That is the reason why we combined them in one lesson, and we will discuss these three briefly because in the next lesson we will consider the more complicated aspects of the same pronouns but in other applications and scenarios.
Let’s start with the first one.
Interrogative pronouns
Pronouns that introduce questions.
Some of these pronouns that we use daily are what, which, who, whom, and whose.
Let us use these in the following examples.
- What is that?
- Who is this?
- What are these?
- Which city is the most populated in the word?
- Who is the greatest military commander in history?
Demonstrative pronouns
Demonstrative pronouns point out specific persons, places, or things.
The four demonstrative pronouns are this (singular), that (singular), these (plural) and those (plural).
Here are some examples.
- This is my computer. (The speaker is pointing to a computer that is either he is touching or in his proximity.)
- That is my car. (The speaker is pointing to a car that is either closer to the person he is speaking with or some distance away from both of them.)
- These are all the projects I made. (It is the plural form of this in which the speaker is pointing to things that are either he is touching or in his proximity.)
- Those are projects of students that I supervised. (It is the plural form of that in which the speaker is pointing to things that are either closer to the person he is speaking with or some distance away from both of them.)
Indefinite pronouns
In contrast to demonstrative pronouns, indefinite pronouns do not refer to particular persons, places, or things. The word indefinite indicates that there is no specific direction to which the speaker is pointing at.
Here are some examples of indefinite pronouns.
There are more examples of indefinite pronoun in the singular form. Here are some of them.
And here is a more organized presentation of singular indefinite pronouns where we can understand the relationship of each one along with their possible applications.
We have learned four of the five types of pronouns so far. The last one has some complications but easy to understand and can be mastered through constant reading, writing and practice in our daily conversations.
In the next lesson we will cover the relative pronouns.
See you there.
Let us move on to the next lesson.
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