Today we continue with our review of the different parts of speech in the English language.  The two parts of speech that I will review today are pronouns and prepositions.

Pronouns
Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns. You use a pronoun instead of a noun, that is, the pronoun replaces the noun. Pronouns are words like: he, she, you, ours, themselves, some, and each.  If we didn’t have pronouns to use when speaking and writing, we would have to repeat the same noun over and over again, which is not an ideal way to communicate. The following is an example of how to use pronouns to replace nouns.

Example paragraph without pronouns:
James went to Paris. James visited Jerry. Jerry is James’ friend.  James and Jerry went to the Eiffel Tower and James and Jerry took pictures there.  James took pictures of Jerry and the city and Jerry took pictures of James and the city.

Example paragraph with pronouns (pronouns are in bold):
James went to Paris.  He visited his friend Jerry. They went to the Eiffel Tower and they took pictures there.  They took pictures of each other and the city.

There are a number of different types of pronouns.  I have listed these different types below with some examples.

Personal Pronouns: I, me, you, he, him, she, they

Demonstrative Pronouns:  this, that, these, those

Possessive Pronouns: yours, mine, his, hers

Interrogative Pronouns
: who, what, which

Reflexive Pronouns
: myself, yourself, himself, herself

Reciprocal Pronouns
: each other, one another

Indefinite Pronouns
: another, much, nobody, few, such

Relative Pronouns
: who, whom, which

Prepositions
A preposition is a word in control of, and usually in front of, a noun or pronoun.  A preposition expresses a relationship between the noun and another word in the sentence.  In the following examples the prepositions are in brackets [ ] and the nouns that are being controlled are in italics.

Carol ate a snack [before] lunch.
The children studied [at] school.

There is one very simple rule about prepositions in English. And, unlike most rules in English, this rule has no exceptions.  Here is the rule: A preposition is always followed by a noun.

Although this rule is very simple it does not make selecting the right preposition to use in the right situation any easier.  Learning which preposition to use in the right situation takes practice!  Here is a list of very common prepositions you are likely to use regularly in English.

about
as
at
by
but
during
except
for
from
in
into
of
on
over
than
through
to
under
up
with