General Question

flo's avatar

What is the list of pronouns that are not personal?

Asked by flo (13313points) January 16th, 2019

Is there such a thing, if not, why is the word personal added? https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/personal-pronoun (link just for reference)
I don’t see anywhere re. impersonal or public pronouns

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20 Answers

janbb's avatar

There are relative pronouns and there are also possessive pronouns.

Demosthenes's avatar

In the case of pronouns, “personal” is not contrasted with “impersonal”. They’re called “personal” pronouns because they correspond to grammatical person, i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd.

Other types of pronouns, in addition to what @janbb posted, include interrogative (who, what, which), indefinite (some, any), demonstrative (this, that), and reflexive (himself, themselves).

flo's avatar

OK, thanks still don’t understand the word personal The objective pronoun applies as personal too right except it’s not.

flo's avatar

…I mean “except it doesn’t”.

janbb's avatar

@flo If you think of personal pronouns as the pronouns that replace the subject of a sentence or clause that may make it clearer to you.

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Demosthenes's avatar

“Objective” and “subjective” just refer to the different forms of the personal pronouns. “He” and “him” are both personal pronouns; “he” is the subject form, “him” is the object form.

flo's avatar

@Demosthenes according to the link above, are all those (Demonstrative, Interrogative, Relative) personal pronouns or not? If not they are ”.....Pronouns”, right? Except I don’t know what goes in the blank

Demosthenes's avatar

They are pronouns, but not personal. They are demonstrative, interrogative, relative pronouns.

“Personal” is simply one of several types of pronouns.

flo's avatar

@Demosthenes OK,

So personal is only the subject form see (@janbb), and the link says it’s the subject and the object form.

Demosthenes's avatar

No. lol

Let me see if I can explain this better.

In English, there is only one type of pronoun that has different forms for subject and object. Those are the personal pronouns.

He saw me.

I saw him.

“He” and “I” are subject personal pronouns; “him” and “me” are object personal pronouns.

No other type of pronoun has a subject or object form; only the personal pronouns. Does that make sense?

flo's avatar

@Demosthenes What do you call the pronouns that are not personal as a group?

Demosthenes's avatar

There’s nothing to call them. They don’t form a salient group. They’re simply the pronouns that aren’t personal.

It’s like asking what do you call the colors that aren’t red. There’s no special name for them. They’re just not red.

flo's avatar

Ok. I understand.

janbb's avatar

@Demosthenes has it right. I am struggling with this now in French lessons FWIW.

flo's avatar

…I think I understand.

flo's avatar

@janbb re. “I am struggling with this now in French lessons FWIW”
Maybe post an OP. There could be French language teacher who can help you, and some the rest of us.

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