Class 7 English Grammar: Pronouns and Possessive Adjectives

The Pronouns
(a) We may say—
Sheela is absent because Sheela is ill.
But it is better to avoid the repetition of the noun Sheela, and say Sheela is absent because she is ill.

What is a pronoun?. A word that is used to replace a noun is called pronoun.
(The word ‘Pronoun’ means ‘for a noun’.)

(b) If the number of noun is singular, persons of the male sex are referred to by
‘he, him, his, himself. Persons of the female sex take, ‘she, her, hers, herself. Non-living things are referred to by ‘it, its and itself.’

(c) If the number of noun is pluial, persons of either sex as also the non-living | things, are referred to by ‘they, them their, theirs, themselves’.

(d) An animal is generally referred to by the neuter ‘it’, even if the noun denotes one sex only.
‘ I watched the cow as it grazed peacefully.
However, if there is something in the situation that draws attention to the sex I of the animal, then ‘he’ or ‘she’ may be used.
There is a cow with her calf.
For animals which occur in a story as characters or the animals which are thought of as members of the family, he, she etc may be used.
We have a monkey in the house.
Have you seen him ?

Possessive Adjectives
The words ‘his’, ‘her’ and those derived from them are called possessive adjectives. They must agree in gender with the words which they refer back. The gender of these possessive adjectives has nothing to do with the nouns they follow:
Ram gave a present to his mother. (not her mother)
Sita gave a present to her brother as well as to her sister. (not his brother or his sister)
The cycle was restored to its owner. (not his or her owner)

This will help you to use correct pronoun or possessive adjective:
a person, man, boy, everybody girl, every girl, woman, every woman a thing, an animal one all plurals (men, women, animals, people, things)
he, him, his, himself she, her, hers, herself it, its, itself one, one’s, oneself they, them, their, theirs, themselves

The table above gives only the third person.
The one below is more exhaustive.

<br><img src='https://www.fatskills.com/images2/possessive-pronouns.GIF' />

Exercise 1
(Solved)
Fill in the blanks with suitable pronouns.

1. Ram and …………… were present.

2. Can you sing as well as …………… ?

3. Wait for Mohan and …………… .

4. It was …………… that gave you the alarm.

5. We are not so poor as …………… .

Answers:

1. I/you/he/she

2. he/they/I/she

3. me/them/us/her

4. I/he/she

5. he/they/she/you

Exercise 2
(Solved)
Insert his, her, its or their in the blank spaces.

1. The poor boy has lost …………… mother.

2. I am two years older than …………… brother.

3. Ram has taken …………… wife to the doctor.

4. The manager asked the visitors to wait outside …………… office.

5. Have you seen …………… pen anywhere ?

Answers:

1. his

2. his/her/my

3. his

4. his/her/my

5. his/her

Exercise 3
(Solved)
Fill in the blanks with pronouns or possessives.

1. The small child was crying for mother.

2. We watched the cow as placidly chewed the grass.

3. There is a cow with calf.

4. Every student passed examination.

5. The purse was restored to owner.

6. You must write essay more carefully.

7. We offered to help In their difficulty.

8. Could you please lend your book ?

Answers:

1. its/his

2. it

3. her

4. his

5. its

6. your

7. them

8. me

Exercise 4
(Solved)
Rearrange the following into meaningful sentences :

1. his / the manager / into / visitors / the / office / called.

2. Ram / his / her /seaside / in the hope / will improve / health / has taken / wife / to the / that / it

3. examination / he / is very proud / her / his / daughter’s success / in / of

4. he spent / on a birthday present for / his / sister / all / pocket money / his

5. no one likes / to be doubted / word / his

6. Mary / brother / and / have / gone / her / to visit / aunt / their

Answers

1. The manager called the visitors into his office.

2. Ram has taken his wife to the seaside in the hope that it will improve her health.

3. He is very proud of his daughter’s success in her examination.

4. He spent all his pocket money on a birthday present for his sister.

5. No one likes his word to be doubted.

6. Mary and her brother have gone to visit their aunt.

Exercise 5
(For Practice)
The following passage has not been edited. There is an error in each line. Find the incorrect word and write it along with the correction in your answer sheet. Do not forget to underline the correction.
You am sorry to bring to (a) _______
my notice the very bad condition (b) _______
of their locality. I contacted the (c) _______
municipal authorities and we assured (d) _______
me that she would look into the (e) _______
matter. However he regret to say that nothing has been done. (f) _______

Exercise 6
(For Practice)
The following passage has not been edited. There is an error in each line. Find the incorrect word and write it along with the correction in your answer sheet. Do not forget to underline the correction.
There was an old couple their only (a) _______
pet was a dog. The woman made them a cushion. On it sat Muko — for that (b) _______
was her name — as snug as a cat. (c) _______
The kind people fed it with his own. (d) _______
chopsticks. The dog loved your protector like a being with a soul. (e) _______