Pronouns replace nouns. For example, instead of saying, "The blue pen fell on the floor and the pen leaked." we can say, "The blue pen fell on the floor and it leaked."
Although pronouns seem boring and not important, they can still change the tone of a sentence. Compare:
Which sounds friendlier towards Sarah and which sounds more distant?
Pronouns can be difficult to talk about so, when you pick one out of a text to analyse, make sure you have something to say about it first. The "Take your knowledge further" section at the bottom will help you come up with more things to say about pronouns.
Pronouns can also be used in more advanced ways. Read below to find out about direct address and collective pronouns:
Direct address: Direct address refers to when pronouns are used to directly talk to the reader/audience. For example, using the word "you" to address your audience directly. This is essentially a sneaky way for the author to make it feel like they are talking directly to the reader, without having to specify a name. An example of how to analyse direct address is below:
Collective pronoun: A collective pronoun is a pronoun that includes a group of people. For example: us, we, and our. Compare the two sentences below:
Which sounds more like we're all working together to pass an exam? The second example, because it puts us all in the same group. The first one creates more of a divide between the person saying it and the people hearing it. An example of how to analyse a collective pronoun is below: