pronoun

pronoun

English

Alternative forms

• pronoune (obsolete)

Etymology

pro- +‎ noun, modeled on Middle French pronom, from Latin pronomen, itself a calque of Ancient Greek ᾰ̓ντωνῠμῐ́ᾱ (antōnumíā).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹəʊnaʊn/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹoʊ.naʊn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊnaʊn, -oʊnaʊn

Noun

pronoun (plural pronouns)

1. (grammar) A type of word that refers anaphorically to a noun or noun phrase, but which cannot ordinarily be preceded by a determiner and rarely takes an attributive adjective. English examples include I, you, him, who, me, my, each other.
   • 1789, Jean Baptiste A grammar of the French tongue, page 193:

     The possessive conjunctive pronoun is always repeated before a substantive, and after a conjunction; as my brothers and sisters, mes frères & mes sœurs; […]

   • 2013, Nicholas Brownless, “Spoken Discourse in Early English Newspapers”, in Joad Raymond, editor, News Networks in Seventeenth Century Britain and Europe, page 72:

     As here the possessive pronoun 'our' has inclusive reference in that it a priori includes both the editor and reader, its presence amounts to a kind of pronominal bonding between writer and reader.

   1. (chiefly in the plural) Any of the pronouns by which a person prefers to be described, typically reflecting gender identity.

      My pronouns are she/her.

Hypernyms

• part of speech
• pro-form

Derived terms

• adjectival pronoun
• adjective pronoun
• demonstrative pronoun
• determinative pronoun
• emphasizing pronoun
• epicene pronoun
• gender-neutral pronoun
• indefinite pronoun
• intensive pronoun
• interrogative pronoun
• object pronoun
• personal pronoun
• play the pronoun game
• possessive pronoun
• prepositional pronoun
• pronoun demonstrative
• reciprocal pronoun
• reflexive possessive pronoun
• reflexive pronoun
• relative pronoun
• resumptive pronoun
• subject pronoun
• substantival pronoun
• substantive pronoun
• weak pronoun

 

Related terms

• pronominal

Translations

type of word

Afrikaans: voornaamwoord (af) Albanian: përemri (sq) m Amharic: ተውላጠ ስም (täwlaṭä səm) Arabic: ضَمِير‎ (ar) m (ḍamīr), ضَمَائِرُ‎ (ar) m pl (ḍamāʔiru) Aragonese: please add this translation if you can Armenian: դերանուն (hy) (deranun) Asturian: pronome (ast) Azerbaijani: əvəzlik Bashkir: алмаш (almaş) Basque: izenordain Belarusian: займе́ннік m (zajmjénnik) Bengali: সর্বনাম (bn) (sôrbnam) Bikol Central: panangli Bishnupriya Manipuri: please add this translation if you can Breton: raganv (br) m Bulgarian: местоиме́ние (bg) n (mestoiménie) Burmese: နာမ်စား (my) (namca:) Catalan: pronom (ca) m Chamorro: klå'an Chechen: цӏерметдош (cʼermetdoš) Chinese: Cantonese: 代詞／代词, 代词 (doi6 ci4) Mandarin: 代詞／代词 (zh) (dàicí), 代名詞／代名词 (zh) (dàimíngcí) Min Nan: 代詞／代词, 代词 (tāi-sû) Chuvash: местоимени (mestoimeni), ылмаш (ylmaš) Crimean Tatar: zamir Czech: zájmeno (cs) n Danish: pronomen (da), stedord (da) Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can Dutch: voornaamwoord (nl) n Erzya: таркасвал (tarkasval) Esperanto: pronomo (eo) Estonian: asesõna (et), pronoomen (et) Ewe: nuŋkɔteƒenɔnya Faroese: fornavn (fo) n Finnish: asemo (fi), pronomini (fi) Franco-Provençal: please add this translation if you can French: pronom (fr) m Friulian: please add this translation if you can Galician: pronome (gl) Georgian: ნაცვალსახელი (nacvalsaxeli) German: Fürwort (de) n, Personwort n, Personenwort n, Pronomen (de) n, Pronom (de) n Middle High German: vornam Greek: αντωνυμία (el) f (antonymía) Ancient: ἀντωνυμία f (antōnumía), ἀντώνυμον n (antṓnumon) Hebrew: כִּנּוּי גּוּף / כנוי גוף‎ (he) m (kinoi guf), שם הגוף‎ (shem hagúf) ('noun of the body') Hindi: सर्वनाम (hi) m (sarvanām) Hungarian: névmás (hu) Icelandic: fornafn (is) n Ido: pronomo (io) Indonesian: pronomina (id) Ingrian: pronomina, nimensihalliin Interlingua: pronomine (ia) Irish: forainm (ga) m Italian: pronome (it) m Japanese: 代名詞 (ja) (だいめいし, daimeishi) Javanese: please add this translation if you can Kalmyk: орч нерн (orch nern) Kapampangan: panalili Kazakh: есімдік (kk) (esımdık) Khmer: សព្វនាម (km) (sɑppĕəʼniəm) Korean: 대명사(代名詞) (ko) (daemyeongsa) Kumyk: орунча (orunça) Kyrgyz: жактама (ky) (jaktama) Lao: ສັບພະນາມ (sap pha nām) Latin: prōnōmen n, prōvocābulum Latvian: vietniekvārds m Limburgish: veurnaamwaord (li) n Lingala: likitana Lithuanian: įvardis (lt) m Macedonian: заменка f (zamenka) Malay: kata ganti diri Malayalam: സർവ്വനാമം (saṟvvanāmaṃ) Maltese: pronom (mt) m Maori: tūkapi, kupu tūkapi Mongolian: төлөөний нэр (tölöönii ner), төлөөний үг (tölöönii üg) Nahuatl: tlācatōcāitl Nepali: सर्वनाम (sarvanām) Newar: please add this translation if you can Norman: pronom m Northern Sami: pronomen Norwegian: Bokmål: pronomen (no) Nynorsk: pronomen (nn) Occitan: pronom (oc) m Old English: bīnama m Old Norse: fornafn n Oromo: maqdhaala Ossetian: номивӕг (nomivæg) Pashto: ضمير‎ (ps) m (zamír) Persian: ضمیر‎ (fa) (zamir), پیشنام‎ (pišnâm) Piedmontese: pronòm m Plautdietsch: Fawuat n Polish: zaimek (pl) m Portuguese: pronome (pt) m Quechua: sutip rantin, sutiranti Romanian: pronume (ro) n Russian: местоиме́ние (ru) n (mestoiménije) Rusyn: містоназывник m (mistonazŷvnyk) Sanskrit: सर्वनामन् (sa) n (sarvanāman) Scots: pronoun Scottish Gaelic: riochdair Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: заменица f Roman: zamenica f Sicilian: prunomu (scn) m Slovak: zámeno (sk) n Slovene: zaímek (sl) m Southern Altai: солума (soluma) Spanish: pronombre (es) m Sundanese: please add this translation if you can Swahili: kiwakilishi Swedish: pronomen (sv) n Tagalog: panghalip (tl) Tajik: ҷонишин (tg) (jonišin), замир‍ (zamir‍) Tamil: பெயர்ச்சொல் (ta) (peyarccol) Tatar: алмашлык (tt) (almaşlıq) Telugu: సర్వనామము (te) (sarvanāmamu) Thai: สรรพนาม (th) (sàp-pá-naam) Tibetan: མིང་ཚབ (ming tshab) Turkish: zamir (tr), ivazlık, almaş (tr) Turkmen: çalyşma (tk) Ukrainian: займе́нник (uk) m (zajménnyk) Urdu: ضمیر‎ (ur) m (zamīr) Uyghur: ئالماش‎ (almash) Uzbek: olmosh (uz) Vietnamese: đại từ (vi) (代詞) Volapük: pönop (vo) Walloon: prono (wa) Waray-Waray: imbesngaran, taligngaran, talingaran, talingáran Welsh: rhagenw m West Frisian: foarnamwurd (fy) n Yiddish: פּראָנאָם‎ m (pronom) Zazaki: zemir, pesname, pesname, pesname Zulu: isabizwana class 7/8

See also

• Thesaurus:pronoun