120 hr. TEFL Course Module 4-Writing (Pt.9 Pronuns)

Module 4: Writing

4.2.4 Pronouns and antecedents

Pronouns are important in writing because they take the place of a noun to make the writing less repetitive and choppy. To illustrate this idea, take a look at an example of a written excerpt that does not use pronouns: 

Mike grabbed Mike’s shirt and went to go find Mike’s mom to tell Mike’s mom that Mike’s mom needed to leave right away because Mike and Mike’s mom were in danger.

Now, let’s use pronouns:

Mike grabbed his shirt and went to go find his mom to tell her that they needed to leave right away because they were in danger.

Clearly, the second example sounds much better and gets the point across without reusing the original nouns.

The major point that your students need to understand about pronouns besides the different types that exist (which we will discuss in this section) is that every pronoun needs an antecedent or a noun that it is taking the place of. The only exception is indefinite pronouns, which replace vague nouns, such as “all” or “some.” 

Look again at the second example above, which contains pronouns. Each of those pronouns has an antecedent, which you can see in the first example. Let’s rewrite the second example, but this time we will include the antecedent to each pronoun in parentheses:

Mike grabbed his (Mike’s) shirt and went to go find his (Mike’s) mom to tell her (Mike’s mom) that they (Mike and Mike’s mom) needed to leave right away because they (Mike and Mike’s mom) were in danger.

When a pronoun does not have a clear antecedent, the writing becomes very confusing, and it should distinguish who is doing what. Here is an example of a sentence with unclear antecedents. Note how difficult it is to understand who the sentence is truly talking about:

Mark, John, and Billy went to the mall because he needed a new shirt. When they arrived, he ran to the clothing store, and he ran after him, trying to keep up, while he hung back and headed to the food court.

Because the antecedents are unclear, you could not tell me which boy went to the store, which boy chased after him, and which boy went to the food court.