Grammar 101: Nouns, pronouns, and conjunctions.
Grammar 101: Nouns, Pronouns, and Conjunctions with examples from Harry Potter, bandom, and Cowboy Bebop.
Nouns
The word noun comes from ‘nomen’, which is a Latin word meaning name. The noun, as we know it, is a word used to signify a person, place, animal, thing, event, substance, quality, or abstract idea. The following sentences display some of the more basic examples of nouns.
Brendon was alone on the tour bus, the television giving off the only light.
The dragon circled the Astronomy Tower, and Harry readied his wand to cast the spell.
Vicious smiled at the man who took down his information; he was sure the semantics of the word traitor were such that the matter wouldn’t be looked into too deeply.
Gender
Nouns can also carry with them a specific gender. Most nouns in the English language no longer belie a certain gender, but many gender specific nouns these days refer to occupations.
Ryan quickly suggested that rather than heir to the throne of Spazzdom, Brendon was instead the heiress, because he ran and punched like a girl.
*Hermione may have been the brightest young witch of her age, but she also preferred to be known for being brighter than any wizard her age as well.
Spike, who had been very smitten by their waitress, was more than a little horrified to learn from Jet that the object of his affections had actually been a waiter.
*It has been noted that some men of the Wiccan tradition refer to themselves as 'witches', however, we will keep this example grounded in the Harry Potter realm, where the two terms are gender specific.
Plurality
Most nouns also change their form to indicate the number of objects they’re referring to. This plural form is often denoted by the addition of ‘s’ or ‘es’ to the end of the noun.
Jon held his hands up in front of him and smiled, hoping that it would pacify Spencer long enough for Brendon to get away.
Ron bought three Pumpkin Pasties and hoped that it would be enough to tide his friends over until they reached Hogwarts.
Gren nervously played with the keys of his sax, listening to the clackclackclack of the pads against the metal body and pretending he could hear the notes.
There are other ways that nouns show their plurality. Some nouns ending in ‘f’ get rid of the ‘f’ entirely and add a ‘ves’ to the end of the word. Words ending in ‘y’ are often treated the same way, in that the ‘y’ is foregone in favor of adding ‘ies’ to the end of the word. Other nouns are irregular and change their spellings completely.
Patrick eyed the horse warily. If there was something worse than a hoof to the face, it would have to be four hooves to the face.
If Professor McGonagall wanted a canary Harry was positive he could do her several better. He set in trying to transfigure fourteen different types of flowers, but he only ended up with nine and a half canaries.
Faye easily chose the one person she wanted to be her target out of the three hundred people that were present.
There are many other irregular plurals to be found when using nouns, such as ‘us’ to ‘i’ (alumnus/alumni), ‘is’ to ‘es’ (crisis to crises), ‘ix’ to ‘ices’ (matrix/matrices), ‘a’ to ‘ae’ (antenna/antennae), and ‘ouse’ to ‘ice’ (mouse/mice). A list here of all possible combinations would be exhaustive. The best thing to do when unsure of how to pluralize a noun is to consult a good dictionary. I like to use www.m-w.com.
Possession
When you want to show that a noun owns, or is closely related to something, you must use its possessive case. When your noun does not end in the letter ‘s’, you usually do this by adding an apostrophe and then the letter ‘s’ to the word.
Frank knew he shouldn’t touch Bob’s drums with no one else around, but the temptation to cause havoc was just too great.
Fred kept lookout as George carefully placed the professor’s shawl back on her chair, now laced with something the text had only referred to as The Jitterbug.
Jet cursed and threw the wrench across the cockpit, disappointed in his ship’s inability to actually do as it was supposed to for once and fly.
When the noun does end in ‘s’, there are several different ways to handle the possessive form. This is a bit of a sticky spot, because of different styles, but in general the rules for MLA/AP styles are as follows:
The MLA style goes further in that it pays careful attention to the sound of the word as the possessive is created. I'm going to pull this from the text of Understanding English Grammar, Sixth Edition by Martha Kolln and Robert Funk:
[...] [W]e add the extra syllable when we pronounce the possessive of [singular nouns ending in s], so we add 's when we spell them, the usual procedure for singular possessive. (We should note that some writers prefer to add only the possessive mark, the apostrophe, even though they add a syllable in speech-Ross' and Kris' and Sis'; both spellings are acceptable.)
[...] A good rule of thumb is this: If the pronunciation does not change when you make a noun possessive, then do not add the -s inflection when you spell it; add only the apostrophe. If you're not sure how to pronounce the possessive-whether or not to add a syllable-listen to yourself say the word with that added -s: Do you say "the Williams's house" or "the Williams' house"? "Martinez's batting average" or "Martinez' batting average"? If it sounds awkward with the added syllable, then add only the apostrophe. Either choice you make will be "correct".
Ray shoved Gerard, who fell backwards, flailing, and hit his hand on the bus's side mirror.
Seamus' hands were raised above his head, swatting at the attack fairies.
There was so much about the Blues' steady stream of sorrow that Gren wished he could communicate in words.
Vicious couldn't ever get over the Blues's inconsistent rhythms enough to truly appreciate what Gren saw in it.
There was something about the notebooks' uneven tower that made Frank afraid to sit too close to the table.
Spike turned and ran as the guns' reports broke through the quiet of the late evening and the low patter of rain.
Types of Nouns
Along with the forms nouns can take, there are also several different types of nouns. These include proper nouns, common nouns, concrete nouns, abstract nouns, countable nouns, non-countable nouns, and collective nouns.
Proper nouns are distinctive from common nouns in that they will always name a specific and generally one-of-a-kind item, and begin with a capital letter. One-of-a-kind items can be representative of a person, place, thing, business, institution, piece of art and/or writing, day of the week, month, or type of religion. They are most often names.
Gerard stared at the dvd in his hand. Somehow The Last Unicorn didn't seem like it would do the trick to cheer Mikey up.
Harry and Hermione both stared up at Hogwarts and the clouds amassing overheard, and silently wished that this could be a Sunday like any other.
Mao Yenrai had had a successful career as the leader of the Red Dragon, but that was all about to come to an end.
A common noun is used in a general sense to refer to a person, place or thing. They are the opposite of proper nouns and used with a lowercase letter unless they are at the beginning of the sentence.
The dishes and electronics and instruments cluttering the bus would take up two pages if Zack were to list them out. Instead he merely left the boys a note on the fridge that read 'Clean Or Die'.
All of the children stared at the boats in wonderment, and then at the black water of the lake, trying to decide if this mode of transportation would be safe after all.
Julia smoothed her fingers over the bandages she had applied to Spike's ribs and started to hum lightly, hoping that her voice didn't wake him, hoping that it did.
A concrete noun is a noun you can perceive through your senses. It is something that can be touched, seen, tasted, smelled, or heard.
Brendon shook his hips and waved his arms as the crowd cheered him on.
The breeze wound it's way through the Burrow, carrying with it the smells of baking bread and bright summer mornings.
Ed stared out the window at the desolate grounds of the city, wondering where her father was, and hoping that the crew of the Bebop could help her find him.
An abstract noun is used to refer to anything which you cannot experience with your physical senses. These could be philosophies, periods of time, or states of mind.
Ryan looked wistfully out the window and thought about maybe writing love songs for the next album.
Dumbledore thought back on the memory of Grindelwald and, raising his wand, carefully removed it from his mind forever.
Gren would like to believe that he was driven by justice when he raised the gun in Vicious' direction, but he knew it was merely hate.
A countable noun is any noun that can be counted, in that it has a singular and plural form.
Brendon stopped at the pet store and pressed his nose against the glass, hoping that if he stared hard enough at the puppies Zack would agree to let them have one.
The baby nargles rolled over each other in the pen and Harry blinked down at them, trying to remember a time when he didn't believe in them.
Faye slid the cards into her garter and winked at the dealer of the table across the way.
Non-countable nouns are the opposite of countable nouns. This is a noun which doesn't have a plural form, or which signifies something that you would not usually count. Non-countable verbs always take a singular verb when you are using them in a sentence.
Pete stood back and looked at the art he and Travie had created on their bender. He hoped that some of it would be good enough to sell.
Jenny took a gulp of air before diving back into the lake to try and find the ring.
Spike watched the smoke rise from the tip of Julia's cigarette and shook his head to rid himself of the memory of white hair that it brought to him.
Collective nouns are important to keep track of so that you can ensure subject/verb agreement. These nouns are representative of groups of people, places or things. You could break them down and name each individual, but you use a collective noun if it is beneficial to you at the time to think of them as a group.
Frank fell backwards off Bob's drum kit and hit the ground. His ears were ringing so loudly he almost didn't hear the sharp intake of breath drawn by the crowd.
Waiting for the decision of the Wizengamot was one of the most stressful things Harry had ever done in his life, even though he knew he wasn't at fault.
Spike knew that now that he'd stepped down as a member of the clan, he was free game for anyone trying to make a name for themselves.
Pronouns
Pronouns are often used to streamline sentences and remove somewhat bulky noun phrases from your writing, and make it less repetitive.
Personal pronouns are used to refer to something or someone specific and can change their forms to represent person, number, gender or case. In English the personal pronouns are as follows:
First-person singular: I
I will never be allowed to stage dive again if I keep breaking my bones doing it.
First-person plural: We - inclusive (you and I) and exclusive (someone else and I but not you).
We weren't allowed to go down to Hogsmeade after we were found sneaking out of the dorm with the invisibility cloak.
Second-person singular or plural: You - many English speakers from different areas of the country and world amplify the pronoun 'you', so that it comes out like "you all", "you guys", "you both", etc. to disambiguate singular/plural.
You were the one I couldn't leave behind, Spike. You're the reason I provoke Vicious' wrath even now.
You all are going to be in serious trouble if Ray sees what you've done with his extra strings.
Third-person singular masculine: He - used for anything for which you would specify a male gender.
Draco sighed and decided that he needed to find new friends as soon as possible.
Third-person singular feminine: She - used for anything for which you would specify a female gender.
She snubbed her cigarette out on the balcony railing and looked down at Spike where he lay bandaged and bruised on the Bebop's dilapidated couch.
Third-person singular human: They - used widely in speech and modern writing. The phrase "he or she" is also widely used, though considered awkward by some.
If a student requires a new wand, they should contact Professor Flitwick and he will make the appropriate arrangements.
Third-person singular generic human: One - in formal usage. Informally, English speakers would use you here.
If one isn't careful, Brendon, he is likely to end up with his eyebrows shaved off when he wakes up in the morning.
Third-person singular neuter: It - used for objects and animals whose sex is unknown and as a dummy subject.
The giant squid terrifies many of the younger students, though Luna doesn't feel that it means to.
Third-person plural: They
They all settled in for the long period of brooding which would involve Faye slamming a lot of things around and shouting at anyone who came within her range of sight.
The subjective personal pronoun does as it sounds and indicates that the pronoun is being used as the subject of the sentence. The pronouns used for this purpose are I, you, she, he, it, we, and they.
I have never seen anyone who was worse at taking as good as he dished out as Spencer Smith.
How could you forget to feed Fluffy?
She leaned back stretched her arms behind her head, causing a distraction with her cleavage.
He poked his head out of the bunk and looked around to see if his bandmates were there or if it was safe to run to the bathroom naked.
It doesn't even look like it will get off the ground, let alone fly fast enough to catch a snitch!
Alone yet together, we float through the universe looking for one other person to connect with.
They will never believe Pete again after the incident with the baseball bat.
The objective personal pronoun shows that the pronoun is acting as the object of a sentence of clause. The pronouns used for this purpose are me, you, her, him, it, us, and them.
You guys are supposed to be my friends, how could you allow me to get drunk and do something so stupid?
If Julia could have figured out how, she would have forced him to stay with her until they died.
If you leave it alone, Harry, it might leave us alone.
A reflexive pronoun is an objective pronoun that is used when a person or thing acts upon his, her, or itself.
Empires told themselves that they'd make it big, any day now.
A reciprocal pronoun is an objective pronoun that refers to a reciprocal relationship.
Harry and Draco could barely stand the sight of each other.
A possessive personal pronoun is used to indicate possession of a person or thing. The pronouns used for this purpose are mine, yours, hers, his, its, ours, and theirs.
The littlest Cab baby is mine, so hands off Ross.
The Dark Mark does something aesthetically interesting to that arm of yours.
His heart, which Gerard had thought previously unable to be captured, was all hers.
Vicious dug the sword deeper into his thigh, as Gren groaned and begged him to stop.
The Hungarian Horntail is extremely overprotective of its offspring.
The meeting is ours, but the pleasure my dear, is all mine.
No one on the scene had tattoos as indecipherable as theirs, and they decided they'd like to keep it that way.
The demonstrative pronoun differentiates a person or thing from the other possible candidates. Pronouns used for this instance are this, that, these, and those.
Pete, this is the strangest pajama party I have ever been to.
Hermione, that is one of the most insufferable things you have ever said!
These are the old men who we thought were responsible for designing the Gates.
I can't believe those are the only notes you've learned on the guitar.
The interrogative pronouns ask which person or thing is being referred to. The pronouns used for this instance are who, whom, which, and what. (Also used are the compounds with 'ever': whoever, whomever, whichever, and whatever.)
Who is the idiot who left the socks on the space heater?
Whomever is responsible for the disgrace of the Red Dragon will take the disgrace upon themselves entirely.
I don't know which of you placed the truth potion in the pumpkin juice, but you will both be receiving a week's detention.
Zack held his hand in the air and cut Brendon off, the international symbol for 'whatever it is, I'm not interested'.
Relative pronouns refer back to entities previously mentioned in the sentence or clause. This utilizes who, whom, that, and which. (Along with the compounds whomever, whoever, and whichever.)
It was Brendon who ate the last of the pudding cups.
I don't need to know whomever you are trying to rat out, whichever one of you isn't getting along with the others this week.
There are four people in the world that know how to read this code.
Indefinite pronouns refer to unspecified people or things. Pronouns used for these instances are all, another, any, anybody, anyone, anything, each, everybody, everyone, everything, few, many, nobody, none, one, several, some, somebody, and someone.
I can't believe all of you were infatuated by the same dancer.
Nobody believed that Snape had ever been a pleasant child.
There are few bounty hunters in the system who would have gone after Mao Yenrai, but Spike turned everything into an opportunity.
Conjunctions
To refresh, conjunctions link words, phrases and clauses. superhero_specs went in depth about co-ordinating and subordinating conjunctions in this post so I won't go over them again, but I would like to introduce a third conjunction, the correlative conjunction.
Correlative conjunctions come in pairs and work together to link two equivalent sentence elements. The most common of these are both...and, neither...nor, not only...but also, so...as, and whether...or.
Both Tom Conrad and William Beckett had seen more of Brendon that evening than they ever needed to.
It was neither smart, nor efficient, to take a freight cruiser out to Callipso.
Not only was Ron taller than Hermione, but also a faster runner.
And so Gerard was alone on the bus, just as he had been when the whole ordeal started.
Nouns and pronouns are the basic building blocks of any sentence or clause. Without a subject, or a way differentiate it from the other parts of speech, there wouldn't be much of anything to discuss.
Nouns
The word noun comes from ‘nomen’, which is a Latin word meaning name. The noun, as we know it, is a word used to signify a person, place, animal, thing, event, substance, quality, or abstract idea. The following sentences display some of the more basic examples of nouns.
Brendon was alone on the tour bus, the television giving off the only light.
The dragon circled the Astronomy Tower, and Harry readied his wand to cast the spell.
Vicious smiled at the man who took down his information; he was sure the semantics of the word traitor were such that the matter wouldn’t be looked into too deeply.
Gender
Nouns can also carry with them a specific gender. Most nouns in the English language no longer belie a certain gender, but many gender specific nouns these days refer to occupations.
Ryan quickly suggested that rather than heir to the throne of Spazzdom, Brendon was instead the heiress, because he ran and punched like a girl.
*Hermione may have been the brightest young witch of her age, but she also preferred to be known for being brighter than any wizard her age as well.
Spike, who had been very smitten by their waitress, was more than a little horrified to learn from Jet that the object of his affections had actually been a waiter.
*It has been noted that some men of the Wiccan tradition refer to themselves as 'witches', however, we will keep this example grounded in the Harry Potter realm, where the two terms are gender specific.
Plurality
Most nouns also change their form to indicate the number of objects they’re referring to. This plural form is often denoted by the addition of ‘s’ or ‘es’ to the end of the noun.
Jon held his hands up in front of him and smiled, hoping that it would pacify Spencer long enough for Brendon to get away.
Ron bought three Pumpkin Pasties and hoped that it would be enough to tide his friends over until they reached Hogwarts.
Gren nervously played with the keys of his sax, listening to the clackclackclack of the pads against the metal body and pretending he could hear the notes.
There are other ways that nouns show their plurality. Some nouns ending in ‘f’ get rid of the ‘f’ entirely and add a ‘ves’ to the end of the word. Words ending in ‘y’ are often treated the same way, in that the ‘y’ is foregone in favor of adding ‘ies’ to the end of the word. Other nouns are irregular and change their spellings completely.
Patrick eyed the horse warily. If there was something worse than a hoof to the face, it would have to be four hooves to the face.
If Professor McGonagall wanted a canary Harry was positive he could do her several better. He set in trying to transfigure fourteen different types of flowers, but he only ended up with nine and a half canaries.
Faye easily chose the one person she wanted to be her target out of the three hundred people that were present.
There are many other irregular plurals to be found when using nouns, such as ‘us’ to ‘i’ (alumnus/alumni), ‘is’ to ‘es’ (crisis to crises), ‘ix’ to ‘ices’ (matrix/matrices), ‘a’ to ‘ae’ (antenna/antennae), and ‘ouse’ to ‘ice’ (mouse/mice). A list here of all possible combinations would be exhaustive. The best thing to do when unsure of how to pluralize a noun is to consult a good dictionary. I like to use www.m-w.com.
Possession
When you want to show that a noun owns, or is closely related to something, you must use its possessive case. When your noun does not end in the letter ‘s’, you usually do this by adding an apostrophe and then the letter ‘s’ to the word.
Frank knew he shouldn’t touch Bob’s drums with no one else around, but the temptation to cause havoc was just too great.
Fred kept lookout as George carefully placed the professor’s shawl back on her chair, now laced with something the text had only referred to as The Jitterbug.
Jet cursed and threw the wrench across the cockpit, disappointed in his ship’s inability to actually do as it was supposed to for once and fly.
When the noun does end in ‘s’, there are several different ways to handle the possessive form. This is a bit of a sticky spot, because of different styles, but in general the rules for MLA/AP styles are as follows:
- To form the possessive of a singular common noun ending in "s," add an apostrophe and an "s." Like this: "The class's professor."
- To form the possessive of a singular proper noun ending in "s," add an apostrophe only. Like this: "Sirius' motorbike," or "Vicious' katana."
- To form the possessive of a plural common noun ending in "s," add an apostrophe. Like this: "The bands' instruments."
The MLA style goes further in that it pays careful attention to the sound of the word as the possessive is created. I'm going to pull this from the text of Understanding English Grammar, Sixth Edition by Martha Kolln and Robert Funk:
[...] [W]e add the extra syllable when we pronounce the possessive of [singular nouns ending in s], so we add 's when we spell them, the usual procedure for singular possessive. (We should note that some writers prefer to add only the possessive mark, the apostrophe, even though they add a syllable in speech-Ross' and Kris' and Sis'; both spellings are acceptable.)
[...] A good rule of thumb is this: If the pronunciation does not change when you make a noun possessive, then do not add the -s inflection when you spell it; add only the apostrophe. If you're not sure how to pronounce the possessive-whether or not to add a syllable-listen to yourself say the word with that added -s: Do you say "the Williams's house" or "the Williams' house"? "Martinez's batting average" or "Martinez' batting average"? If it sounds awkward with the added syllable, then add only the apostrophe. Either choice you make will be "correct".
Ray shoved Gerard, who fell backwards, flailing, and hit his hand on the bus's side mirror.
Seamus' hands were raised above his head, swatting at the attack fairies.
There was so much about the Blues' steady stream of sorrow that Gren wished he could communicate in words.
Vicious couldn't ever get over the Blues's inconsistent rhythms enough to truly appreciate what Gren saw in it.
There was something about the notebooks' uneven tower that made Frank afraid to sit too close to the table.
Spike turned and ran as the guns' reports broke through the quiet of the late evening and the low patter of rain.
Types of Nouns
Along with the forms nouns can take, there are also several different types of nouns. These include proper nouns, common nouns, concrete nouns, abstract nouns, countable nouns, non-countable nouns, and collective nouns.
Proper nouns are distinctive from common nouns in that they will always name a specific and generally one-of-a-kind item, and begin with a capital letter. One-of-a-kind items can be representative of a person, place, thing, business, institution, piece of art and/or writing, day of the week, month, or type of religion. They are most often names.
Gerard stared at the dvd in his hand. Somehow The Last Unicorn didn't seem like it would do the trick to cheer Mikey up.
Harry and Hermione both stared up at Hogwarts and the clouds amassing overheard, and silently wished that this could be a Sunday like any other.
Mao Yenrai had had a successful career as the leader of the Red Dragon, but that was all about to come to an end.
A common noun is used in a general sense to refer to a person, place or thing. They are the opposite of proper nouns and used with a lowercase letter unless they are at the beginning of the sentence.
The dishes and electronics and instruments cluttering the bus would take up two pages if Zack were to list them out. Instead he merely left the boys a note on the fridge that read 'Clean Or Die'.
All of the children stared at the boats in wonderment, and then at the black water of the lake, trying to decide if this mode of transportation would be safe after all.
Julia smoothed her fingers over the bandages she had applied to Spike's ribs and started to hum lightly, hoping that her voice didn't wake him, hoping that it did.
A concrete noun is a noun you can perceive through your senses. It is something that can be touched, seen, tasted, smelled, or heard.
Brendon shook his hips and waved his arms as the crowd cheered him on.
The breeze wound it's way through the Burrow, carrying with it the smells of baking bread and bright summer mornings.
Ed stared out the window at the desolate grounds of the city, wondering where her father was, and hoping that the crew of the Bebop could help her find him.
An abstract noun is used to refer to anything which you cannot experience with your physical senses. These could be philosophies, periods of time, or states of mind.
Ryan looked wistfully out the window and thought about maybe writing love songs for the next album.
Dumbledore thought back on the memory of Grindelwald and, raising his wand, carefully removed it from his mind forever.
Gren would like to believe that he was driven by justice when he raised the gun in Vicious' direction, but he knew it was merely hate.
A countable noun is any noun that can be counted, in that it has a singular and plural form.
Brendon stopped at the pet store and pressed his nose against the glass, hoping that if he stared hard enough at the puppies Zack would agree to let them have one.
The baby nargles rolled over each other in the pen and Harry blinked down at them, trying to remember a time when he didn't believe in them.
Faye slid the cards into her garter and winked at the dealer of the table across the way.
Non-countable nouns are the opposite of countable nouns. This is a noun which doesn't have a plural form, or which signifies something that you would not usually count. Non-countable verbs always take a singular verb when you are using them in a sentence.
Pete stood back and looked at the art he and Travie had created on their bender. He hoped that some of it would be good enough to sell.
Jenny took a gulp of air before diving back into the lake to try and find the ring.
Spike watched the smoke rise from the tip of Julia's cigarette and shook his head to rid himself of the memory of white hair that it brought to him.
Collective nouns are important to keep track of so that you can ensure subject/verb agreement. These nouns are representative of groups of people, places or things. You could break them down and name each individual, but you use a collective noun if it is beneficial to you at the time to think of them as a group.
Frank fell backwards off Bob's drum kit and hit the ground. His ears were ringing so loudly he almost didn't hear the sharp intake of breath drawn by the crowd.
Waiting for the decision of the Wizengamot was one of the most stressful things Harry had ever done in his life, even though he knew he wasn't at fault.
Spike knew that now that he'd stepped down as a member of the clan, he was free game for anyone trying to make a name for themselves.
Pronouns
Pronouns are often used to streamline sentences and remove somewhat bulky noun phrases from your writing, and make it less repetitive.
Personal pronouns are used to refer to something or someone specific and can change their forms to represent person, number, gender or case. In English the personal pronouns are as follows:
First-person singular: I
I will never be allowed to stage dive again if I keep breaking my bones doing it.
First-person plural: We - inclusive (you and I) and exclusive (someone else and I but not you).
We weren't allowed to go down to Hogsmeade after we were found sneaking out of the dorm with the invisibility cloak.
Second-person singular or plural: You - many English speakers from different areas of the country and world amplify the pronoun 'you', so that it comes out like "you all", "you guys", "you both", etc. to disambiguate singular/plural.
You were the one I couldn't leave behind, Spike. You're the reason I provoke Vicious' wrath even now.
You all are going to be in serious trouble if Ray sees what you've done with his extra strings.
Third-person singular masculine: He - used for anything for which you would specify a male gender.
Draco sighed and decided that he needed to find new friends as soon as possible.
Third-person singular feminine: She - used for anything for which you would specify a female gender.
She snubbed her cigarette out on the balcony railing and looked down at Spike where he lay bandaged and bruised on the Bebop's dilapidated couch.
Third-person singular human: They - used widely in speech and modern writing. The phrase "he or she" is also widely used, though considered awkward by some.
If a student requires a new wand, they should contact Professor Flitwick and he will make the appropriate arrangements.
Third-person singular generic human: One - in formal usage. Informally, English speakers would use you here.
If one isn't careful, Brendon, he is likely to end up with his eyebrows shaved off when he wakes up in the morning.
Third-person singular neuter: It - used for objects and animals whose sex is unknown and as a dummy subject.
The giant squid terrifies many of the younger students, though Luna doesn't feel that it means to.
Third-person plural: They
They all settled in for the long period of brooding which would involve Faye slamming a lot of things around and shouting at anyone who came within her range of sight.
The subjective personal pronoun does as it sounds and indicates that the pronoun is being used as the subject of the sentence. The pronouns used for this purpose are I, you, she, he, it, we, and they.
I have never seen anyone who was worse at taking as good as he dished out as Spencer Smith.
How could you forget to feed Fluffy?
She leaned back stretched her arms behind her head, causing a distraction with her cleavage.
He poked his head out of the bunk and looked around to see if his bandmates were there or if it was safe to run to the bathroom naked.
It doesn't even look like it will get off the ground, let alone fly fast enough to catch a snitch!
Alone yet together, we float through the universe looking for one other person to connect with.
They will never believe Pete again after the incident with the baseball bat.
The objective personal pronoun shows that the pronoun is acting as the object of a sentence of clause. The pronouns used for this purpose are me, you, her, him, it, us, and them.
You guys are supposed to be my friends, how could you allow me to get drunk and do something so stupid?
If Julia could have figured out how, she would have forced him to stay with her until they died.
If you leave it alone, Harry, it might leave us alone.
A reflexive pronoun is an objective pronoun that is used when a person or thing acts upon his, her, or itself.
Empires told themselves that they'd make it big, any day now.
A reciprocal pronoun is an objective pronoun that refers to a reciprocal relationship.
Harry and Draco could barely stand the sight of each other.
A possessive personal pronoun is used to indicate possession of a person or thing. The pronouns used for this purpose are mine, yours, hers, his, its, ours, and theirs.
The littlest Cab baby is mine, so hands off Ross.
The Dark Mark does something aesthetically interesting to that arm of yours.
His heart, which Gerard had thought previously unable to be captured, was all hers.
Vicious dug the sword deeper into his thigh, as Gren groaned and begged him to stop.
The Hungarian Horntail is extremely overprotective of its offspring.
The meeting is ours, but the pleasure my dear, is all mine.
No one on the scene had tattoos as indecipherable as theirs, and they decided they'd like to keep it that way.
The demonstrative pronoun differentiates a person or thing from the other possible candidates. Pronouns used for this instance are this, that, these, and those.
Pete, this is the strangest pajama party I have ever been to.
Hermione, that is one of the most insufferable things you have ever said!
These are the old men who we thought were responsible for designing the Gates.
I can't believe those are the only notes you've learned on the guitar.
The interrogative pronouns ask which person or thing is being referred to. The pronouns used for this instance are who, whom, which, and what. (Also used are the compounds with 'ever': whoever, whomever, whichever, and whatever.)
Who is the idiot who left the socks on the space heater?
Whomever is responsible for the disgrace of the Red Dragon will take the disgrace upon themselves entirely.
I don't know which of you placed the truth potion in the pumpkin juice, but you will both be receiving a week's detention.
Zack held his hand in the air and cut Brendon off, the international symbol for 'whatever it is, I'm not interested'.
Relative pronouns refer back to entities previously mentioned in the sentence or clause. This utilizes who, whom, that, and which. (Along with the compounds whomever, whoever, and whichever.)
It was Brendon who ate the last of the pudding cups.
I don't need to know whomever you are trying to rat out, whichever one of you isn't getting along with the others this week.
There are four people in the world that know how to read this code.
Indefinite pronouns refer to unspecified people or things. Pronouns used for these instances are all, another, any, anybody, anyone, anything, each, everybody, everyone, everything, few, many, nobody, none, one, several, some, somebody, and someone.
I can't believe all of you were infatuated by the same dancer.
Nobody believed that Snape had ever been a pleasant child.
There are few bounty hunters in the system who would have gone after Mao Yenrai, but Spike turned everything into an opportunity.
Conjunctions
To refresh, conjunctions link words, phrases and clauses. superhero_specs went in depth about co-ordinating and subordinating conjunctions in this post so I won't go over them again, but I would like to introduce a third conjunction, the correlative conjunction.
Correlative conjunctions come in pairs and work together to link two equivalent sentence elements. The most common of these are both...and, neither...nor, not only...but also, so...as, and whether...or.
Both Tom Conrad and William Beckett had seen more of Brendon that evening than they ever needed to.
It was neither smart, nor efficient, to take a freight cruiser out to Callipso.
Not only was Ron taller than Hermione, but also a faster runner.
And so Gerard was alone on the bus, just as he had been when the whole ordeal started.
Nouns and pronouns are the basic building blocks of any sentence or clause. Without a subject, or a way differentiate it from the other parts of speech, there wouldn't be much of anything to discuss.