English Grammar and Composition chapter 2: Pronouns and Possessives

Printed page 14

02 Pronouns and Possessives Subject and object pronouns; possessive adjectives, possessive pronouns, reflexive pronouns

Figure

Labels: Subject and object pronouns Description: A drawing of a girl with braided hair, wearing a blouse with a bow at the neck.

A . Read the following sentences:

• Who is she?

• I don't know her. Sorry.

• I know her.

  She lives near my house.

• She is Meghna.

Figure

Labels: Possessives and pronouns Description: A bag, a stack of papers or books, a small booklet and a few pens lie on a low table.

This is my bag. Where is yours?

• Here is mine. And this is Uttom's.
• But I don't see our passports.
• This is my passport. Is it your passport?
• Oh, yes. Thank you.

Grammar point:

Look at the following grid:

Printed page 15

1. When we use a pronoun as the subject of a verb in a sentence it is called a subject pronoun.

Example:

I was travelling to Savar. On the way suddenly the bus stopped and remained non-moving. I called on the guide of the bus and asked him the reason. He (= the guide of the bus) told me that the tire of the bus got punctured.

2. When we use a pronoun as the object of a verb in a sentence, we call that an object pronoun.

Example:

Rajon is our class captain for this month. I don't like him (=Rajon) that much.

Use

We use a possessive adjective to talk about:

Things that we own.

What are you carrying?

This is my passport.

Family members and friends

My brother lives in Indonesia. He is a Micro-Biologist there.

Things that are connected to us.

At my school, we learn science subjects through learning by doing. It helps us a lot to understand the theories.

We use a possessive pronoun to talk about:

Printed page 16

Something that belongs to us or is connected with us, without repeating the noun

Example:

The navy blue T-shirt is mine (=my T-shirt). Don't take that one please.

We also use a possessive pronoun when we know which thing we are referring to.

Example:

My laptop is six months old. How old is yours (=your laptop)?

Activity 1

Complete the description of a job by putting in the correct subject or object pronouns.

I work in a restaurant. Three other people work with ___________ here. They are Jibon, Sathi, and Bokul. ___________ all are good friends. Jibon is a good singer. ___________ always sings and works. I'm a fan of ___________ singing. Sathi is a little senior to __________ . ___________ is a bit serious in everything. If ___________ make any mistake, ___________ scolds ___________ but ___________ loves ___________ a lot too. I don't know ___________ passion. Bokul is of ___________ age. Everyone loves Bokul because of ___________ pleasing personality. Bokul's special quality is ___________ is never angry with anyone. Our manager doesn't like ___________ friendship. She keeps an eye on ___________ always. ___________ enjoy ___________ anxiety.

Activity 2 Two friends are talking about their exam preparation. Complete their conversation by putting in the correct possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns.

Kalyani Hi dear! (1)___________ look tired – you are working very hard.

Printed page 17

Gitanjali To be honest, (2) ___________ preparation is not very satisfactory. Mom got seriously ill last month. (3)___________ illness killed some of the valuable time. How about (4)___________ ?

Kalyani Hmmm....not bad though. (5)___________ brother has come home on vacation. (6)___________ guidance has helped me a lot.

Gitanjali My situation is also like (7) ___________ . My mom and my sister are helping to pull. As a result of (8)___________ collective efforts I'm improving. Yet it's not that easy once you have a gap in study.

Kalyani That's true. By the way, this is really a good park. Very neat and clean!

Gitanjali Oh yes, we take care of this park. We don't depend on the local municipality. In fact, it is (9)___________ and so we keep it tidy.

Kalyani Great! You know we have a small organization working on environment. From (10)___________ organization we went to other parts of the city. We tried to convince those people that (11)___________ parks are (12)___________ . Yet the result is not always impressive.

Gitanjali When all start thinking 'It is (13) ___________, may be the situation will improve.

Activity 3

Mr Tarafder is recalling his lost days. Read the text and decide if the underlined words are correct or incorrect. Put a tick mark if they are correct and write the correct words if they are incorrect. The first one is done for you.

My brother and I were born in Kurigram. Ours Our birthday was in October.

Printed page 18

1. It was many years ago and there was no electricity in our .......... locality.

2. There was no fan at ours .......... home. During the summer we suffered a lot.

3. When we started going to the secondary school, our .......... father bought two bicycles for us.

4. My .......... was black and his .......... was green.

5. Mine .......... friend was Hitesh. Theirs .......... house was in a better part of the town.

6. We went to their .......... house frequently by our .......... bicycle.

7. Hitesh had a pet dog. It .......... colour was black and it was very naughty.

8. Whenever we entered theirs .......... house it not only used to bark but also chased ours .......... .

9. Yet I had special fascination for them .......... house, To be honest I liked Hitesh's younger sister.

10. Once I sent her a letter in a book and she showed it to Hitesh. The book was her ............

11. Later Hitesh asked we .......... not to go to theirs .......... house anymore. We .......... were upset.

Activity 4 Some friends are travelling by bus. Complete their conversation by putting in the correct possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns.

Rahim: Mahfuj, are you at the right place? This is my seat – B3.

Mahfuj: Really! Let me check. Hmmm.... No, it's not. Look at .......... ticket. It's ............ Can I see .......... ticket? Look, its D3. I mean .......... seat is D3.

Printed page 19

Rahim: Oops...Oh yes, sorry. You are right. Anyway, where should we put .......... bags – in the bunker or in the box?

Mahfuj: I'll put .......... under my seat. Since .......... is a heavier one, you can put it in the box. ... Do you know where Mokhles and Pritish are sitting?

Rahim: They are at the back.

Mahfuj: What are .......... seat numbers?

Rahim .......... are G1 and G2.

Read the following sentences:

After we had completed our exams, we organized a party ourselves.

The party was really great. I prepared myself for the party.

Sujata and Ranju sang in the party but they didn't like each other.

These are some examples of reflexive pronouns. Now see how reflexive pronoun are formed.

Use

1. We use reflexive pronouns with certain verbs:

   build , cook, do, enjoy, hurt, paint, teach, make, organize

2. We usually use reflexive pronouns in the following patterns

   Subject + verb + reflexive pronoun (The party was really great. I prepared myself for the party.)

Printed page 20

OR

Subject + verb + object + reflexive pronoun (as in After we had completed our exams, we organized a party ourselves.)

We use reflexive pronouns immediately after the verb to talk about actions or experiences that only affect the subject and none else.

Don't touch the rod. You'll hurt yourself. (It'll hurt none but you.)

We use reflexive pronouns to mean that the activity has been done by no other person than the subject.

She made the ice cream herself. (Nobody else made it.)

We use `each other' to mean that the same action has been done by both the persons.

Joyita and Jalal love each other. (Jayita loves Jalal and Jalal loves Jayita.)

Activity 5

Read the address made by the chief guest at a programme. Complete the text by adding reflexive pronouns in the gaps. The first one is done for you.

I'm very glad to know that the students of this school have arranged this science fair themselves. It's really a classic example of students' creativity and hard work. This programme reminds me of my school days. Then many times we did similar programmes .......................... . It is good to know that Nasreen has innovated .......................... how to recycle banana skins to meet nutrition deficiency. I'm further glad to see Jinia's work. I congratulate the organizers of the programme as well. You endeavoured to raise fund for the programmes .......................... And I cannot but give a hand to you. This is really a famous school and I must say that this is a good programme to show how students can help the country and engage .......................... for good causes.

Printed page 21

Activity 6

Musabbir and Dilruba have just moved into a new house. Dilruba is showing their new home to their friend, Rafiq. Complete the conversation using reflexive pronouns and the words in the box.

Dilruba: Welcome to our new place.

Rafiq: Wow, everything looks so nice. Did you decorate the house yourself?

Dilruba: Yes, we designed .................................................. . We didn't have enough money to pay for a home decorator.

Rafiq: Was it really challenging for you?

Dilruba: Yes, it was. It took long time to __________________ but we enjoyed.

Rafiq: Guess, you didn't ______________________________________ as well.

Dilruba: Oh, no. We engaged two carpenters. But they did a good job, didn't they?

Rafiq: That showcase looks interesting. Your carpenters are really genius!

Dilruba: Oh, that is a job of Musabbir. He__________________. This is his first innovation of this type.

Rafiq: Wow! I can't believe it. I really appreciate people who _____________. I'm not good at that.