2017-11-01
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The following proper nouns are used without any article:
1. Names of streets, squares and parks: Fleet Street, Trafalgar Square, Red Square, Hyde Park.
Note: There are some exceptions: The High Street, The Strand.
2. Names of airports and railway stations: Kennedy Airport, Victoria Station.
3. Names of universities and colleges: Oxford University, Harvard University, Trinity College.
4. Names of buildings and bridges; Westminster Abbey, Windsor Palace, Tower Bridge.
Note: the White House, the Kremlin, the Tower of London.
5. Names of magazines and journals: National Geographic, Punch, Cosmopolitan.
6. Names of months and days of the week: March, June, Monday, Saturday.
The following proper nouns are used with the definite article:
1. Names of hotels, clubs, museums, picture galleries, concert halls, theatres, cinemas, monuments: the Hilton, the British Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery, the Albert Hall, the Grand Opera, the Lincoln Memorial.
2. Names of ships and boats: the Titanic, the Mayflower.
3. Names of parties and institutions: the Democratic Party, the Conservative Party, the British Parliament (Parliament - in Britain ), the Congress (Congress - in the USA ), the House of Lords.
4. Names of newspapers: the Morning star, the Times, the Economist.
THE PRONOUN
The pronoun is a part of speech, which points out persons, things and qualities without naming them.
CLASSIFICATION OF PRONOUNS
Pronouns can be classified into the following groups:
Personal pronouns: I, we, you, he, she, it, they;
Possessive pronouns: my, mine, our, ours, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, their, theirs;
Reflexive pronouns: myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, itself, themselves;
Demonstrative pronouns: this, these, that, those, same, such;
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Indefinite pronouns: some, somebody, someone, something, any, anybody, anyone, anything, one;
Negative pronouns: no, none, nobody, no one, nothing, neither;
Defining pronouns: each, every, everybody, everyone, everything, all, either, both, another, other;
Reciprocal pronouns: each other, one another;
Interrogative pronouns: who whose, which, what;
Relative pronouns: who, whose, which, that;
Conjunctive pronouns: who, whose, which, what.
PERSONAL PRONOUNS
Personal pronouns denote persons and things. They are: I, we, you, he, she, it, they. Personal pronouns have the grammatical categories of person, number, case, and gender in the third person singular. The personal pronouns have three persons and two numbers (singular and plural). They have two cases: the nominative case and the objective case.
| PERSON | CASE / NUMBER | |||
| Singular | Plural | |||
| Nominative Case | Objective Case | Nominative Case | Objective case | |
| 1st | I | me | we | us |
| 2nd | you | you | you | you |
| 3rd | he she it | him her it | they | them |
The personal pronouns of the 3d person singular distinguish gender: he refers to male beings, she refers to female beings, it refers to inanimate things as neuter. The pronoun she is also associated with such nouns as Great Britain, sea, ship, etc., e.g.
How old is your brother? - He is 14.
Our teacher came in. She was tall and rather slender.
Can I take your book? Don't you need it?
A ship entered the harbour. She looked white against the blue sky.
Personal pronouns have various syntactic functions in the sentence. They can be used as subject, object, predicative and adverbial modifier (if preceded by a preposition:
Subject - We are first year students.
Object - Can you tell me the news? Give it to me, will you?
Predicative - Open, it's me. Who is there? - It's she.
Adverbial Modifier - There is nothing interesting in it.
In colloquial speech the personal pronoun you may be used to denote a person in general sense, e.g.
It's a nice place. You can do what you like here.
POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS
Possessive pronouns denote belonging to things and persons. They are my, our, your, his, her, its, their. They have the grammatical categories of person (1st, 2nd, 3d), number (singular, plural) and gender (male, female, neuter) in the 3d person singular. Possessive pronouns have two forms: the dependent (conjoint) form and the independent (absolute) form.
| PERSON | SINGULAR | PLURAL | ||
| conjoint | absolute | conjoint | absolute | |
| 1st | my | mine | our | ours |
| 2nd | your | yours | your | yours |
| 3rd | his her its | his hers - | their | theirs |
The conjoint form is used as an attribute to modify a noun, e.g.
His hair was thin and grey.
She watched her daughter with love and tenderness.
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Note: In some grammar books the conjoint forms of pronouns are called ‘pronominal adjectives’ or ‘noun determiners’ because they don’t replace nouns but modify them
The absolute form is used when the possessive pronoun doesn't modify a noun. It can be used as subject, object, predicative or attribute when preceded by the preposition ' of ':
Object - I don't want your pen. Give me mine.
Subject - It isn't my book. Mine is in the bag.
Predicative - Whose glasses are these? - They are yours.
Attribute - A friend of mine is coming to see us at the weekend.
When possessive pronouns are used to modify nouns naming parts of the body, clothing, a person's belongings, they are not usually translated into Russian.
She took her hand out of her pocket and showed us the key.
Она вынула руку из кармана и показала нам ключ.
REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS
Reflexive pronouns indicate that the doer of the action expressed by the subject of the sentence is affected by the action:
She never does such things herself.
I know it's true because I saw it myself.
Thank you, but we 'll call you a bit later ourselves.
Reflexive pronouns are myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, itself, themselves. They have the grammatical categories of person, number and gender in the third person singular.
| PERSON | SINGULAR | PLURAL |
| 1st | myself | ourselves |
| 2nd | yourself | yourselves |
| 3rd | himself herself itself | themselves |
Reflexive pronouns can be used as predicative, object, attribute and adverbial modifiers:
Predicative - Jack is alone, he is by himself.
Object - Mary tried not to hurt herself.
Prepositional object - Don't do it to yourself.
Attribute - He put something of himself into this novel.
Adverbial modifier - She didn't see anything attractive in herself.
Reflexive pronouns can be used emphatically, e.g.
He himself will never ask you for help.
They themselves didn't believe a word, but tried not to show it.
Remember: The following verbs take reflexive pronouns enjoy oneself, help oneself, acquaint oneself (with):
Help yourself to the cake.
The following verbs do not take reflexive pronouns: wash, dress, feel, behave:
I don’t fee l well.
The verb behave takes a reflexive pronoun in the meaning “to do things in a way that people think is correct or polite” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary):
Behave yourself or you’ll be punished.
The phrase ‘by oneself’’ means ‘alone’ or ‘without help’:
We’ve decided to go on a hike by ourselves.
