Plain English

by Marian Wharton

ADJECTIVES AND PRONOUNS

258. From our study of the adjective, we know that it is a word used with a noun to qualify or limit its meaning. But a great many times we find these adjectives used without the noun which they modify. As, for example, I may say, This is mine, and the adjective this is used alone without the noun which it modifies, and you are able to tell only by what I have been saying or by some action of mine to what I am referring when I say this.

When adjectives are used in this manner, they are used like pronouns—in place of a noun. So sometimes we find an adjective used with a noun, and sometimes used as a pronoun, in place of a noun; and since we name our parts of speech by the work which they do in the sentence, an adjective used in this way is not an adjective, but a pronoun or word used in place of a noun.

So these words are pronouns when they stand alone to represent things—when they are used in place of a noun. They are adjectives when they are used with a noun to limit or qualify the noun. For example, I may say, This tree is an elm, but that tree is an oak. This and that in this sentence are adjectives used to modify the noun tree. But I may say, This is an oak and that is an elm, and in this sentence this and that are used without a noun, they are used as pronouns.

259. Our being able to name every part of speech is not nearly so important as our being able to understand the functions of the different parts of speech and being able to use them correctly. But still it is well for us to be able to take a sentence and point out its different parts and tell what each part is and the function which it serves in the sentence. So sometimes in doing this we may find it difficult to tell whether certain words are adjectives or pronouns. We can distinguish between adjectives and pronouns by this rule:

When you cannot supply the noun which the adjective modifies, from the same sentence, then the word which takes the place of the noun is a pronoun, but if you can supply the omitted noun from the same sentence, then the word is used as an adjective. Thus, we do not say that the noun is understood unless it has already been used in the same sentence and is omitted to avoid repetition. We make each sentence a law unto itself and classify each word in the sentence according to what it does in its own sentence.

So if a noun does not occur in the same sentence with the word about which we are in doubt as to whether it is a pronoun or adjective, it is a pronoun or word used in place of a noun. For example, in the sentence, This book is good but that is better; book is understood after the word that and left out to avoid tiresome repetition of the word book. Therefore that is an adjective in this sentence. But if I say, This is good, but that is better; there is no noun understood, for there is no noun in the sentence which we can supply with this and that. Therefore in this sentence this and that are pronouns, used in place of the noun. And since this and that, when used as adjectives, are called demonstrative adjectives; therefore when this and that, these and those, and similar words, are used as pronouns they are called demonstrative pronouns.

260. Be careful not to confuse the possessive pronouns with adjectives. Possessive pronouns modify the nouns with which they are used, but they are not adjectives, they are possessive pronouns. My, his, her, its, our, your and their are all possessive pronouns, not adjectives. Also be careful not to confuse nouns in the possessive form with adjectives.