ShmoopTube

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Pronouns, a la Shmoop

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When Jim's friends told Jim Jim's school cafeteria was serving filet mignon, Jim hauled Jim's butt over to the lunch line...

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Wow. That sentence turned out to be about as chunky as Jim's lunch.

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Yeah, just like there's reason to doubt it when your friends claim there's a five-star [kids making fun of soup]

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meal waiting for you in the cafeteria...

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...there's a reason we use pronouns in English. Pronouns are pretty simple -- they're just

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words that take the place of nouns.

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And there's a ton of them: he, she, it, they, you, this, that, ours, yours, yourself, everyone, nothing...[googly-eyed pronouns appear]

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Pronouns might seem puny and insignificant, but in fact, every sentence in this video

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-- except for that first soul-crushing chunkfest -- has used at least one pronoun. [spoon testing green soup, ghosts appear]

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And if you pay attention, you'll notice that you use a pronoun in nearly every sentence

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you say, too...

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Really, pronouns are like little grammar guardian angels, quietly slipping into your sentences [googly-eyed pronouns sprout halos]

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to make them smoother, flowy-er...

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...without ever asking for anything in return.

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They're like your mom when she makes you dinner and drives you to football practice...[mom appears with pasta and a car]

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...without all the guilt-tripping when you forget to pick up your dirty socks.

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Seriously, imagine a world where you have to say things like "Jim thinks that Jim

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will bring lunch from Jim's house from now on."

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Good ol' pronouns take the place of all those pesky nouns... otherwise you'd have [more googly-eyed, halo wearing pronouns appear]

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to repeat them over and over again to get your point across.

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So instead, we can just say, "Jim thinks that he will bring lunch from his house from now on."

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Probably a smart move. Now maybe he'll start spending less time on that little cot in the school doctor's office...[child in a white coat looks at sick boy in doctor's office]

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