Pronouns Teaching Resources

Save time on your pronouns lesson plans with printable worksheets, digital activities, pronouns lists, grammar games and more from the teachers of Teach Starter.

This collection of teaching resources was teacher-created to help you help your students learn how to correctly identify and use this part of speech in their writing. With editable curriculum-aligned resources, you can meet Common Core and state standards while differentiating instruction for the individual students in your classroom.

New to teaching this part of the English Language Arts curriculum or just looking for new ways to engage students as they learn about pronouns? Take a peek at this primer from our teacher team, including a definition of pronouns, types of pronouns and more!

What Is a Pronun? A Kid-Friendly Definition

Knowing the definition of this part of speech yourself is only part of the battle. You'll also need to explain the meaning of pronouns to your students! So let's start with a kid-friendly definition.

Pronouns are special words that we use in place of nouns (people, places, or things) that we have already talked about. This part of speech makes our sentences shorter and easier to understand.

For example, instead of saying, "Santos went to school, and then Santos did his homework," we can use a pronoun to make the sentence shorter: "Santos went to school, and then he did his homework."

We also use pronouns to identify ourselves when speaking and writing. For example, you might say or write, "I went to the beach with my family." or "We are a family."

Types of Pronouns

When we write, there are a variety of different types of pronouns we use, each use in different ways. Let's take a look at a list of some of the types of pronouns:

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns refer to specific people or things.

• Examples include "I," "you," "he," "she," "it," "we" and "they."

Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns show ownership. Unlike many possessive nouns, they do not require you to use an apostrophe to show possession.

• Examples include "mine," "yours," "his," "hers," "its," "ours" and "theirs."

Reflexive Pronouns

Reflexive pronouns are a part of speech that refer back to the subject of the sentence.

• Examples include "myself," "yourself," "himself," "herself," "itself," "ourselves" and "themselves."

Demonstrative Pronouns

This type of pronoun points to specific people or things.

• Examples include "this," "that," "these" and "those."

Interrogative Pronouns

Interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions.

• Examples include "who," "whom," "what," "which" and "whose."

Relative Pronouns

This type of pronoun can be used in writing to connect one clause to another in a sentence.

• Examples include "who," "whom," "that," "which" and "whose."

Indefinite Pronouns

These are pronouns that refer to people or things in a general or indefinite way.

• Examples include "anyone," "everyone," "something," "anything," "nothing" and "all."

List of Pronouns

Looking for a list of pronouns to teach your students how the most common examples of this part of speech are used? Our teacher team has created that just for you!

• He is used to refer to a male person or animal Example: "He is going to his dad's house after school."
• She is used to refer to a female person or animal Example: "She is performing an experiment."
• It is used to refer to a thing or animal that is not male or female Example: "The cat is sleeping; it is tired."
• They is used to refer to a group of people or things
• Example: "They are going to make tacos."
• We is used to refer to a group of people that includes the speaker Example: "We are playing football in gym class."
• You is used to refer to the person being spoken to Example: "You need to put on your jacket before you go outside."