ShmoopTube

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[Coop and Dino singing]

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By now, we're pretty familiar with nouns, but just in case you need a refresher… [Coop and Dino under nouns]

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Nouns are words that represent a person, animal, place, thing, or idea.

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…your mom, a swan, Hollywood, a block of ice, charity…yup, they're all nouns! [Dino giving examples of nouns]

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They're also the premise of a pretty crazy story…your mom carving an ice block into

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a swan for a Hollywood charity event. [Girl carving a swan ice block]

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Anyway, if you think you have a pretty good grasp on nouns, then watch out!

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We're about to throw a curve ball at ya… [Curveball hits Dino on the head]

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It turns out that any noun can be swapped with a pronoun, which is just a word that

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replaces a noun.

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So if we had the sentence: "My mom went to Hollywood to carve an icy swan for charity,"

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we could, if we wanted, replace each and every one of those nouns with a pronoun.

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"My mom" could become "she"…

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…"to Hollywood" could become "there"…

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…"an icy swan" could become "it"…

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…and "charity" could become "them."

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Doesn't exactly paint a picture, but it works.

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It's worth noting that pronouns are useful for more than just turning a sentence into mush. [Words falls off a chalkboard]

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They're very useful if we have a sentence that repeats a noun over and over again.

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Take this sentence, for example.

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"The prince looked all over the kingdom for Cinderella, and the prince used the glass [Prince looking for Cindarella and she appears]

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slipper that Cinderella left behind as a test to find the real Cinderella."

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This sentence gets repetitive pretty darn fast.

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So how do we fix it up so it's ready for the ball?

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Well, the first mention of "Cinderella" can stay right where it is; after all, it's pretty [Cindarella trapped to a chain and ball]

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important…it's telling us the name of one of the people the sentence is about.

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But those last two aren't doing much beyond making the sentence tedious, so let's use

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some pronouns to clean this sentence up. [nouns swept up]

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One instance can be replaced with "she"…

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…and "the real Cinderella" can be swapped out for "her," cleaning things up considerably.

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Also, while the first instance of "the prince" tells us who the other star of this sentence is…

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…the second isn't really doing much, so let's replace it with "he." [Prince wearing sunglasses and is squished by the word 'He']

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Ah, much better.

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Now we have a sentence that's ready for the ball.

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Pronouns can be really useful, but you always need to make sure they agree in gender and number. [He and She walk into male and female doors]

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For example, say we're replacing "Cinderella."

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She's a single lady – at least until she meets the prince – …

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…so we need a singular, feminine pronoun, like "her." [Prince holding glass slipper and Cindarella is squashed by 'She']

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On the other hand, if we had a pile of pumpkins, there's no way we could use the pronoun, "her."

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Nope, not even if we give them wigs and dresses. [Cindarella with a pumpkin for a head]

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On the bright side, at least they can go to the ball!

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