Pronouns are words that are used to replace or refer to nouns. They might replace a singular noun (like "it" or "she") or a plural noun (like "they", "them", etc.). They also might replace a possessive noun (like "my", "your", "his", "their", etc.).
In many cases, they are used as shortcuts to avoid repeating the same noun multiple times, but in some cases they refer to a noun in a way in which you cannot use the noun itself, like with relative pronouns such as "that", "which", "who", "whom", and "whose". For example, in the sentence "The teacher called on the student who raised her hand", the pronoun "who" refers to the student, but it would not make sense to replace it with "the student".
There are myriad pronouns in the English language, falling under many different categories, but it's not important to know the nuances of all the different types of pronouns. It's just important to recognize pronouns well enough to be able to identify when the answer choices are mostly offering different pronouns.
Here is a list of many common pronouns, but it is by no means comprehensive: it, she, he, they, them, my, your, his, her, its, our, their, this, that, these, those, which, who, whom, whose, myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves, one, two, three, etc.
Pronoun questions can be identified by looking at the answer choices and noting that each answer choice uses a different pronoun. Sometimes it is as simple as each answer choice consisting of a single pronoun and that's it. Other times, it might be a bit more complicated, like you might have a pronoun followed by a verb in each answer choice. But if the pronouns are different between all the answer choices, treat it as a pronoun question, not a "verb form" question. Sometimes you will also see contractions involving pronouns, like "it's" or "they're". Again, if the pronouns are different between all the answer choices, treat it as a pronoun question, not an "apostrophe" question.
Pronoun questions on the SAT are generally testing pronoun-antecedent agreement. This means that the pronoun must agree with the noun it is replacing. For example, if the pronoun is replacing or referring to a singular noun, then the pronoun must also be singular. If the pronoun is replacing or referring to a plural noun, then the pronoun must also be plural. If the pronoun could be replaced by a possessive noun, then the pronoun must also be possessive.
The most important part of correctly answering a pronoun question is to carefully identify the noun that the pronoun is replacing or referring to. It will be a noun that is mentioned earlier in the passage, but beware that it is not always the noun that is closest to the pronoun.
While often the "ear test" (going with the answer that sounds right, even if you can't explain the exact rule) will serve you well on Standard English questions, it's not always obvious when the wrong pronoun is used; often one of the wrong answer choices will agree with a noun that is close to it in the sentence, making it sound ok, but that noun is not the one that the pronoun is replacing or referring to. For example, look at the sample problem above. In that sentence, "the Mississippi" is the noun closest to the blank in the sentence, and it is singular. However, the noun that the pronoun is actually referring to is "rivers", which is plural.
Once you have carefully identified the noun referred to by the pronoun, you can then check to see if which pronoun agrees with the noun in number, gender, possession, etc.
Sometimes the noun referred to will be followed by a prepositional phrase that contains a noun with a different plurality. In the example above, "such as the Mississippi" serves as a prepositional phrase that modifies the noun "rivers". Generally, pronouns will not be referring to nouns that are part of a prepositional phrase; they will instead be referring to the noun that is modified by the prepositional phrase.
To give another example, in the sentence "She checked the color of his eyes, noting that it did not match the color described on his driver's license." In this sentence, "of his eyes" serves as a prepositional phrase that modifies the noun "color". Thus, the pronoun "it" is correctly used to refer to the noun "color". It would be improper to say "they did not match"; even though "his eyes" is plural, it is not the noun that the pronoun should be referring to because it is part of a prepositional phrase.
Any time a pronoun has an apostrophe in it, it is a contraction. This means that the pronoun is being used to combine two words into one. For example, "it's" is a contraction for "it is"; "they're" is a contraction for "they are"; "you're" is a contraction for "you are". "he's" is a contraction for "he is"; and so forth. When you see a pronoun with an apostrophe in it, you should always read it in your head as the two words that it is a contraction of, and see if it sounds right when you read it that way.
There are several mistakes that sometimes people make on pronoun questions. Here are the most common ones:
- Confusing a pronoun question with a "verb form" question
This often happens when each answer choice consists of a pronoun followed by a verb. In many cases, the same exact verb will be repeated in multiple answer choices, allowing you to rule it out as a "verb form" question. Furthermore, if each answer choice has a different pronoun, then it's best looked at as a pronoun question.
- Confusing a pronoun question with an "apostrophe" question
This can happen when some of the pronouns are contractions, and thus have apostrophes. But if each answer choice has a different pronoun, then it's best looked at as a pronoun question even if some of the pronouns have apostrophes.
- Picking a pronoun that agrees with the wrong noun in the sentence
As mentioned earlier, there are often nouns closer to the blank in the sentence than the noun that the pronoun is actually referring to. Be careful to identify the correct noun that the pronoun is referring to, and then make sure it agrees with that noun.
- Confusing similar-sounding pronouns
There are several pronouns that sound similar but have different meanings. Here are some of the most common ones:
- There, their, and they're
- "There" refers to a place (e.g. "over there")
- "Their" is a possessive pronoun (e.g. "their house")
- "They're" is a contraction for "they are" (e.g. "they're upset")
- It's and its
- "It's" is a contraction for "it is" (e.g. "it's raining")
- "Its" is a possessive pronoun (e.g. "its color is blue")
- Who's and whose
- "Who's" is a contraction for "who is" (e.g. "who's going to the store")
- "Whose" is a possessive pronoun (e.g. "whose book is this" or "Jim, whose hair is brown,")
- Whom and who
- "Who" refers to a person who is the subject of the sentence, and will not have a preposition before it (e.g. "David, who sent Greg an email, awaited his reply")
- "Whom" refers to a person who is the object of the sentence, and sometimes (but not always) will have a preposition before it (e.g. "Greg, to whom David sent an email, crafted his response")