Grammar Exercises

1. Fill in the gaps with suitable pronouns in the Nominative and Objective Case. In some sentences different pronouns are possible.

1. John is a boy. _____ is in the class.

2. Mary is a girl. _____ is at home.

3. _____ are brother and sister.

4. We know _____ very well.

5. _____ stayed with us last year.

6. John is a clever boy. I like ____.

7. Mary is a pretty girl. ____ is twelve years old. We like ____.

8. They have a dog. ____ is called Jock.

9. They have asked me to visit _____ next year.

10. They live in Milan. ____ is a big city.

11. Do you like these flowers? ____ are out of the garden.

12. I read that book. ____ is very interesting.

2. Write out these sentences again using pronouns instead of the words “in italics”.

1. John is a boy.

2. Margaret is a girl.

3. John and Margaret met the teacher.

4. The teacher gave John a lesson.

5. Margaret is a nice girl. My wife and I like Margaret.

6. Here is my dog. My dog is called Kim.

7. The teacher said, "Give the teacher your book."

8. The lesson is easy. The teacher explained the lesson.

9. The teacher asked John and Margaret to come and see the teacher.

10. Tom saw Mary. Tom spoke to Mary.

11. Mary saw Tom. Mary spoke to Tom.

12. Tom and Mary saw Mrs. Robinson. Tom and Mary spoke to Mrs. Robinson.

13. Mrs. Robinson saw Tom and Mary. Mrs Robinson spoke to Tom and Mary.

3. What pronouns could you use for Henry, Lilian, George and Elizabeth, the house, London, Frederick, the dog, horses, the cat, houses? (For some of them you can use two pronouns.)

4. Here is a story. Make it sound better by putting pronouns instead of nouns where you think necessary.

About Sir Isaac Newton

One of the greatest Englishmen who ever lived was Sir Isaac Newton. No man of that time or of almost any other time had a greater or wiser mind than Newton had, but Newton was very absent-minded about small matters when Newton was thinking about his work. One morning Newton got up very early because Newton was working on a very difficult problem. Newton was thinking about the problem so deeply that Newton would not leave the problem to go to breakfast. But his housekeeper thought Newton needed food so the housekeeper sent Mary, a servant, to his study with a pan of water and an egg. The housekeeper told the servant to boil the egg and stay with Newton until Newton ate the egg. But Newton wanted to be alone, and Newton said, "Mary can leave the egg with Newton, and Newton will boil the egg." The servant put the egg on the table by the side of Newton's watch and the servant said, "Sir Isaac Newton must boil the egg for four minutes and then the egg will be ready," then the servant left the room. The servant was afraid, however, that New­ton might forget to boil the egg, so Mary returned about an hour later and found Newton standing by the fireplace. Newton had put the watch in the saucepan and was boiling the watch. Newton was holding the egg in his hand, quite unaware of the mistake that Newton was making.