Determined to Know the Difference Quiz

Answer: Reciprocal

Germans use one word ("einander") to say "each other." The Germans are famous for combining words! English reflexive pronouns, however, demonstrate this tendency too: myself, yourself, ourselves, yourselves, etc. This is indicative of the close connection that the two languages still share.

Answer: its

When confronting a hungry bear, it's best not to mess with its honey. If you know the bear is female and want to express her ownership of the honey, you would not add an apostrophe (her's honey), nor would you add an 's.'

Answer: Interrogative

Now which witch is which? Determiners help to pin down the identity of a noun, whereas pronouns act as a substitute for a noun. "These are mine," you say about your bag of chips, but if I'm uncertain which bag is yours, then you'd better specify, "These chips are mine!" by using a determiner.

Answer: as a pronoun

"Which" and "that" can usually be used interchangeably as pronouns but not as determiners. For example, you could claim, "Here's the valuable coin that/which I found lying on the street," but you would only say, "That coin is the one I found," not, "Which coin is the one I found" when positively identifying the coin.

Answer: Indefinite

Will somebody help me? Anybody? Will none help? Perhaps I should not have used an indefinite pronoun--Frank! Sharon! HELP!

Answer: Personal

"Decartes thinks, therefore he is." We almost exclusively use the personal pronoun "I" when we are the subject of our own sentence. If we use our own name, it seems as if we are talking about someone else. Likewise, when talking to a person whom we know, we use a personal pronoun as a substitute for their name (ex: "You look nice today") so they know we're talking about them.

The exception is when we give a command such as, "George, go to the store." We might also say, "Go to the store" to George, leaving out the "you" in such cases because it's understood.

Answer: Demonstrative

The demonstrative determiners all begin with "th" (this, that, these, those). Demonstrative determiners require us to physically demonstrate our preference because we usually point our finger at the ones we want (otherwise, we'd have to say something like, "the brown ones" or "the salty ones").

However, if the desired object is an abstract/invisible concept, no hand gestures are necessary: "Do you remember the instructions I gave you?" the teacher queried. "Oh, THOSE instructions!" answered the embarrassed student.

Answer: Whatever time you show up is fine.

"Whatever" is a relative pronoun or a relative determiner depending on how it's used in the sentence. The rule of thumb is that when a noun is present, you have a determiner on your hands rather than a pronoun. Here are some more examples of relative determiners in sentences: "Whichever direction you choose, it always ends up being the wrong one!" "What marvelous wainscoting you've got, Scott!"

Answer: myself, yourself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves

Sometimes you can't please anybody but yourself, so it's a good thing that reflexive pronouns make that possible! Of course, reflexive pronouns are not always necessary when we're expressing an action performed on or by ourselves; consider the following examples: "I rested [myself] in the afternoon." "I showered and shaved [myself]."

Answer: who

Grammar Nazis compulsively insist upon using "whom" when the pronoun is an object: "To whom is this letter addressed?" "They weren't sure for whom the singing clown telegram was intended."