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    Pronouns
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    Pronoun is a term used for a rather heterogeneous group of function words. In Frisian, this group covers the following sets of words:

    • personal pronouns: Ik sykje in boek, mar ik kin it net fine I am looking for a book but I cannot find it
    • demonstrative pronouns: Ik sykje in boek, mar dat is fuort I am looking for that book but it is gone
    • relative pronouns: Ik sykje in boek dat hjir stie I am looking for the book that was here
    • possessive pronouns: Marc hat syn boek fergetten Marc forgot his book
    • reflexive pronouns and reciprocal pronouns: Hy stelt him foar He's introducing himself, Sy koenen inoar net They did not know each other
    • indefinite pronouns: Immen moat it dwaan Somebody's got to do it, Se sizze dat sy troud is They say that she's married
    • interrogative pronouns: Wat seist? What did you say?
    As the examples show, pronouns have an enormous variety of uses, and there are many further functional divisions within each pronoun sort. From a morphological point of view pronouns are interesting because they are underived words yet carry morphosyntactic information. Which features are expressed varies per pronoun type. The richest array of morphosyntactic information is displayed by the personal pronouns of the third person. These pronouns distinguish two numbers, three genders (in the singular) and two cases. In the second person singular personal and possessive pronouns, there is a politeness distinction: do is used in informal, jo in formal situations. The demonstrative pronouns are special in that they distinguish near (proximal) and far (distal).

    Function words that look like pronouns and are used as attributes to a noun, such as dat hûs that house or sokke huzen such houses, are discussed in the topic on demonstrative pronouns.

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    More information about pronouns can be found by following the corresponding links:

    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Siebren Dyk
      Category: Frisian Morphology
      Keywords: pronounpersonaldemonstrativerelativepossessivereflexivereciprocalindefinitegendernumbercaseproximaldistal
      Version: 1.0, March 2016
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Siebren Dyk March 2016
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