The pronoun

The pronoun (olmosh) is a word class used in place of a noun, adjective, numeral or adverb, pointing back to it. A pronoun has no fixed meaning of its own: the word u (he, she, it, that) refers to whoever or whatever was mentioned in the same or the previous sentence. Pronouns hold a text together: instead of repeating a word, we use a pronoun. That is why they matter both in grammar and in reading literacy (the question "what does this word refer to?"). The exam includes tasks on the types of pronouns, the correct spelling of their case forms and finding the word a pronoun refers to.

§1. Types of pronouns

Uzbek has seven types of pronouns:

• Personal: men, sen, u, biz, siz, ular (I, you, he/she, we, you, they) — refer to a participant in speech or the person spoken about.
• Reflexive: o‘z — always with a possessive suffix: o‘zim, o‘zing, o‘zi, o‘zimiz (myself, yourself, himself, ourselves). It shows that the action returns to the doer, or adds emphasis: O‘zim bajaraman (I’ll do it myself).
• Demonstrative: bu, shu, o‘sha, u, ana, mana, ana shu, mana bu (this, that, there, here) — point to a thing.
• Interrogative: kim, nima, qanday, qanaqa, qaysi, qancha, nechta, nechanchi, qayer, qachon, nega, nimaga (who, what, what kind, which, how much, where, when, why).
• Determinative: hamma, barcha, butun, har, har kim, har bir, har qanday (all, whole, every, everyone, each, any) — cover all members of a group.
• Negative: hech kim, hech nima, hech qachon, hech qanday, hech bir (nobody, nothing, never, no ... at all) — strengthen negation and usually go with a negative verb: Hech kim kelmadi (Nobody came).
• Indefinite (gumon): allakim, allanima, allaqanday, kimdir, nimadir, qandaydir, qayerdadir (somebody, something, some kind of, somewhere).

The word u can be personal (U keldi — he came) or demonstrative (u uy — that house); decide by its role in the sentence.

Worked example

Identify the pronoun type in Kimdir eshikni taqillatdi ("Somebody knocked at the door").

1. Find the pronoun: kimdir (kim + -dir).
2. -dir adds a sense of uncertainty: we do not know who it was.
3. The sentence is a statement, not a question — so it is not an interrogative pronoun.
4. Answer: an indefinite pronoun.

§2. Which word class a pronoun replaces

Pronouns are also grouped by the word class they stand for:

• for a noun: men, kim, nima, hamma, hech kim — Kim keldi? (Who came?), Hamma tayyor (Everyone is ready);
• for an adjective: qanday, qanaqa, bu, shu, qaysi, har qanday — Qanday kitob? (What kind of book?), Bu uy (this house);
• for a numeral: qancha, nechta, nechanchi — Nechta daftar? (How many exercise books?);
• for an adverb: qachon, qayerda, nega, shunday — Qachon kelasan? (When will you come?).

The syntactic role depends on this: a noun-like pronoun is a subject or object, an adjective-like or numeral-like one is an attribute, and an adverb-like one is an adverbial.

§3. Declension and spelling

Noun-like pronouns are declined for case: men → mening, meni, menga, menda, mendan; sen → sening, seni, senga.
The pronouns u, bu, shu gain an n in the dative, locative and ablative:

The genitive and accusative also contain n: uning, uni, buning, buni.
men and sen take suffixes without change: menga, menda, senga, sendan. The plurals biz, siz behave the same way: bizga, sizdan.
The reflexive pronoun takes both a possessive and a case suffix: o‘z-im-ga (to myself), o‘z-i-ning (of himself).
By structure pronouns are:

• simple: kim, bu, hamma;
• compound: har kim, hech nima, ana shu, har qanday — written as separate words;
• paired: u-bu, unda-bunda, o‘sha-o‘sha — with a hyphen;
• reduplicated: kim-kim, nima-nima — with a hyphen.

Worked example

Fill the gap in U ... kitob berdi ("He gave ... a book") with the dative form of the pronoun u.

1. In the dative the pronoun u gains an n.
2. u + n + ga → unga.
3. The form uga is not used in the standard language.
4. Answer: U unga kitob berdi (He gave him a book).

§4. Interrogative pronouns in complex sentences

Interrogative pronouns occur not only in questions but also in complex sentences as linking words. They then lose their questioning meaning and pair up with a demonstrative pronoun:

• Kim mehnat qilsa, u rohat ko‘radi. (Whoever works hard will enjoy rest.)
• Qayerda bo‘lsang, o‘sha yerda xursand bo‘l. (Wherever you are, be happy there.)
• Qancha o‘qisang, shuncha bilasan. (The more you read, the more you know.)

Here the pronoun is not a question but a link between two clauses, so no question mark is used at the end. The interrogative in the first clause and the demonstrative in the second refer to the same thing: kim and u are the same person. In the topic of subordinate clauses these pairs help you identify the clause type: kim... u — a subject clause, qayerda... o‘sha yerda — a clause of place.

§5. Pronouns and style

• siz is the polite form and is used even to one person; sen expresses closeness or equality and sounds rude to a stranger.
• biz is sometimes used instead of men for modesty or in formal style (the "authorial we"): Biz ushbu maqolada ... ko‘rib chiqamiz. (In this article we shall examine ...)
• ular about one person expresses respect: Dadam uyda yo‘qlar, ular ishdalar. (My father is not at home, he is at work.)
• Demonstratives are cohesive devices in a text: Navoiy «Xamsa»ni yozdi. Bu asar besh dostondan iborat. (Navoi wrote the "Khamsa". This work consists of five epic poems.) — bu refers to «Xamsa» in the previous sentence.
• Too many pronouns or an unclear reference is a speech error: Anvar Valiga u kelishini aytdi (it is unclear who will come). Fix: Anvar Valiga o‘zi kelishini aytdi, or repeat the name.

Worked example

O‘qituvchi o‘quvchilarga yangi kitob olib keldi. Ular uni zavq bilan o‘qishdi. ("The teacher brought the pupils a new book. They read it with pleasure.") — what do ular and uni refer to?

1. ular is plural and refers to people; the predicate o‘qishdi tells us who read — the pupils.
2. uni is singular and accusative — the thing read, the book.
3. O‘qituvchi is singular, so ular cannot refer to it.
4. Answer: ular — the pupils, uni — the new book.

§6. The pronoun in the sentence

A pronoun can be almost any part of the sentence:

• subject: Biz keldik. (We came.)
• predicate: Bu kitob — meniki. (This book is mine; meniki is the possessive form)
• object: Uni ko‘rdim. (I saw him/it.)
• attribute: Shu kitobni ol (Take this book), Mening ukam (my younger brother).
• adverbial: Qachon ketasan? (When are you leaving?), Shunday qil. (Do it like this.)

The suffix -niki forms the possessive form from a pronoun: meniki, seniki, uniki (mine, yours, his/hers).

Worked example

Analyse the pronouns in Hamma o‘z ishini vaqtida bajardi ("Everyone did their own work on time").

1. hamma — a determinative pronoun answering kim bajardi? (who did it?) — the subject.
2. o‘z — a reflexive pronoun answering kimning ishini? (whose work?) — an attribute.
3. The possessive suffix in ishini agrees with o‘z.
4. Answer: hamma — determinative (subject), o‘z — reflexive (attribute).

Check yourself

1. Which type of pronoun is hech kim?

2. Which type of pronoun is o‘zim?

3. Which word class does qaysi replace in Qaysi kitobni o‘qiding?

4. How is u + ga written?

5. Is har kim written as one word or two?

6. Why is siz used to address one person?

7. Which type of pronoun is allanima?

8. What role does qancha play in Qancha o‘qisang, shuncha bilasan?

Common mistakes

• Taking an indefinite pronoun for an interrogative: kimdir is indefinite, kim? is interrogative.
• Calling o‘z a personal pronoun.
• Writing uga instead of unga, buda instead of bunda.
• Getting the referent wrong by ignoring number and person.
• Putting a question mark after a complex sentence with the relative words kim, qancha.
• Writing har kim, hech nima as one word.