Pronouns: whale shark
The Grammar Bit!
Read the three scintillating sentences opposite. They contain a variety of nouns and pronouns
- A noun is a person, animal, object or place.
- A pronoun is a word used to replace a noun e.g. he, she, it, they etc.
Look at the first sentence. You’ll notice that instead of repeating the noun ‘fish’, the pronoun ‘they’ is used.
Using a pronoun in this way avoids repetition (saying or writing something over and over again). Why might we want to avoid repetition in our writing?
With your talk partner, read the second and third sentences. Can you identify the pronouns that have been used and the nouns that they replace?
Scintillating Sentences
- Vast numbers of stream-lined fish gathered from far and wide. They darted to and fro in the warm, blue waters.
- A silky shark collided and bounced off the whale shark’s rough, spotty skin. It did so to clean itself of parasites.
- A female whale shark dived deeply into the dark ocean. She was looking for a safe place to release her young.
Did you know?
Although only a small percentage of whale sharks survive to adulthood, those that do can live for 150 years!