Reciprocal Pronouns
Reciprocal Pronouns
Have you ever participated in a gift exchange? If you have, you know that you give someone a gift and you receive a gift in return. It is a reciprocal process.
Reciprocal means given, felt, or done in return
Similarly, a reciprocal pronoun represents something being done in return.
Think of it as:
A is doing something to B and B is doing the same thing to A.
You know that a pronoun replaces a noun. In the same way, a reciprocal pronoun replaces two or more nouns. To use a reciprocal pronoun, those nouns must be doing the same thing.
There are two reciprocal pronouns:
- one another
- each other
These words can be used interchangeably, but often one will sound better than the other.
Let's look at a few examples:
- My grandparents love each other.
- They cannot stand each other.
- Let's all play a game with one another.
- The students all blamed each other for their teacher's meltdown.
- Carrie, Matt, and Steve liked traveling with one another.
The reciprocal pronoun each other is less formal than the reciprocal pronoun one another.
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