Pronouns

Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns and noun phrases in a sentence. They keep us from repeating the same words over and over again. Here's an example of a sentence without pronouns:
My mother is a teacher but my mother is also a singer and my mother sings beautifully.
It sounds clumsy and repetitive. Here's the same sentence with a personal pronoun:
My mother is a teacher but she is also a singer and she sings beautifully.
The latter sentence sounds fluent and smooth.

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns refer to people. They are used in place of a person's name or title.

Singular	Plural
mi	mimen
I, me	we
tu	tumen
you	you all
ho	homen
he or she	they

All pronouns can be used for all genders. In Pandunia, personal pronouns do not specify whether the person discussed is a woman or a man. For example, in the third person, one word – ho – refers to women, men and people of other genders alike. It is a gender-neutral personal pronoun and it treats everyone equally.

The singular 2nd person pronoun tu can be used in all situations, both formal and informal, regardless of differences in social status and age of the speakers. In this way it is similar to Scandinavian du and different from German du, French tu, Russian ты (ty) and Hindi tū, which are used typically only with family members and intimate friends.

There are three first-person plural pronouns. tumimen is the inclusive we that includes the audience: 'you, I and other people'. homimen is the exclusive we that excludes the audience: 'I and other people only'. Finally, mimen is the neutral we that can be both inclusive and exclusive. It is also the most common first-person plural pronoun, and the other two are used only occasionally.

The possessive pronouns consists of the personal pronoun and the possessive particle di.

Singular	Plural
mi di	mimen di
my	our
tu di	tumen di
your	your
ho di	homen di
his or her	their

Reflexive pronoun

The reflexive pronoun is used when the object of a sentence is the same as the subject.

se – self

Note! The same reflexive pronoun se is used for all persons, so it corresponds to English myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves and themselves all at once.

mi vi se. – I see myself.
ho vi se. – She sees herself. / He sees himself. / It sees itself.
mimen vi se. – We see ourselves.

The expression alale is used as the reciprocal pronoun.

alale – each other, one another

tu e mi vi alale. – You and I see each other.
mimen vi alale. – We see each other.

Demonstrative pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns are used with nouns to make them more specific. The demonstrative pronouns in Pandunia are:

ye – this (near the speaker)
vo – that (far from speaker)
el – the (known by both the speaker and the listener)

The proximal demonstrative ye points to things that are near the speaker. The distal demonstrative vo points to things that are far from the speaker.

tu voli vo buku, he? – Do you want that book?
no, mi voli ye buku, no vo. – No, I want this book, not that.

The demonstratives can serve as subjects and objects in the same way as nouns.

ye es hao. – This is good.
vo es dus. – That is bad.
tu voli ye, he? – Do you want this?
no, mi voli vo. – No, I want that.

When the verb is a content word, there needs to be a modal particle, like ya or no, between the subject and the verb.

ye ya vi du jan. – This one sees two persons.
ye ya gani e vo no gani. – This one sings and that one doesn't sing.

The basic proximal and distal pronouns are used for introducing a new object. The topical demonstrative el, on the other hand, does not specify physical distance but it is used when the speaker has already mentioned the object or person in question and it is known by the audience or is topical within the discourse.

ye es mau. ho voli yam vo mushu. – This is a cat. It wants to eat that mouse.

mi have un mau e un gau. el gau es dai. ho yam multi yam. – I have a cat and a dog. The dog is big. It eats a lot of food.

Abstract use

The demonstrative pronouns can be used also discourse internally. Then they refer to abstract entities of discourse, not concrete objects. el refers to things previously spoken, ye refers to things currently being spoken, and vo refers to things about to be spoken.

ye jumla es korte. – This sentence is short.

In the above, ye jumla (this sentence) refers to the sentence being spoken.

mi sema vo: mi love tu. – I mean this: I love you. OR I mean that I love you.
mi love tu. mi sema el. – I love you. That is what I mean.

In the above, the pronoun vo refers to the content of the next statement and el refers to the content of the previous statement.

Interrogative pronouns

ke is a general-purpose interrogative pronoun. It does the job of English words who and what.

ke? – Who or what?

The interrogative pronoun takes the place of the questioned thing in the phrase. It is not placed in the beginning of the phrase unlike normally in English.

ke es ho? – What is it?
ke es vo jen? – Who is that person ~ he ~ she?
tu voli ke? – What do you want? (Literally: You want what?)
ke es na meza. – What is on the table?
ke es na haus. – Who is in the house?

The possessive interrogative pronoun is built like the other possessive pronouns.

ke di – whose

ke di haus es vo? – Whose hose is that?

Also adjectives are questioned with ke.

ke nova? – How new?
ke koste? – How costy?
ke multi? – How many?
ke kam? – How few?
ke dai? – How big?
ke lit? – How small?

tu have ke dai mau? – How big a cat do you have?