† Except in free or fused relative constructions, in which case what, whatever or whichever is used for a thing and whoever or whomever is used for a person: What he did was clearly impossible, Whoever you married is welcome here (see below).
The pronoun object of a preposition is typically in the accusative form but may also be reflexive (e.g., She sent it to herself) or independent genitive (e.g., I hadn't heard of theirs.).
)[2]: 461 A pronoun in predicative complement position is typically in the accusative form (e.g., It's me) but may also be reflexive (e.g., She isn't herself today) or independent genitive (e.g., It's theirs.).
The personal pronouns of modern standard English are presented in the table above.
In the Southern United States, y'all (from you all) is used as a plural form, and various other phrases such as you guys are used in other places.
An archaic set of second-person pronouns used for singular reference is thou, thee, thyself, thy, thine, which are still used in religious services and can be seen in older works, such as Shakespeare's—in such texts, ye and the you set of pronouns are used for plural reference, or with singular reference as a formal V-form.
[7] You can also be used as an indefinite pronoun, referring to a person in general (see generic you), compared to the more formal alternative, one (reflexive oneself, possessive one's).
For example, she is used to refer to a woman, sometimes a female animal, and sometimes an object to which feminine characteristics are attributed, such as a ship, car or country.
Historically, singular they was restricted to quantificational constructions such as Each employee should clean their desk and referential cases where the referent's gender was unknown.
[9] The dependent genitive pronouns, such as my, are used as determinatives together with nouns, as in my old man, some of his friends.
[11] The relative pronoun which refers to things rather than persons, as in the shirt, which used to be red, is faded.
The oblique case form of who is whom, as in the man whom I saw was tall, although in informal registers who is commonly used in place of whom.
The possessive form of who is whose (for example, the man whose car is missing); however the use of whose is not restricted to persons (one can say an idea whose time has come).
"[2]: 427 The generic pronouns are one (e.g., one can see oneself in the mirror) and you (e.g., In Tokugawa Japan, you couldn't leave the country), with one being more formal than you.
Like the reflexive pronouns, their use is limited to contexts where an antecedent precedes it.
[2]: 426–427 The word there is a dummy pronoun in some clauses, chiefly existential (There is no god) and presentational constructions (There appeared a cat on the window sill).
It can also appear without a corresponding logical subject, in short sentences and question tags: There wasn't a discussion, was there?
The word there in such sentences has sometimes been analyzed as an adverb, or as a dummy predicate, rather than as a pronoun.
[14] However, its identification as a pronoun is most consistent with its behavior in inverted sentences and question tags as described above.
Relative that is usually pronounced with a reduced vowel (schwa), and hence differently from the demonstrative that (see Weak and strong forms in English).
If that is not the subject of the relative clause (in the traditional view), it can be omitted (the song I listened to yesterday).
Unlike pronouns, it readily takes a determiner (many others) or a relative clause modifier (others that we know).
Same with hwæðer, which also means "which" but is only used between two alternatives: The first- and second-person pronouns are the same for all genders.
Many of the forms above bear a strong resemblance to the Modern English words they eventually became.
However, the plural third-person personal pronouns were all replaced with Old Norse forms during the Middle English period, yielding "they," "them," and "their."
Also, the nominative form of the feminine third-person singular was replaced by a form of the demonstrative that developed into sche (modern she), but the alternative heyr remained in some areas for a long time.
As with nouns, there was some inflectional simplification (the distinct Old English dual forms were lost), but pronouns, unlike nouns, retained distinct nominative and accusative forms.
Third-person pronouns also retained a distinction between accusative and dative forms, but that was gradually lost: the masculine hine was replaced by him south of the Thames by the early 14th century, and the neuter dative him was ousted by it in most dialects by the 15th.