PERSONAL PRONOUNS. The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993

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Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.

PERSONAL PRONOUNS

have some distinctive forms for number, person, and case, and usage problems generally arise when these forms fail to match Standard English expectations. Here are the forms (those marked with asterisks are sometimes called absolute possessive pronouns):

PLURAL CASE	FIRST PERSON	SECOND PERSON	THIRD PERSON
Nominative	we	you	they
Genitive	our, ours*	your, yours*	their, theirs*
Objective	us	you	them

SINGULAR CASE	FIRST PERSON	SECOND PERSON	THIRD PERSON
Nominative	I	you	he, she, it
Genitive	my, mine*	your, yours*	his, her, hers, its
Objective	me	you	him, her, it

There are also some archaic second person pronouns, today used mainly in certain religious contexts: singular thou, thy, thine, thee; plural ye, your, ye. Quakers traditionally have used thee in both nominative and objective cases.

None of the genitive pronouns ending in -s takes an apostrophe: never spell them her’s, it’s, our’s, your’s, or their’s.

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