Pronouns may be divided into substantive and adjective, personal and impersonal, relative and interrogative. The personal substantive pronouns are I, thou, he, she. The impersonal substantive pronoun is it.

The personal substantive pronouns have three cases, and are thus declined:

First Person, Masc. and Fem.
Sing.Plur.
Nom.I[28]We
Gen.MineOurs
Obj.MeUs.
Second Person, Masc. and Fem.
Sing.Plur.
Nom.Thou[29]Ye or you
Gen.ThineYours
Obj.TheeYou.
Third Person.
Masc.
Nom.He[30]They
Gen.HisTheirs
Obj.HimThem.
Fem.
Sing.Plur.
Nom.She[31]They
Gen.HersTheirs
Obj.HerThem.
Third Person.
Neuter.
Impersonal.
Nom.It[32]They[33]
Gen.ItsTheirs
Obj.ItThem.

My, thy, our, your, their, being the representatives of nouns, have the essential character of pronouns. Thus, when Decius says to Cato, “Cæsar is well acquainted with your virtues,” the pronoun is employed as a substitute for Cato’s. As they express not only the subject, but also the relation of property or possession, they are by some grammarians considered to be the genitives of their respective substantive pronouns. In usage, however, they are distinguished from the English genitive by their incapacity to stand alone. Thus we say, “It is the king’s,” “It is yours;” but we cannot say, “It is your,” the presence of a noun being necessary to the last expression. They are, therefore, more correctly named pronominal adjectives. For the purpose of denoting emphatically the relation of possession or property, the word own is frequently joined to them, as, my own, thy own, our own. And to mark the person with emphasis, they are compounded with the word self; in Saxon, sylf; from the Gothic silba, ipse: thus, myself, thyself; ourselves, yourselves. Theirselves is now obsolete, themselves being used in its stead.

The pronouns of the first and second persons are either masculine or feminine. The reason is, says Mr. Harris, because the sex of the speaker and of the person addressed is generally obvious. This explanation, which has been adopted by most grammarians, appears to me unsatisfactory and erroneous. Others have said that the pronouns of the first and second persons have no distinction of sex, because all distinction of this kind is foreign to the intention of the speaker, who, when he uses the pronoun I, means the person who speaks, be it man or woman; and when he employs the pronoun thou, means the person addressed, without any regard to the sex of the individual. This matter seems sufficiently plain. Language, to be useful, must be perspicuous and intelligible, exhibiting the subject and its attributes with clearness and precision. If it should be asked why the pronoun of the third person has three varieties, Mr. Harris would answer, “to mark the sex.” If it were inquired whence arises the necessity of marking the sex, he would answer, and very justly, “in order to ascertain the subject of discourse.” It is obvious, therefore, that to note the sex is not the primary object, and that the principal aim of the speaker is to discriminate and mark the subject. The pronouns of the first and second persons have no variety of form significant of sex, because the speaker and the person addressed are evident without it. Mr. Harris, therefore, should have said that the pronouns in question have no distinction of gender, not because the sex of the speaker and of the person addressed, but because the persons themselves, are in general obvious, without the aid of sexual designation. The intention of the speaker is not to denote the sex, but the person spoken of, whether male or female; to ascertain which person, if absent, the discrimination of sex is generally necessary. The sex, therefore, enters not as an essential, but as an explanatory circumstance; not as the subject of discourse, but to distinguish the subject. Where the person is present, and is either the speaker or the person addressed, discrimination of sex becomes unnecessary, the pronoun itself marking the individuals. When the person or subject of discourse is absent, the distinction of sex serves frequently to determine the subject. Hence the pronoun of the third person has three varieties, he for the masculine, she for the feminine, and it for the neuter.

The four personal pronouns, I, thou, he, and she, have three cases, viz., the nominative or leading case, expressing the principal subject, and preceding the verb; the genitive case, whose form and office have been already defined; and the objective, accusative, or following case, (for it has obtained these three names,) expressing the object to which the energy is directed, or the subject acted upon. This case follows the verb.

Mine, thine, hers, theirs, his, yours, ours, are truly pronouns in the possessive or genitive case. Johnson has indeed said that my and mine are words precisely synonymous, my, according to him, being used before a consonant, and mine before a vowel; as, my sword, mine arm. It is doubtless true that mine and thine are sometimes used as my and thy, which are not substantive pronouns, but pronominal adjectives; but that they are not precisely synonymous or mutually convertible, is obvious; for my and thy cannot be used for mine and thine, though mine and thine, as has been observed, may be used for my and thy. Example: “Whose book is this?” I cannot answer, “it is my,” but “it is mine.” We may indeed say “it is my book;” but the addition of the substantive is necessary.

As my and mine, thy and thine, our and ours, your and yours, their and theirs, are not mutually convertible, they cannot be regarded as synonymous each with its fellow.

This and that, which have improperly been referred by some to the class of pronouns, have been considered already. The former makes in the plural these, the latter those.

The relative pronouns, so called because they directly relate or refer to a substantive preceding, which is therefore termed the antecedent, are who, which, that.