Singular. Plural_.
Nom. he, they, she, they, it, they,
Pos. his, their _or_ her or their _or_ its,* their _or_
theirs, hers, theirs, theirs,
Obj. him; them. her; them. it; them.
[Footnote *: The possessive _its_ is our only personal pronoun form not
found in Saxon. _His_, the possessive of the masculine _he_, was there the
possessive (genitive) of the neuter _hit_ also--our _it_. But it came to be
thought improper to employ _his_ to denote inanimate things as well as
animate. The literature of the 16th and 17th centuries shows a growing
sense of this impropriety, and abounds with _of it_, _thereof_, _her_,
_it_, _the_, and _it own_ in place of _his_ as the possessive of _it_. The
first appearance of the new coinage _its_ is placed in 1598. Long after its
introduction many looked askance at _its_, because of the grammatical
blunder it contains--the_ t_ in _its_ being a nominative neuter ending, and
the _s_ a possessive ending. But no one thinks now of shunning what was
then regarded as a grammatical monstrosity.]
COMPOUND PERSONAL PRONOUNS.
_Singular. Plural. Singular. Plural. Singular. Plural. _
_Nom. and Nom.
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