In Modern English, ''she'' is a

singular Singular may refer to: * Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms * Singular homology * SINGULAR, an open source Computer Algebra System (CAS) * Singular or sounder, a group of boar ...

feminine Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered fe ...

, third-person

pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun ( abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not ...

Morphology

In Standard Modern English, ''she'' has four shapes representing five distinct word forms: * ''she'': the

nominative In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Eng ...

(subjective) form * ''her'': the

accusative The accusative case ( abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘ ...

(objective, also called the ' oblique'.) form; the dependent

genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can a ...

(possessive) form * ''hers:'' the independent

form * ''herself'': the reflexive form

History

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

had a single third-person pronoun – from the

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic br ...

demonstrative Demonstratives ( abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular fram ...

base *''khi''-, from

PIE A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts (pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), sweete ...

*''ko''- "this" – which had a plural and three

genders Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures us ...

in the singular. In early

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old Englis ...

, one case was lost, and distinct pronouns started to develop. The modern pronoun '' it'' developed out of the neuter, singular in the 12th century. ''Her'' developed out of the feminine singular dative and genitive forms. The older pronoun had the following forms: The evolution of ''she'' is disputed. Some sources claim it evolved "from Old English ''seo'', ''sio'' (accusative ''sie''), fem. of demonstrative pronoun (masc. ''se'') 'the,' from PIE root *''so''- 'this, that'" (see '' the''). "In Middle English, the Old English system collapses, due to the gradual loss of ''þe'' and the replacement of the paradigm ''se'', ''seo'', ''þæt'' by indeclinable ''that''."

A more likely account is what is sometimes called the ' Shetland Theory', since it assumes a development parallel to that of ''Shetland'' < OScand. ''Hjaltland'', ''Shapinsay'' < ''Hjalpandisey'', etc. The starting point is the morphologically and chronologically preferable ''hēo''. Once again we have syllabicity shift and vowel reduction, giving eo̯> e̯o> joː Then j-> �- and �-> �- giving final �oː

Obviously, this doesn't lead to the modern form ''she'' /ʃiː/. "So any solution that gets �from /eo/ also needs to 'correct' the resultant /oː/ (outside the north) to /eː/. This means an analogical transfer of (probably) the /eː/ of ''he''." None of this is entirely plausible. The ''-self'' forms developed in early Middle English, with ''hire self'' becoming ''herself.'' By the 15th century, the Middle English forms of ''she'' had solidified into those we use today.''''

Gender

''He'' had three

in Old English, but in Middle English, the neuter and feminine genders split off. Today, ''she'' is the only feminine pronoun in English. It is occasionally used as a

gender neutral Gender neutrality (adjective form: gender-neutral), also known as gender-neutralism or the gender neutrality movement, is the idea that policies, language, and other social institutions (social structures or gender roles) should avoid distinguish ...

, third-person, singular pronoun (see also

singular they Singular ''they'', along with its inflected or derivative forms, ''them'', ''their'', ''theirs'' and ''themselves'' (or ''themself''), is a gender-neutral third-person pronoun. It typically occurs with an unspecified antecedent, in sentenc ...

Syntax

Functions

''She'' can appear as a subject,

object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an ...

determiner A determiner, also called determinative ( abbreviated ), is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and generally serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context. That is, a determine ...

or predicative complement. The reflexive form also appears as an adjunct. ''She'' occasionally appears as a modifier in a noun phrase. * Subject: ''She's there; her being there''; ''she paid for herself to be there.'' * Object: ''I saw her''; ''I introduced him to her; She saw herself.'' * Predicative complement: ''The only person there was her.'' * Dependent determiner: ''This is her book.'' * Independent determiner: ''This is hers.'' * Adjunct: ''She did it herself.'' * Modifier: ''The she goat was missing.''

Dependents

Pronouns rarely take dependents, but it is possible for ''she'' to have many of the same kind of dependents as other noun phrases. *

Relative clause A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phraseRodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'', CUP 2005, p. 183ff. and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the argument ...

modifier: ''she who arrives late'' * Determiner: A: ''Somebody was here, and she left this''. B: ''I'm that she.'' * Adjective phrase modifier: ''the real her'' * Adverb phrase external modifier: ''Not even her''

Semantics

''She'''s referents are generally limited to individual,

female Female ( symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Fema ...

person A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...

s, excluding the speaker and the addressee. ''She'' is always

definite In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical ...

and usually specific.

Generic

The pronoun ''she'' can also be used to refer to an unspecified person, as in ''If you see someone in trouble, help her.'' (See

Gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most culture ...

above). This can seem very unnatural, even ungrammatical, as in examples like this: * ''If either your mother or father would like to discuss it, I'll talk to her.''

Non-human ''she''

''She'' can be used for countries as political entities, but not as geographical entities. * ''Canada really found her place in the world during WWII.'' * ''*Canada's prairies are grassland, and she has five great lakes in Ontario.'' ''She'' can also be used for ships and other inanimate objects of significance to the owner. Many English

style guide A style guide or manual of style is a set of standards for the writing, formatting, and design of documents. It is often called a style sheet, although that term also has multiple other meanings. The standards can be applied either for gene ...

s discourage the use of ''she'' for countries or inanimate objects, and such usage may be considered dated or sexist.

Deities

"She" may refer to a particular

goddess A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes ...

or to a monotheistic God when regarded as female. In this case it may be written "She" with

reverential capitalization Reverential capitalization is the practice of capitalizing religious words that refer to deities or divine beings in cases where the words would not otherwise have been capitalized. Pronouns are also particularly included in reverential capitalizat ...

Pronunciation

According to the OED, the following pronunciations are used:

Other

In 1999, ''she'' was selected as the word of the millennium by the

American Dialect Society The American Dialect Society (ADS), founded in 1889, is a learned society "dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, and of other languages, or dialects of other languages, influencing it or influenced by it." The Society p ...