English personal pronouns

The English personal pronouns are a subset of English pronouns taking various forms according to number, person, case and natural gender. Modern English has very little inflection of nouns or adjectives, to the point where some authors describe it as an analytic language, but the Modern English system of personal pronouns has preserved some of the inflectional complexity of Old English and Middle English.

Forms

Unlike nouns, which are not inflected for case except for possession (''woman/woman's''), English personal pronouns have a number of forms, which are named according to their typical grammatical role in a sentence:
* objective (accusative) case (''me'', ''us'', etc.), used as the object of a verb, complement of a preposition, and the subject of a verb in some constructions (see below). The same forms are also used as disjunctive pronouns.
* subjective (nominative) case (''I'', ''we'', etc.), used as the subject of a verb (see also below).
* reflexive form (''myself'', ''ourselves'', etc.). This typically refers back to a noun or pronoun (its antecedent) within the same clause (for example, ''She cut herself''). This form is also sometimes used optionally in a non-reflexive function, as a substitute for a non-reflexive pronoun (for example, ''For someone like myself, . . .'', ''This article was written by Professor Smith and myself''), though some style guides recommend avoiding such use. The same reflexive forms also are used as intensive pronouns (for example, ''She made the dress herself'').
Possessive pronouns (''mine'', ''ours'', etc.) replace the entity that was referred to previously (as in ''I prefer mine'') or serve as predicate adjectives (as in ''this book is mine''). For details see English possessive. As they are pronouns they cannot precede any noun.

Basic

The basic personal pronouns of modern English are shown in the table below.

Other English pronouns which have distinct forms of the above types are the indefinite pronoun ''one'', which has the reflexive ''oneself'' (the possessive form is written ''one's'', like a regular English possessive); and the interrogative and relative pronoun '' who'', which has the objective form ''whom'' (now confined mostly to formal English) and the possessive ''whose'' (which in its relative use can also serve as the possessive for ''which'').

Note that singular they is morphosyntactically plural: it is used with a plural verb form, as in "they laugh" or "they are". See the singular they section for more information.

Archaic and non-standard

Apart from the standard forms given above, English also has a number of non-standard, informal and archaic forms of personal pronouns.
* An archaic set of second-person singular pronouns is ''thou, thee, thy, thine, thyself''. In Anglo-Saxon times, these were strictly second person singular. After the Norman Conquest in 1066, they began to be used as a familiar form, like French ''tu'' and German ''du''. They passed out of general use between 1600 and 1800, although they (or variants of them) survive in some English and Scottish dialects and in some Christian religious communities, and in many idioms. For details see ''thou''.

* In archaic language, ''mine'' and ''thine'' may be used in place of ''my'' and ''thy'' when followed by a vowel sound.
* For the use of ''me'' instead of ''I'', see I (pronoun)#Alternative use of nominative and accusative
* An archaic form of plural ''you'' as a subject pronoun is ''ye''. Some dialects now use ''ye'' in place of ''you'', or as an apocopated or clitic form of ''you''. See ''ye'' (pronoun).
* A non-standard variant of ''my'' (particularly in British dialects) is ''me''. (This may have its origins in the fact that in Middle English ''my'' before a consonant was pronounced i: like modern English ''me'', (while ''me'' was e: similar to modern ''may'') and this was shortened to ior ɪ as the pronouns ''he'' and ''we'' are nowadays; i wɒz''he was''; versus �t wɒz hi:''it was he''. As this vowel was short, it was not subject to the Great Vowel Shift, and so emerged in modern English unchanged.)
* Informal second-person plural forms (particularly in North American dialects) include ''you all'', ''y'all'', ''youse''. Other variants include: ''yous'', ''you/youse guys'', ''you/youse gals'', ''you-uns'', ''yis'', ''yinz''. Possessives may include ''you(r) guys's'', ''you(r) gals's'', ''yous's'', ''y'all's'' (or ''y'alls''). Reflexives may be formed by adding ''selves'' after any of the possessive forms. See ''y'all'', '' yinz'', '' yous''. ''Yous'' is common in Scotland, particularly in the Central Belt area (though in some parts of the country and in parts of Ireland, ''ye'' is used for the plural ''you'').
* In informal speech ''them'' is often replaced by em'', believed to be a survival of the late Old English form ''heom'', which appears as ''hem'' in Chaucer, losing its aspiration due to being used as an unstressed form. (The forms ''they'', ''them'' etc. are of Scandinavian origin.)
* Non-standard reflexive forms ''ourself'' and ''themself'' are sometimes used in contexts where ''we'' and ''they'' are used with singular meaning (see '' we'' and singular ''they'').
* Non-standard reflexive forms ''hisself'' and ''theirselves/theirself'' are sometimes used (though would be considered incorrect in standard English).
* In some parts of England, the pronoun "hoo" is used as a third person singular pronoun. The exact usage varies by location, as it can refer to a male creature, female creature, or be used as a genderless pronoun depending on where in England it is used.

Complete table

A more complete table, including the standard forms and some of the above forms, is given below. Nonstandard, informal and archaic forms are in ''italics''.

^*In religious usage, the pronouns He/She/You, Him/Her/You, His/Her/Your, and Himself/Herself/Yourself are o