[Sidenote: _A relic of the olden time._]

82. We have an interesting relic in such sentences as this from
Thackeray: "One of the ways to know '_em_ is to watch the scared looks
of the ogres' wives and children."

As shown above, the Old English objective was _hem_ (or _heom_), which
was often sounded with the _h_ silent, just as we now say, "I saw
'_im_ yesterday" when the word _him_ is not emphatic. In spoken
English, this form '_em_ has survived side by side with the literary
_them_.

[Sidenote: _Use of the pronouns in personification._]

83. The pronouns _he_ and _she_ are often used in poetry, and
sometimes in ordinary speech, to personify objects (Sec. 34).

CASES OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS.

I The Nominative.

[Sidenote: _Nominative forms._]

84. The nominative forms of personal pronouns have the same uses as
the nominative of nouns (see Sec. 58). The case of most of these
pronouns can be determined more easily than the case of nouns, for,
besides a nominative _use_, they have a nominative form. The words
_I_, _thou_, _he_, _she_, _we_, _ye_, _they_, are very rarely anything
but nominative in literary English, though _ye_ is occasionally used
as objective.

[Sidenote: _Additional nominatives in spoken English._]

85. In spoken English, however, there are some others that are added
to the list of nominatives: they are, _me_, _him_, _her_, _us_,
_them_, when they occur in the _predicate position_. That is, in such
a sentence as, "I am sure it was _him_," the literary language would
require _he_ after _was_; but colloquial English regularly uses as
predicate nominatives the forms _me_, _him_, _her_, _us_, _them_,
though those named in Sec. 84 are always subjects. Yet careful
speakers avoid this, and follow the usage of literary English.

II. The Possessive.

[Sidenote: _Not a separate class._]

86. The forms _my_, _thy_, _his_, _her_, _its_, _our_, _your_,
_their_, are sometimes grouped separately as POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS, but
it is better to speak of them as the possessive case of personal
pronouns, just as we speak of the possessive case of nouns, and not
make more classes.

[Sidenote: Absolute _personal pronouns._]

The forms _mine_, _thine_, _yours_, _hers_, _theirs_, sometimes _his_
and _its_, have a peculiar use, standing apart from the words they
modify instead of immediately before them. From this use they are
called ABSOLUTE PERSONAL PRONOUNS, or, some say, ABSOLUTE POSSESSIVES