In Modern English, he is a singular, masculine, third-person pronoun.

Morphology

In Standard Modern English, he has four shapes representing five distinct word forms:

  • he: the nominative (subjective) form
  • him: the accusative (objective) form (also called the oblique case)
  • his: the dependent and independent genitive (possessive) forms
  • himself: the reflexive form

History

Old English had a single third-person pronoun—from the Proto-Germanic demonstrative base -, from PIE *ko- "this"—which had a plural and three genders in the singular. The modern pronoun it developed out of the neuter singular, starting to appear without the h in the 12th century. Her developed out of the feminine singular dative and genitive forms, while the other feminine forms and the plural were replaced with other words. The older pronoun had the following forms:

{| class="wikitable"

|+Old English, third-person pronoun

!

! colspan="3" |Singular

! rowspan="2" |Plural

|-

!

!Masculine

!Neuter

!Feminine

|-

!Nominative

|hē

|hit

|hēo

|hī(e)

|-

!Accusative

|hine

|hit

|hīe

|hī(e)

|-

!Dative

|him

|him

|hire

|him / heom

|-

!Genitive

|his

|his

|hire

|hira / heora

|}

In the 12th century, it started to separate and appear without an h. Around the same time, one case was lost, and distinct pronouns started to develop. The -self forms developed in early Middle English, with hine self becoming himself. By the 15th century, the Middle English forms of he had solidified into those we use today.

Syntax

Functions

He can appear as a subject, object, determiner or predicative complement. Many style guides now reject the generic 'he'.

Deities

When speaking of God, Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit, some Christians use the capitalised forms "He", "His" and "Him" in writing, and in some translations of the Bible.

See also

  • English personal pronouns
  • Gender neutrality in languages with gendered third-person pronouns
  • Generic antecedent
  • Third-person pronoun

References

Further reading

  • "He", The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth edition, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000).