Personal Pronouns And Their Inflected Forms
When a word is inflected, its form changes ever so slightly, depending on how it is used. Most of the time, the ending varies to reflect its function in the sentence. The grammar of many languages, such as Latin, German and Russian, are considered complex because of this requirement.
Modern English is a much more simplified language compared to those three, which is why most English writing software are able to perform their work very effectively. While declensions (i.e. words that require inflections) do exist in the vernacular, they have been severely minimized. One area of English where it’s required are personal pronouns (such as the inflections I, me and mine for first person singular).
These pronouns each have three inflections that relate to the purpose they serve in a sentence: nominative (I), accusative (me) and possessive (mine).
- Nominative forms are used when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence, the one carrying out the action (as in “I wrote that book.”). Pronouns in this group include I, we and they.
- Accusative forms are used when the pronoun is the object of the sentence, the element of the statement that’s affected by the verb (as in “That statement was referring to me.”). Pronouns in this group include me, us and them.
- Possessive forms are used when showing ownership of the subject (as in “The car is mine.”). Pronouns in this group include mine, ours and theirs.
Of the three, the last one is the easiest to use, with both nominative and accusative often being fodder for confusion. If you keep the definitions of usage in mind, though, they should be fairly easy to fix.