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The four personal pronouns, I, thou, he, and she, have three cases, viz., the nominative or leading case, expressing the principal subject, and preceding the verb; the genitive case, whose form and office have been already defined; and the objective, accusative, or following case, (for it has obtained these three names,) expressing the object to which the energy is directed, or the subject acted upon. This case follows the verb.

Mine, thine, hers, theirs, his, yours, ours, are truly pronouns in the possessive or genitive case. Johnson has indeed said that my and mine are words precisely synonymous, my, according to him, being used before a consonant, and mine before a vowel; as, my sword, mine arm. It is doubtless true that mine and thine are sometimes used as my and thy, which are not substantive pronouns, but pronominal adjectives; but that they are not precisely synonymous or mutually convertible, is obvious; for my and thy cannot be used for mine and thine, though mine and thine, as has been observed, may be used for my and thy. Example: “Whose book is this?” I cannot answer, “it is my,” but “it is mine.” We may indeed say “it is my book;” but the addition of the substantive is necessary.