Declension in English
The English language once had an extensive declension system not dissimilar to modern German or Icelandic. Old English distinguished between the nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, and instrumental cases. Modern English no longer uses declension, except in a few pronouns."Who" and "whom", "he" and "him", "she" and "her", etc. are remnants of both the old nominative vs. accusative and also of nominative vs. dative. In other words, "whom" serves as both the dative and accusative version of the nominative pronoun "who". In Old English, the cases had distinct pronouns. The word "whom" itself began falling into widespread disuse in the 20th century, and is being replaced by merely "who".
This collapse of the separate case pronouns into the same word is one of the reasons grammarians do not consider the dative and accusative cases to be still extant in English -- neither is an ideal term for the role played by "whom". Instead, the term objective is often used; that is, "whom" can describe either a direct or indirect object. The nominative case, "who", is called simply the subjective. The information formerly conveyed by having distinct case forms is now mostly provided by prepositions.
Modern English morphologically distinguishes only one case, the possessive case — which in reality is not a case at all, but a clitic (see the entry for genitive case for more information). With only a few pronominal exceptions, the objective and subjective always have the same form.
Evolution of English declension
Interrogative pronouns
Old masculine/feminine to the modern human
| Case | Old English | Middle English | Modern English |
| Nominative | hwā | who | who |
| Accusative | hwone / hwæne | whom | whom1 |
| Dative | hwām / hwǣm | ||
| Instrumental | hwȳ / hwon | ||
| Genitive | hwæs | whos | whose |
1 Mostly supplanted by "who" except in very formal writing or in set phrases such as "to whom it may concern".
Old neuter to the modern inhuman
| Case | Old English | Middle English | Modern English |
| Nominative | hwæt | what | what |
| Accusative | hwæt | what / whom | what |
| Dative | hwām / hwǣm | ||
| Instrumental | hwī | ||
| Genitive | hwæs | whos | whose |
First person personal pronouns
Singular
| Case | Old English | Middle English | Modern English |
| Nominative | iċ | I / ich | I |
| Accusative | mē / meċ | me | me |
| Dative | mē | ||
| Genitive | mīn | min / mi | my, mine |
| Case | Old English | Middle English | Modern English |
| Nominative | wē | we | we |
| Accusative | ūs / ūsiċ | us | us |
| Dative | ūs | ||
| Genitive | ūser / ūre | ure / our | our, ours |
Second person personal pronouns
Old and Middle English singular to the Modern English archaic informal
| Case | Old English | Middle English | Modern English |
| Nominative | þū | þu / thou | thou |
| Accusative | þē / þeċ | þé | thee |
| Dative | þē | ||
| Genitive | þīn | þi / þÃÂn / þÃÂne / thin / thine | thy, thine |
Old and Middle English plural to the archaic formal to the modern general
| Case | Old English | Middle English | Modern English |
| Nominative | 3ē | ye / 3e | you |
| Accusative | ēow / ēowiċ | you | you |
| Dative | ēow | ||
| Genitive | ēower | your | your, yours |
Third person personal pronouns
Feminine singular
| Case | Old English | Middle English | Modern English |
| Nominative | hēo | heo / sche / ho / he / 3ho | she |
| Accusative | hīe | hire / hure / her / heore | her |
| Dative | hire | ||
| Genitive | hire | hir / hire / heore / her / here | her, hers |
| Case | Old English | Middle English | Modern English |
| Nominative | hē | he | he |
| Accusative | hine | him | him |
| Dative | him | ||
| Genitive | his | his | his |
| Case | Old English | Middle English | Modern English |
| Nominative | hit | hit | it |
| Accusative | hit | hit / it / him | it |
| Dative | him | ||
| Genitive | his | his | its |
| Case | Old English | Middle English | Modern English |
| Nominative | hīe | he / hi / ho / hie / þai / þei | they |
| Accusative | hīe | hem / ham / heom / þaim / þem / þam | them |
| Dative | him | ||
| Genitive | hira | here / heore / hore / þair / þar | their, theirs |
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