A Grammar of the English Tongue - ESL Teachers Board

A Grammar of the English Tongue 30Their and theirs are the possessives likewise of they, when they is the pluralof it, and are therefore applied to things.Pronouns relative are, who, which, what, whether, whosoever, whatsoever.Nom. Who.Gen. Whose.Other oblique cases. Whom.Nom. Which.Gen. Of which, or whose.Other oblique cases. Which.Who is now used in relation to persons, and which in relation to things; butthey were anciently confounded. At least it was common to say, the manwhich, though I remember no example of the thing who.Whose is rather the poetical than regular genitive of which.The fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into theworld. Milton.Whether is only used in the nominative and accusative cases; and has noplural, being applied only to one of a number, commonly to one of two, asWhether of these is left I know not. Whether shall I choose? It is nowalmost obsolete.What, whether relative or interrogative, is without variation.Whosoever, whatsoever, being compounded of who or what, and soever,follow the rule of their primitives.