Editing Object pronoun (section)

==History==
Object pronouns, in languages where they are distinguished from subject pronouns, are typically a vestige of an older [[Grammatical case|case]] system. English, for example, once had an extensive [[declension]] system that specified distinct [[accusative case|accusative]] and [[dative case|dative]] case ''forms'' for both nouns and pronouns. And after a [[Preposition and postposition|preposition]], a noun or pronoun could be in either of these cases, or in the [[genitive case|genitive]] or [[instrumental case|instrumental]] cases. With the exception of the genitive (the [[English possessive|"apostrophe-s" form]]), in nouns this system disappeared entirely, while in personal pronouns it collapsed into a single case, covering the roles of both accusative and dative, as well as all instances after a preposition. That is, the new oblique (object) case came to be used for the object of either a verb or a preposition, contrasting with the genitive, which links two nouns.

For a discussion of the use of historically object pronouns in subject position in English (e.g. "Jay and '''me''' will arrive later"), see the article on [[English personal pronouns#Case usage|English personal pronouns]].