101.  The following are all the interrogative forms:—­

         SING.  AND PLUR.  SING.  AND PLUR.  SINGULAR

Nom.       who?              which?           what?
Poss.      whose?             —­               —­
Obj.       whom?             which?           what?

In spoken English, who is used as objective instead of whom; as, “Who did you see?” “Who did he speak to?”

[Sidenote:  To tell the case of interrogatives.]

102.  The interrogative who has a separate form for each case, consequently the case can be told by the form of the word; but the case of which and what must be determined exactly as in nouns,—­by the use of the words.

For instance, in Sec. 99, which is nominative in the first sentence, since it is subject of the verb had; nominative in the second also, subject of doth love; objective in the last, being the direct object of the verb shall take.

[Sidenote:  Further treatment of who, which and what.]

103. Who, which, and what are also relative pronouns; which and what are sometimes adjectives; what may be an adverb in some expressions.

They will be spoken of again in the proper places, especially in the treatment of indirect questions (Sec. 127).

RELATIVE PRONOUNS.

[Sidenote:  Function of the relative pronoun.]

104.  Relative pronouns differ from both personal and interrogative pronouns in referring to an antecedent, and also in having a conjunctive use.  The advantage in using them is to unite short statements into longer sentences, and so to make smoother discourse.  Thus we may say, “The last of all the Bards was he.  These bards sang of Border chivalry.”  Or, it may be shortened into,—­

     “The last of all the Bards was he,
     Who sung of Border chivalry.”

In the latter sentence, who evidently refers to Bards, which is called the antecedent of the relative.

[Sidenote:  The antecedent.]

105.  The antecedent of a pronoun is the noun, pronoun, or other word or expression, for which the pronoun stands.  It usually precedes the pronoun.

Personal pronouns of the third person may have antecedents also, as they take the place usually of a word already used; as,—­

     The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us.—­LOWELL

In this, both his and who have the antecedent priest.

The pronoun which may have its antecedent following, and the antecedent may be a word or a group of words, as will be shown in the remarks on which below.

[Sidenote:  Two kinds.]

106.  Relatives may be SIMPLE or INDEFINITE.