“Her” is used as an object pronoun to refer to a female person or animal that has already been mentioned, as in “I saw her.” It is also used as a possessive determiner to show that something belongs to a female, as in “her book.”
From Old English “hire” (dative and genitive of “hēo,” meaning “she”). Over time, sound changes turned “hire” into “her,” and English simplified its pronoun system while keeping this form.
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