Grammatical Person

Person is a very common word of English language and anyone with basic English understanding knows and understands what this means. But there are only a handful of people that know what a grammatical person is and how it is so different than the other person we talk about commonly in our language. If you are not among those few chosen ones who know the meaning of grammatical person then continue reading and we will tell you all about it.

In this article, we will discuss about the grammatical person, its forms, types and usage in English language.

Grammatical Person

In English grammar, the term person refers to the quality of the phrase or clause in a sentence which indicates who the writer is referring to. The way the speaker or writer describes the other person in the sentence like how that particular person is involved in the action described in the sentence is called grammatical person.

This implies that the subject is referring to whom in the sentence; itself, the person it is talking to or the person that he is talking about.

Accordingly, these forms of persons are termed as first, second and third person.

First Person:

When the subject is referring to itself in the sentence, the sentence is said to be in first person.

Example:

I was devastated by the news.

The above sentence indicates that the subject I is taking about him/herself in the sentence so it is in first person.

The first person makes use of pronouns I and we.

Second Person:

The sentence is said to be in second person when the subject is talking to another person in the sentence. That other person is someone other than the subject and is somehow involved in the action taking place in the sentence.

Example:

You were devastated by the news.

Now in this example, the writer is talking to someone other than itself and is using you to depict that. This indicates that the sentence is in second person.

Second person makes use of the pronoun you.

Third Person

When the writer is talking about a third person in a sentence, a person that is not there for the action taking place in the same sentence, then that sentence is said to be in third person.

Example:

He was devastated by the news.

Now the use of he indicates that the writer is not referring to himself or the second person with whom he is talking but the third person who might not even be there for the event. This sentence is an example of third person.

The third person make use of pronouns he/she/it/they.