In
Modern English, ''we'' is a
plural,
first-person pronoun.
Morphology
In
Standard Modern English, ''we'' has six distinct shapes for five word
forms:
* ''we'': the
nominative
In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...
(subjective) form
* ''us'' and ': the
accusative (objective; also called the '
oblique'.
) form
* ''our:'' the dependent
genitive
In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
(possessive) form
*''ours:'' the independent
genitive
In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
(possessive) form
* ''ourselves'': the
reflexive form
There is also a distinct
determiner
A determiner, also called determinative (abbreviated ), is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and generally serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context. That is, a determiner m ...
''we'' as in ''we humans aren't perfect'',
which some people consider to be just an extended use of the pronoun.
History
''We'' has been part of English since
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
, having come from Proto-Germanic *''wejes'', from PIE *''we''-. Similarly, ''us'' was used in Old English as the
accusative and
dative
In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a ...
plural of ''we'', from PIE *''nes''-. The following table shows the old English first-person plural and
dual
Dual or Duals may refer to:
Paired/two things
* Dual (mathematics), a notion of paired concepts that mirror one another
** Dual (category theory), a formalization of mathematical duality
*** see more cases in :Duality theories
* Dual (grammatical ...
pronouns:
By late
Middle English the dual form was lost and the dative and accusative had merged.
The ''ours'' genitive can be seen as early as the 12th century. ''Ourselves'' replaced original construction ''we selfe'', ''us selfum'' in the 15th century, so that, by century's end, the Middle English forms of ''we'' had solidified into those we use today.
Gender
''We'' is not generally seen as participating in the system of
gender. In Old English, it certainly didn't. Only third-person pronouns had distinct masculine, feminine, and neutre gender forms.
But by the 17th century, that old
gender system, which also marked gender on
common nouns
A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity ('' Africa'', '' Jupiter'', ''Sarah'', '' Microsoft)'' as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''contine ...
and
adjectives, had disappeared, leaving only pronoun marking. At the same time, a new
relative
Relative may refer to:
General use
*Kinship and family, the principle binding the most basic social units society. If two people are connected by circumstances of birth, they are said to be ''relatives''
Philosophy
*Relativism, the concept that ...
pronoun system was developing that eventually split between
personal
Personal may refer to:
Aspects of persons' respective individualities
* Privacy
* Personality
* Personal, personal advertisement, variety of classified advertisement used to find romance or friendship
Companies
* Personal, Inc., a Washington, ...
relative ''
who'' and impersonal relative ''which''. This is seen as a new personal / non-personal (or impersonal) gender system.
As a result,
Syntax
Functions
''We'' can appear as a
subject
Subject ( la, subiectus "lying beneath") may refer to:
Philosophy
*''Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing
**Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective cons ...
,
object
Object may refer to:
General meanings
* Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept
** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place
** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter
* Goal, an ai ...
,
determiner
A determiner, also called determinative (abbreviated ), is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and generally serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context. That is, a determiner m ...
or
predicative complement.
The reflexive form also appears as an
adjunct.
* Subject: ''
We're there;
us being there;
our being there; we planned for
ourselves to be there.''
* Object: ''They saw
us''
; ''She pointed them to
us; We though about ourselves.''
* Predicative complement: ''They have become
us''; ''We eventually felt we had become
ourselves.''
* Dependent
determiner
A determiner, also called determinative (abbreviated ), is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and generally serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context. That is, a determiner m ...
: ''We reached
our goals''; ''
We humans aren't perfect''; ''Give it to
us students''.
* Independent determiner: ''This is
ours.''
* Adjunct: ''We did it
ourselves.''
The contracted object form ' is only possible after the special ''let'' of ''let's do that''.
Dependents
Pronouns rarely take
dependents
A dependant is a person who relies on another as a primary source of income. A common-law spouse who is financially supported by their partner may also be included in this definition. In some jurisdictions, supporting a dependant may enabl ...
, but it is possible for we to have many of the same kind of dependents as other
noun phrases.
*
Relative clause modifier: ''we
who arrived late''
* Determiner: ''Not a lot of people know
the real us.''
*
Adjective phrase modifier: ''Not a lot of people know the
real us''.
*
Adverb phrase external modifier: ''
not even us''
Semantics
''We''
referents generally must include the speaker, along with other
persons. A few exceptional cases, which include
nosism
Nosism, from Latin ''nos'' 'we', is the practice of using the pronoun '' we'' to refer to oneself when expressing a personal opinion.
Depending on the person using the nosism different uses can be distinguished:
The royal ''we'' or ''pluralis ...
, are presented below. ''We'' is always
definite
In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical d ...
and
specific.
Royal ''we''
The royal ''we'', or majestic plural (''pluralis majestatis''), is sometimes used by a person of high office, such as a
monarch, earl, or
pope. It has singular semantics.
Editorial ''we''
The editorial ''we'' is a similar phenomenon, in which an
editorial
An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK) is an article written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, suc ...
columnist
A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (newspaper), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the fo ...
in a newspaper or a similar commentator in another medium refers to themselves as ''we'' when giving their opinion. Here, the writer casts themselves in the role of
spokesperson: either for the media institution who employs them, or on behalf of the party or body of citizens who agree with the commentary. The reference is not explicit, but is generally consistent with first-person plural.
Author's ''we''
The author's ''we'', or ''pluralis modestiae'', is a practice referring to a generic
third person
Third person, or third-person, may refer to:
* Third person (grammar), a point of view (in English, ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', and ''they'')
** Illeism, the act of referring to oneself in the third person
* Third-person narrative, a perspective in p ...
as ''we'' (instead of ''one'' or the informal ''you''):
*''By adding four and five, we obtain nine.''
*''We are therefore led also to a definition of "time" in physics.'' —
Albert Einstein
''We'' in this sense often refers to "the reader and the author" because the author often assumes that the reader knows and agrees with certain principles or previous theorems for the sake of brevity (or, if not, the reader is prompted to look them up). This practice is discouraged by some academic style guides because it fails to distinguish between sole authorship and co-authorship.
Again, the reference is not explicit, but is generally consistent with first-person plural.
Inclusive and exclusive ''we''
Some languages distinguish between inclusive ''we'', which includes both the speaker and the addressee(s), and exclusive ''we'', which excludes the addressee(s). English does not make this distinction grammatically, though ''we'' can have both inclusive and exclusive semantics.
Imperative ''let's'' or ''let us'' allows
imperatives to be inclusive.
Compare:
* ''Take this outside''. (exclusive, 2nd person)
* ''Let's take this outside.'' (inclusive, 1st person)
Second-person ''we''
''We'' is used sometimes in place of ''you'' to address a second party: A doctor may ask a patient: "And how are we feeling today?". A waiter may ask a client: "What are we in the mood for?"
Pronunciation
According to the
OED, the following pronunciations are used:
References
{{Modern English personal pronouns
Middle English personal pronouns
Modern English personal pronouns
Old English personal pronouns