In Modern English, ''we'' is a

plural The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...

, first-person

pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not co ...

Morphology

Standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...

Modern English, ''we'' has six distinct shapes for five word

forms Form is the shape, visual appearance, or configuration of an object. In a wider sense, the form is the way something happens. Form also refers to: *Form (document), a document (printed or electronic) with spaces in which to write or enter data * ...

: * ''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 The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘the ...

(objective; also called the '

oblique Oblique may refer to: * an alternative name for the character usually called a slash (punctuation) ( / ) * Oblique angle, in geometry *Oblique triangle, in geometry *Oblique lattice, in geometry * Oblique leaf base, a characteristic shape of the b ...

'.) 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

(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

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 pronouns: By late

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...

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 Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...

. 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

system, which also marked gender on common nouns and

adjective In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Tra ...

s, 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 Who or WHO may refer to: * Who (pronoun), an interrogative or relative pronoun * Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism * World Health Organization Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Who, a creature in the Dr. Seuss book '' Horton He ...

'' 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,

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 ...

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

: ''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 phrase In linguistics, a noun phrase, or nominal (phrase), is a phrase that has a noun or pronoun as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently oc ...

s. *

Relative clause A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phraseRodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'', CUP 2005, p. 183ff. and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the arguments ...

modifier: ''we who arrived late'' * Determiner: ''Not a lot of people know the real us.'' *

Adjective phrase An adjective phrase (or adjectival phrase) is a phrase whose head is an adjective. Almost any grammar or syntax textbook or dictionary of linguistics terminology defines the adjective phrase in a similar way, e.g. Kesner Bland (1996:499), Crystal (1 ...

modifier: ''Not a lot of people know the real us''. *

Adverb phrase In linguistics, an ''adverbial phrase'' ("AdvP") is a multi-word expression operating adverbially: its syntactic function is to modify other expressions, including verbs, adjectives, adverbs, adverbials, and sentences. Adverbial phrases can be divi ...

external modifier: ''not even us''

Semantics

''We'' referents generally must include the speaker, along with other

person A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, ...

s. A few exceptional cases, which include nosism, 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 Specific may refer to: * Specificity (disambiguation) * Specific, a cure or therapy for a specific illness Law * Specific deterrence, focussed on an individual * Specific finding, intermediate verdict used by a jury in determining the fina ...

Royal ''we''

The royal ''we'', or majestic plural (''pluralis majestatis''), is sometimes used by a person of high office, such as a

monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...

, earl, or

pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

. 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 A spokesperson, spokesman, or spokeswoman, is someone engaged or elected to speak on behalf of others. Duties and function In the present media-sensitive world, many organizations are increasingly likely to employ professionals who have receiv ...

: 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 Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

''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 ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...

, the following pronunciations are used:

References

{{Modern English personal pronouns Middle English personal pronouns Modern English personal pronouns Old English personal pronouns