Person of nouns
From A New English Grammar for Schools, by Thomas Harvey:
Person is that property of a noun or a pronoun which distinguishes the speaker, the person spoken to, and the person or object spoken of.
Person is that property of a noun or a pronoun which distinguishes the speaker, the person spoken to, and the person or object spoken of.
There are three persons: first, second, and third.
1. Speaking
The first person denotes the speaker.
“I, John, was
in the isle that is called Patmos.”
“Many evils beset us mortals.”
“Fellow-citizens, the crisis demands the utmost vigilance.”
“Many evils beset us mortals.”
2. Spoken to
The second person denotes the person addressed.
“James, be more careful.”
“Fellow-citizens, the crisis demands the utmost vigilance.”
3. Spoken of
The third person denotes the person or object spoken of.
“Milton was a poet.”
“Rome was an ocean of flame.”
“I am reading Tennyson’s Poems.”
a. The writer or speaker may sometimes speak of herself, or the person she addresses, in the third person; as,
b. A noun in the predicate is of the third person, though the subject may be of the first or second; as,
“You are the woman wanted.”
“We are strangers.”
“I am she whom you saw.”
“We are strangers.”
“I am she whom you saw.”
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