Dictionary of English - person

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Person is a feature of verbs and pronouns. It consists of three categories: first person, which denotes the speaker; second person, which denotes the person spoken to; and third person, which denotes the person or thing spoken about.

The first-person pronouns are I and we; the second-person pronoun is you; and the third-person pronouns are he, she, it and they.

I and we take first-person verb forms; you takes second-person verb forms; and nouns and he, she, it and they take third-person verb forms. In the past tense all these verb forms are identical. In the present tense, the only difference is that the third person singular usually has an s on the end, whereas the plural and the first and second person singular do not: I come, he comes, they come. Exceptions to this are forms of the modal verbs, such as can; may; will, which do not have an s in the third person singular: she can; he may; and the verb to be, which has distinctive forms in the first and third person singular in both the present and the past tenses.

When two subject pronouns are joined by or, the verb should agree with the second. To find out more about this, see compound subject.

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