Glosario / Glossary

person: the grammatical category which indicates whether a nominal is or includes the speaker and/or hearer. The speaker is traditionally called "first person", the hearer is called "second person", and anyone or anything which is neither speaker or hearer is called "third person". The pronoun "me" is a first person pronoun, and the verb "is" is a third person verb, because its subject is neither speaker nor hearer. If a group includes the speaker, it is first person plural; if it includes the hearer but not the speaker, it is second person plural; if it includes neither speaker nor hearer, it is third person plural. So, "they" is a third person plural pronoun, and the phrase "you all came" is second person plural. [Spanish: persona]