What is First Person? Second? Third?

TRANSCRIPT

First, second, third, whether it be "I", "you", or... Hi. James from engVid. Today I'd like to teach you about the first, second, and third pronouns. Well, subject pronouns, to be exact. And: What do we mean by first person, second person, and third person? A lot of students have trouble with that, and that's why they use the pronouns incorrectly. This is a very simple, straightforward lesson, and I hope you enjoy it.

Let's go to Mr. E. As you can see, he's standing on the podium. A "podium" is a box you stand on once you want to... When you want to speak or when you want to... Or when someone has got a position, like in the Olympics, they get first, second, and third position, so they stand up on a podium. E is on the podium with all three medals. Well, there's a reason for that, because you are important. And when we talk about subject pronouns, we're going to see how the first, second, and third person works. Ready? Let's go to the board.

I mentioned Mr. E was wearing all the medals, and you're going to probably ask why. I'll show you. When we talk about personal pronouns or subject pronouns, the speaker is important, and who the speaker is speaking to is important, and this is how we can tell if something is first, second, or third person.

Let's take a look at the first case. When I speak-or when E would speak-and I speak with friends, it's called the first person, and this is where we use for the singular, "I"; and for the plural, "we". Because I'm involved in the speaking, I am speaking with a group of people, and/or I am personally speaking. So we use "I" and "we" to say first person. Okay?

When we talk about the second person, it's when I speak to you or I am speaking to a group of people. That means I, remember E is wearing the medals, I am directing my speech to somebody that I'm speaking to right now. I'm talking to you right now. Now, you, if you're watching at your house, I'm talking to you, that could be one person. But really, we know I'm on the internet, so there's thousands of people watching, but I'm speaking to you as well. So I am important and I am speaking to you, where I direct my speech, and that's why we call it the second person. The second person in the conversation, you might say. It could be one person or a group of people. And in this case, we use the same pronoun, "you" and "you" to talk about you, I'm directing my speech directly to you. Good? All right.

Let's do the third person. The third person is when I speak about something or someone. You can think of it as they're not directly involved in the conversation. I could be talking about "it", that's the third person. Or I could be talking about "he" or "she", as in the third person. So this is when I speak about someone or something. For the singular, we have "he", "she", and "it", because we do talk about things. For the plural, we say "they". Cool? Great. That was a simple lesson. Let's go do a quiz on it. Are you ready? [Snaps].

Ready for the quiz? Now, be very careful, this is a two-part quiz. First we're going to fill in the blanks with a proper or appropriate pronoun. Okay? Then we're going to try to see: Is that a first, second, or third pronoun? That'll be the second part we do. Are you ready? Let's try this quick quiz.

"__________ am talking to them later."
What would that be? Correct. "I am talking to them", we know this because the "am" is there. So that means the subject is speaking. Okay? The subject is speaking.

How about the next one?
"I saw them yesterday and __________ said they were going home today to see their families."
I'll give you a little bit of a hint, here. We have "them", "they", and "their". That's right. These are all plural words, so we can make a safe guess that this would be "they". In this case, I am talking about them; not to them. Try to remember that when we do the second part, if I am talking about them, what does that mean?

Number three:
"_________ are the type of person that makes friends easily."
Okay, well we can see it's one, "the" article says one type of person, so we have a choice between "I" and "you". Well, I don't think I'm talking about me. I think I'm talking to you. I think you're the friendly type of person, you watch engVid, you got to be a good guy or girl.

[MurdoJohnUSA]

It is so wonderful when someone has the capacity to make a difference and chooses to do so. Thank you so much. A prime example where less is more. Thank you so much!!!!

[whyk_]

“Your watching this you got to be a good guy or girl “lol this was really helpful thanks 😊

[mlssrsevenseven]

This is very informative and comical! Definitely, appreciate him taking his time to educate and re-educate.

[countryboy]

You are such a good teacher this will really help with my homework thank you so much ❤️

[bhaaratsingh]

The funniest part of the video: Mr. E standing on the podium.

[thunderbang]

Since this is very helpful I've used this as a helper of my grammar classes, Obviously recommend this to people out there wanting to learn great grammar

[fhtiggz]

astonishing james
you are the best forget about the rest, your method of teaching is awesome, say hello to (mr.E)please.
and I indeed appreciate what you're doing for us .

[snorgonofborkkad]

I never understood the numbers were referring to the person you were talking to. I thought it referred to the speaker. I’ll forget it in a day anyway but it’s nice to know I understood it at some point.

[mrsenpaihd]

when he stands side ways it looks like hes carrying a strapped gun

[lacinda]

Thank you for making this video. You are a fantastic teacher. 🤗

[jacekmaolepszy]

I love this guy ! Never get bored on the classes :)

[bebold]

Thank you very much for the lesson. You made it easy for my son to understand!

[margretalkhorani]

Yo I thank you soo much for this video I was having problems doing my grammar winter holiday but this helped thanks a lot and happy new year

[juanchang]

Thanks for your videos, you are a great teacher!

[magraciacruz]

you are very nice and your lessons are funny. Thank you, continue in the same way.

[Radhakumari-zttq]

Very beautiful explained and even you given the question. I like the video.

[maamebirago]

I am ur new student and since yesterday all I want to do is to watch ur videos. Well done and thank you for your time

[dudavizotto]

Hi, James! I know it's nothing to do with the aim of your video, but I'd really appreciate if you guys from EngVid explained the difference between "persons" and "people" someday. I have always been told "persons" is grammatically wrong, but I actually see it almost everywhere. Thank you for your stunning and artistic classes btw hehe :D

[samaaabdullah]

God bless you sir
Awesome explaining, simple and easy to understand.
You are taking your time for us .
You deserve the good for you
Thanks

[asherdossetter]

We can refer to your team like in your city or college. It makes sense to say we when referring to them even though you aren't a player on them.