Person first¶
Glossary¶
First person is a grammatical feature indicating that the speaker is the subject of the verbal action, is speaking about themselves, or is the object of an action or phrase (e.g., I ran, we ran).
Mark 9:24 | ||||||||||||
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καὶ | εὐθὺς | κράξας | ὁ | πατὴρ | τοῦ | παιδίου | ἔλεγεν | πιστεύω | βοήθει | μου | τῇ | ἀπιστίᾳ |
kai | euthys | kraxas | ho | patēr | tou | paidiou | elegen | pisteuō | boēthei | mou | tē | apistia |
and | immediately | he cried out | the | father | of the | child | he said | I believe | help | my | the | unbelief |
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “**I*believe! Help my unbelief!”*
In this example, we have a first person, singular, present active indicative verb and a first person, genitive, singular personal pronoun.
Article¶
` The first person is the person or persons that are speaking. If it is a single person, it is “I”, “me”, or “my”, if it is a group of people it is “we”, “us”, or “our”.
The first person can be found in Verb forms, and Pronoun_Personal forms.
Note The first person is only used in direct speech.
Form¶
When a word is in the first person, it can be recognized by a variety of changes to the form. These changes differ greatly from each other and are hard to sum up in a simple, helpful way. These changes can be classified into Verbal Conjugation forms and Personal Pronouns.
Some languages use an inclusive we (which includes the person being spoken to in the “we”) and an exclusive we (which excludes the person being spoken to from the “we”). Neither English nor Biblical Greek distinguishes between the inclusive and the exclusive “we”. The context will determine which one is meant. See also translationAcademy and translationNotes for help if the context is not clear.
Greek distinguishs between Number_Singular and Number_Plural, but not between Gender_Masculine and Gender_Feminine or Gender_Neuter or in the first person.
The first person can be found in Verb forms and as a Pronoun.
The first person of a verb is formed by adding a first person personal ending (or sufformative) to the verb stem. These endings can be divided into eight basict types: primary active, secondary active, primary middle/passive, and secondary middle/passive. The present tense uses the primary endings. The aorist tense uses the secondary endings.There are also singular and plural endings.
The paradigm below shows a sample of the kinds of changes that signal a first person.
Paradigm¶
Six Common First Person Verbal Conjugation Forms
Parsing | Greek | Transliteration | Gloss |
First person present active indicative singular | λὐω | lyō | I am loosing/I loose |
First person present active indicative plural | λὐομεν | lyomen | We are loosing/We loose |
First person present passive indicative singular | λὐομαι | lyomai | I am being loosed |
First person present passive indicative plural | λυὀμεθε | lyometha | We are being loosed |
First person aorist active indicative singular | ἔλυον | elyon | I loosed |
First person aorist active indicative plural | ἐλύομεν | elyomen | We loosed |
First person aorist passive indicative singular | ἐλυόμην | elyomēn | I was loosed |
Personal pronouns also have person and appear in various forms
Greek distinguishes between Number_Singular and Number Plural, but not between Gender Masculine, Gender Feminine, and Gender Neuter in the first person.
First Person Personal Pronoun Forms
Parsing | Greek | Transliteration | Gloss |
---|---|---|---|
first person nominative singular | ἐγώ | egō | I |
first person nominative plural | ἡμεἶς | hēmeis | we |
first person genitive singular | μοὖ | mou | my |
first person genitive plural | ἡμὦν | hēmōn | our |
first person dative singular | μοί | moi | to me |
first person dative plural | ἡμἶν | hēmin | to us |
first person accusative singular | μέ | me | me |
first person accusative plural | ἡμἆς | hēmas | us |
Function¶
Verb Forms¶
A first person can be used in a sentence (or a clause) as the subject, an object, or to indicate possession. Personal pronouns may also be the object of a preposition. The number (singular or plural) will agree with its antecedent. However, the case will depend on its function in the sentence (or clause).
Subject¶
The subject in a sentence is usually the person or thing which does the action of the verb. However, if the verb is in the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb.
John 3:11 | |||||||||||
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ἀμὴν | ἀμὴν | λέγω | σοι | ὅτι | ὃ | οἴδαμεν | λαλοῦμεν | καὶ | ὃ | ἑωράκαμεν | μαρτυροῦμεν |
amēn | amēn | legō | soi | hoti | ho | oidamen | laloumen | kai | ho | heōrakamen | martyroumen |
Truly | truly | I say | to you | that | what | we know | we are speaking | and | what | we have seen | we are testifying |
Truly, truly, **I* say to you, we speak what we know, and we testify about what we have seen*
The personal ending of the verb is generally sufficient to show the person and number of the subject of the sentence. Therefore an emphasis is being made when the nominative case of the personal pronoun is used in conjunction with the verb.
John 14:6 | |||||||||
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ἐγώ | εἰμι | ἡ | ὁδὸς | καὶ | ἡ | ἀλήθεια | καὶ | ἡ | ζωή |
egō | eimi | hē | hodos | kai | hē | alētheia | kai | hē | zōē |
I | I am | the | way | and | the | truth | and | the | life |
I am the way and the truth and the life
εἰμί is a first person singular present active indicative verb and indicates the number and subject of the sentence. Therefore the addition of the personal pronoun ἐγώ places a slight emphasis on the pronoun.
As stated at Pronoun Personal, the personal pronoun can be used in all cases.¶
Prepositions¶
First person personal pronouns can be the object of a preposition. They therefore can occur in the Genitive, Dative, or Accusative case depending upon the preposition.
First person personal pronoun - preposition
JHN 6:44 | |||||||||||||
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οὐδεὶς | δύναται | ἐλθεῖν | πρός | με | ἐὰν | μὴ | ὁ | Πατὴρ | ὁ | πέμψας | με | ἑλκύσῃ | αὐτόν |
oudeis | dynatai | elthein | pros | me | ean | mē | ho | Patēr | ho | pempsas | me | helkysē | auton |
no one | is able | to come | to | me | if | not | the | father | who | sent | me | draws | him |
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him
Subject of a sentence or clause (including predicate nominative)¶
First person personal pronoun - nominative case ἐγώ, ἠμεῖς
2 Corinthians 4:13 | ||||
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ἡμεῖς | πιστεύομεν | διὸ | καὶ | λαλοῦμεν |
hēmeis | pisteuomen | dio | kai | laloumen |
We | we believe | therefore | also | we speak |
We believe, and so we also speak
The personal ending of the verb is generally sufficient to show the person and number of the subject of the sentence. Therefore an emphasis is being made when the nominative case of the personal pronoun is used in conjunction with the verb.
Possession¶
First Person personal pronoun – Genitive case ἐμοῦ, μοῦ, ἡμῶν
Mark 1:11 | ||||||
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σὺ | εἶ | ὁ | Υἱός | μου | ὁ | ἀγαπητός |
sy | ei | ho | Huios | mou | ho | agapētos |
you | are | the | son | my | the | beloved |
You are **my* beloved Son*
Note: Some prepositions take their object in the Genitive case.
Objective Cases¶
The object in a sentence is the person (or object) that receives the direct (or indirect) action of the verb. This is done by adding an object in either the dative or the accusative case.
Dative¶
First person personal pronoun - dative case έμοί, μοί, ἡμῖν
John 2:18 | ||||||
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τί | σημεῖον | δεικνύεις | ἡμῖν | ὅτι | ταῦτα | ποιεῖς |
ti | sēmeion | deiknyeis | hēmin | hoti | tauta | poieis |
What | sign | do you show | to us | because | these things | you do |
_”What sign will you show **us*, since you are doing these things?*
Accusative¶
First person personal pronoun - accusative case
φέρετε | αὐτὸν | πρός | με |
pherete | auton | pros | me |
You bring | him | to | me |
Bring him to **me* *
Reflexive use of the first person personal pronoun¶
ἐμαυτοῦ, ἐμαυτῷ, ἐμαυτόν or αὐτός, αὐτοῦ, αὐτῷ, αὐτοί, αὐτοίς
The first person reflexive personal pronoun ἐμαυτοῦ occurs 37 times in the New Testament in the Genetive, Dative and Accusative cases but occurs only in the masculine singular form.
αὐτός is used as a first person reflexive pronoun 22 times in the New Testament. It occurs in both the singular and plural forms.
One time (at 2 Cor 1:9) in the New Testament the third person reflexive personal pronoun ἑαυτοῖς is used as a first person reflexive personal pronoun.
κἀγὼ | ἐὰν | ὑψωθῶ | ἐκ | τῆς | γῆς | πάντας | ἑλκύσω | πρὸς | ἐμαυτόν |
kagō | ean | hypsōthō | ek | tēs | gēs | pantas | helkysō | pros | emauton |
and I | when | I am lifted up | from | the | earth | all (people) | I will draw | to | me |
- When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself *