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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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

Mark 9:19

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.

John 12:32

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 *