Look up we in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

We is the nominative case of the first-person plural pronoun in English. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... It has been suggested that French Wiktionary be merged into this article or section. ... The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun, which generally marks the subject of a verb, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments. ... Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to the participant role of a referent, such as the speaker, the addressee, and others. ... Look up Plural in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Plural is a grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the referent in the real world. ... In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun phrase. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Etymology

From Old English wé, which was pronounced something like way in modern English. It is related to Frisian wy, Dutch wij, German wir, Danish vi and Faroese vit. Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. ... Frisian is a Germanic group of closely related languages, spoken by about half a million members of Frisian ethnic groups living on the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany. ...

Other Indo-European languages that have cognates with English we include Hittite, which has wês, and Sanskrit, which has vayam. The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects [1], including most of the major languages of Europe, as well as many spoken in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and Central Asia. ... Cognate (Latin: cognatus co+gnatus, ie. ... Hittite is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who once created an empire centered on ancient Hattusas (modern BoÄŸazkale) in north-central Anatolia (modern Turkey). ... The Sanskrit language ( , for short ) is an old Indo-Aryan language from the Indian Subcontinent, the classical literary language of the Hindus of India[1], a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ...

The Latin nos represents the enclitic form of the pronoun, which is preserved in English us. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... In linguistics, a clitic is a morpheme that functions syntactically like a word, but does not appear as an independent phonological word; instead it is always attached to a following or preceding word. ...

In some Romance languages including Spanish and Catalan, the word for "we" (from Latin nos) is supplemented by the word for "others" (nosotros and nosaltres "we-others" — similarly in the Quebec French locution nous autres). Catalan IPA: (català IPA: or []) is a Romance language, the national language of Andorra and one of several co-official languages in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencia (under the name Valencian). ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

Written and formal spoken French retains "nous," but in colloquial French, "nous" is almost entirely replaced by the third person singular pronoun on ("one"). Verbs are conjugated to the third person singular. The direct and indirect object form is nous, and the possessive is notre/nos, but the reflexive form is that of on (se; e.g. On se calme vs. Ils nous agacent).

The oblique case of we in English is us; the genitive case is our, and the possessive predicate adjective is ours. An oblique case (Latin: ) in linguistics is a noun case of analytic languages that is used generally when a noun is the predicate of a sentence or a preposition. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Possessive case. ...

Atypical uses of we

Main article: Pluralis Majestatis

The royal we (Pluralis Majestatis) is the first-person plural pronoun when used by an important personage to refer to himself or herself. It's best known usage is by a monarch such as a king, queen, or pope. It is also used in certain formal contexts by bishops and university rectors. Pluralis majestatis (majestic plural) is the plural pronoun where it is used to refer to one person alone. ... Pluralis majestatis (majestic plural) is the plural pronoun where it is used to refer to one person alone. ... Look up Plural in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Plural is a grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the referent in the real world. ... In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun phrase. ... Look up monarch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The current Pope is Benedict XVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger), who was elected at the age of 78 on 19 April 2005. ... This article is about a title or office in religious bodies. ... The word rector (ruler, from the Latin regere) has a number of different meanings, but all of them indicate someone who is in charge of something. ...

In the public situations in which it is used, the monarch or other dignitary is typically speaking, not in his own proper person, but as leader of a nation or institution. Nevertheless, the habit of referring to leaders in the plural has influenced the grammar of several languages, in which plural forms tend to be perceived as deferential and more polite than singular forms. This grammatical feature is called a T-V distinction. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Popes have used the we as part of their formal speech with certain recent exceptions. The English translations of the documents of John Paul II dispensed with this practice, using the singular "I", even though the Latin original usually continued to use the first person plural "We". Coat of Arms of Pope John Paul II. The Letter M is for Mary, the mother of Jesus, to whom he held strong devotion Pope John Paul II (Latin: ), (Italian: Giovanni Paolo II), born   [] (May 18, 1920, Wadowice, Poland – April 2, 2005, Vatican City) reigned as Pope of the Roman...

The editorial we is a similar phenomenon, in which editorial columnists in newspapers and similar commentators in other media refer to themselves as we when giving their opinions. Here, the writer has once more cast himself or herself in the role of spokesman: either for the media institution who employs him, or more generally on behalf of the party or body of citizens who agree with the commentary. Look up editorial, op-ed in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A columnist is a journalist who produces a specific form of writing for publication called a column. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and the Internet. ... A spokesperson (person could be replaced with the gender of the person), or spokesmodel is a person who speaks on behalf of others, but is understood not to be necessarily part of the others (e. ...

Similar to the editorial we is the practice common in academics of referring to a generic third person by we (instead of the more common one or the informal you): Grammatical person, in linguistics, is used for the grammatical categories a language uses to describe the relationship between the speaker and the persons or things she is talking about. ...

By adding three and five, we obtain eight.

"We" in this sense often refers to "the reader and the author", since the author often assumes that the reader knows certain principles or previous theorems for the sake of brevity (or, if not, the reader is prompted to look them up), for example, so that the author does not need to explicitly write out every step of a mathematical proof. In mathematics, a proof is a demonstration that, assuming certain axioms, some statement is necessarily true. ...

The patronizing we is sometimes used in addressing instead of "you". A doctor may ask a patient: And how are we feeling today? This usage is emotionally non-neutral and usually bears a condescending, ironic, praising, or some other flavor, depending on an intonation: "Aren't we looking cute?".

Inclusive and exclusive we

Main article: Inclusive and exclusive we

Some languages, in particular the Austronesian languages, Dravidian languages, and many others such as Taiwanese and Mandarin have a distinction in grammatical person between inclusive we, which includes the person being spoken to in the group that is included in we, e.g.: Inclusive we is a pronoun or verb conjugation that indicates the inclusion of the speaker, the addressee, and perhaps other people, as opposed to exclusive we, which specifically excludes the addressee. ... The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. ... The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73 languages[1] that are mainly spoken in southern India and Sri Lanka, as well as certain areas in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and eastern and central India, as well as in parts of Afghanistan and Iran, and by overseas Dravidians in other countries... Taiwanese (pe̍h-oē-jī: Tâi-oân-oē or Tâi-gí; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Táiyǔ, Táiwānhuà) is a dialect of Min Nan Chinese spoken by about 70% of Taiwans population. ... Mandarin (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; pinyin: ; literally speech of officials), or Beifanghua (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; literally Northern Dialect(s)), is a category of related Chinese dialects spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. ... Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to the participant role of a referent, such as the speaker, the addressee, and others. ...

• We can all go to the zoo today.

This contrasts with exclusive we, which excludes the person being spoken to, e.g.:

• We mean to stop your evil plans!

English does not draw this distinction in its grammar. In terms of pronoun usage, most Native American languages are far more specific than Indo-European languages, regardless of the languages' families. Cherokee, for instance, distinguishes between four forms of "we." These are: "you and I (inclusive dual)"; "another and I (exclusive dual)"; "others and I (exclusive plural)"; and "you, another or others, and I" (inclusive plural). Fijian goes even further with six words for "we," with three size categories—dual, small group (three or four people), and large group—and separate inclusive and exclusive forms for each size category. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects [1], including most of the major languages of Europe, as well as many spoken in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and Central Asia. ... Cherokee (Cherokee: Tsalagi) is an Iroquoian language spoken by the Cherokee people. ... Look up Dual in Wiktionary, the free dictionary A dual is a pair or a grouping of two. ...