Looking for a bit of knowledge

dwndrgn

dwndrgn

Fierce Vowelless One
Joined
Apr 25, 2003
Messages
3,914
Location
Help! I'm stuck in the forums!
I used to think I knew what 'first person' and 'third person' meant but recent readings have me a bit confused. Can someone lay out a specific definition on the different perspectives in writing? It's just for knowledge's sake I suppose.

TIA!
 
There's probably more to it, but I always understood it as:


I crossed the road: First Person Singular
We crossed the road: First Person Plural

He crossed the road: Third Person Singular
They crossed the road: Third person Plural

Hope that helps!
 
This may well be wrong and probably wont pass as a literary definition but I've always thought of it as; 1st person your inside the head, 3rd person is god mode and is 2nd person a bystander (as in another character watching events)?
 
No, second person is more or less directive - like the old Choose Your Own Adventure books. 'You are feeling ill, so you take the pink, bubbling potion.'

First would be, as described above: 'I was feeling ill, so I took the pink, bubbling potion.'

And third: 'He was feeling ill, so he took the pink, bubbling potion.'

There are a couple of forms of thrid person in narrative, generally called third-person omniescent (the narrator knows everything, including thoughts of characters) and third person limited (the narrator only sees what one person is doing, or only knows so much). Simplified, but you get the point...
 
Culhwch nailed it above, but this is from the CUNY Writing Site:

The "first person" is the person speaking or writing (I, me, we, us).
The "second person" is the person being spoken or written to (you).
[FONT=Arial,sans-serif]The "third person" is the person, people, thing or things being spoken or written about (any he, she, it or they).[/FONT]
Click to expand...

Or, for more information:

Grammatical person - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Wikipedia reference may also help clarify when to use "you" or "thou" or "thee" or "ye" for those interested....
 
Culhwch said:
Prithee, thine art interested. Very interested.

I know, I don't think I even got in the ballpark of using 'thine' right there...
Click to expand...

Mmmm, should be more like "Prithee, art thou interested?", as "prithee" is a shortening of interrogative "I pray thee"; or perhaps it should be "'Sblood, thou art interested!" :p ;)
 
Not even in the city!
Thine = Yours (plural):

"Art those cattle thine? Then get them off my land!"

Yours (singular) = Thy

"Thy cattle are still on my land!"

Thou = You (familiar, usually, though can be as a threat -( a difficult one, thou)
"Thou art giving me those cattle? Thank you!"
or:
"Get those cattle off my land, or thou art liable to end up enjoying hospital food!"

It gets worse as you go into it - the amount of subtle shading the "thee, thou" adds to conversation is considerable.

"Ye", by the way, was never spoken - it was a copyist's abbreviation for "the", and only ever appeared written down, as you would never say "Mr", you'd say "Mister"
 
Marry! I bite my thumb at thou both!

Is there no archaic form of 'I', 'me' or 'mine' then? I looked but found nothing. Would've made the joke a very little bit less sad....
 
Culhwch said:
Marry! I bite my thumb at thou both!

Is there no archaic form of 'I', 'me' or 'mine' then? I looked but found nothing. Would've made the joke a very little bit less sad....
Click to expand...

I can't think of one for "I", offhand - but in that sentence, "mine" would probably been used instead of "my", and "thee" rather than "thou"

Marry! I bite mine thumb at thee both!

And there ain't no such word as "thouse", thou varlet! Stap me! that coxcomb j d hast beaten me to the post!
 
Zounds! Thee art a pair of fluey cads! I should smite thee both, but I am too astonied to even go to the costermonger!

Thanks, JD. That'll be hours of fun!

And sincere and humble apologies to DD for hijacking her thread...
 
Last edited:
I bow to thy superior knowledge, O Formless One!:D
Thy sire wert an hamster, and thy dam smelt of elderberries!
 
OK. Some editors have jumped on me for switching from 1st to 3rd omniscient in a narrative.

Like for instance....

Henry froze in his tracks. The icy wind carried upon it the sounds of something unearthly, and the stench of something unimaginably foul.

Dear God! What in Hell is this?

In the first part, I'm telling the story in 3rd omniscient. But when inside the character's head, I'm using the 1st person POV.

Or at least, that's how I interpret the rules and labels therein.
 
I don't see anything wrong, there, Hawkshaw - it's pretty well standard practice in third person omniescent to dip into the thoughts of characters. You aren't technically switching perspective. What specifically was the editor's problem? Perhaps an attribution might help:

Dear God, he thought. What in Hell is this?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
A Looking For Superpower ideas Writing Discussion 16
Robert Zwilling Octopuses Are Looking Smarter Science & Nature 11
L Looking for a sci-fi book pre 1975 containing a specific phrase or insult that I read in a paper back, possibly an anthology Book Search 12
C (Found) Looking for Sci-fi novel (read it around 20 years ago I think) Book Search 2
A Looking for book where an Alien Glob Alien trades his knowledge telepathically with those who enter Book Discussion 2

Similar threads


Back
Top