Pronouns

If we didn’t have pronouns in English, we’d have to talk like this:

My brother lives in Maryland. My brother works for the government. My brother is married, and my brother’s wife works as a paralegal. I visit my brother and my brother’s wife twice a year.

Ye cats! Aren’t we lucky we have pronouns–words that take the place of a noun–to simplify our life and avoid that horrible, lengthy repetition:

My brother lives in Maryland. He works for the government. He is married, and his wife works as a paralegal. I visit him and his wife twice a year.

Pronouns have person, which tell us who’s talking or whom we’re talking about. Here’s a chart of the English pronouns:

SingularPlural
First PersonIwe
Second Personyouyou
Third Personhe
she
it
they

Notice that English does make a nod to gender in the third person singular. Now, here’s the corresponding table in Greek:

SingularPlural
First Person εγώ
I
εμείς
we
Second Personεσύ
you
εσείς
you
Third Person αυτός
he
αυτή
she
αυτό
it
αυτοί
they (m)
αυτές
they (f)
αυτά
they (n)

You’ll note that first and second person don’t have different forms for masculine, feminine, and neuter. That’s because when two people are talking with one another (using “I” and “you”) their gender is known, and they don’t need any different forms to give them a hint.

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