We
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We is the nominative case of the first-person plural pronoun in English.
[edit] 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.
Other Indo-European languages that have cognates with English we include Hittite, which has wês, and Sanskrit, which has vayam.
The Latin nos represents the enclitic form of the pronoun, which is preserved in English us.
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).
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.
[edit] Atypical uses of we
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.
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.
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".
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.
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):
- 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.
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?".
[edit] 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.:
- 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.
