---

Grammatical person and number are two key aspects of verb conjugation that work together to tell us who is performing an action and how many people or things are involved.

Grammatical person shows the relationship between the speaker and subject. Number indicates whether the subject is singular or plural. Together, they determine how we change the verb form to match the subject correctly.

Grammatical Person & Number

Person	Singular	Plural
First	I	we
Second	you	you
Third	he / she / it	they

✏️ Jump to Practice Makes Perfect

---

What is Verb Conjugation? Verb conjugation is the process of changing verbs to show: 1) Person: Who is doing the action 2) Number: Whether it’s singular or plural 3) Tense: When the action happens 4) Mood: How the action is expressed (statements, commands, or hypotheticals) 5) Voice: Whether the subject performs or is the focus of the action

---

---

What is Grammatical Person?

Every time we speak or write, we are either talking about ourselves (e.g., I’m tired), talking directly to someone else (e.g., You look busy), or talking about others (e.g., She’s running late).

In grammatical terms, these three ways of talking are called first person, second person, and third person.

• First person uses the subject pronouns: I and we
• Second person uses the subject pronoun: you
• Third person uses: he, she, it, and they

This framework, known as grammatical person, is a way of categorising who or what is doing the action in a sentence.

In essence, grammatical person answers the questions: Is the speaker doing it? Is the listener doing it? Or is someone else doing it?

First Person

First person shows that the subject performing an action is the speaker themselves.

This perspective includes both singular I and plural we forms, and it creates the most direct relationship between speaker and action.

In other words, the speaker describes their own actions or experiences. For example:

• I walk to work every morning.
  > Here, the speaker is talking about their own actions – they are both the speaker AND the subject doing the walking.
  
  
• We walk to work together every morning.
  > Here, the speakers are talking about their own group actions – they are both the speakers AND part of the group doing the walking.

This means first person is used whenever the speaker is part of the subject performing the action – whether alone ( I ) or as part of a group ( we ).

More examples:

• I prefer tea over coffee.
• I exercise every day.
• We travelled across Europe last summer.
• We meet every two weeks for food.

First person is the natural choice for personal narratives, diaries, opinions, sharing experiences, and storytelling from one’s own perspective.

Second Person

Second person shows that the subject performing the action is the person or people being addressed directly by the speaker. Put simply, second person is all about direct address – speaking TO someone else rather than ABOUT someone.

This perspective uses the pronoun you, which can address one person or many people. For example:

• You sing beautifully. (You = one person – singular)
• You all sing so well together. (You = multiple people – plural)

We use second person (you) in different contexts, but all involve speaking directly to the listener:

• Addressing an individual: You really do make the best homemade chips!
• Addressing a group: You all sing so well together!
• Instructions: You need to turn left at the traffic lights.
• Advice: You should try that new restaurant in town.
• Questions: Did you remember to turn the cooker off?
• Commands: You take care of yourself, okay.
  
  Note: In commands, we often leave out you because it’s understood. For example: ‘Be careful’ instead of ‘You be careful’, OR ‘Turn left’ instead of ‘You turn left’. The grammatical person stays the same.

Notice how in each case the speaker directly engages the listener and places them at the centre of the action. This creates direct involvement rather than the distance we see in third person.

Second person is typically used in instructional writing, recipes, and advice.

Third Person

Third person shows that the subject performing the action is someone or something other than the speaker or the person being addressed directly. Put another way, when we use third person, we are talking about everyone and everything else that is not directly involved in the conversation.

This perspective uses the subject pronouns he, she, it for singular subjects and they for plural subjects.

A range of subject types falls under third person:

• Specific people: Sarah, my teacher, the doctor
• Groups of people: the students, my parents, the team
• Animals and objects: the cat, this book, those cars
• Abstract concepts: the idea, mathematics, happiness

Examples:

• He travels frequently for work.
• Sarah works at the hospital.
• The students gather in the main hall every morning for assembly.
• The cat sleeps on the windowsill.
• The idea sounds great!

Notice how in each case, the speaker is talking about others rather than talking about themselves or addressing someone directly. The speaker is not involved in a direct conversation and acts as an outside commentator describing what others do.

This makes it the most detached perspective between speaker and subject/action.

Third person is the most common perspective in formal writing, news reporting, academic writing, contemporary historical accounts, documentaries, and educational texts because it creates a sense of objectivity and lack of personal bias.

What is Grammatical Number?

Grammatical number, at its core, indicates whether we are referring to one thing (singular) or more than one (plural).

Everything we say and refer to instinctively passes through this singular/plural filter and, in turn, affects several parts of sentence structure. It determines how we form nouns (e.g., cat becomes cats), how we choose pronouns (e.g., he vs they), how we match determiners (e.g., this book vs these books), and how we conjugate verbs (e.g., she walks vs they walk).

In sentences, the subject (typically a noun or pronoun) carries this number information, and other parts of speech must agree. This is called subject-number agreement. For verb conjugation specifically, we have to match the verb form to whether the subject is singular or plural.

Grammatical Number & Verb Conjugation

The number of something, whether that be singular or plural, affects how we use verbs.

The rule is:

• Singular subjects require singular verbs.
• Plural subjects require plural verbs.

But what does this mean exactly?

– The -S Pattern

Third Person Verb Conjugation – Singular vs. Plural

Singular Subject		Plural Subject
Subject | Verb | Rest of Sentence He | works | part-time at the café.	➝	Subject | Verb | Rest of Sentence They | work | part-time at the café.

Notice that the singular subject here uses works (with the -s ending) while the plural subject uses work (without the -s).

However, for the most part, verbs don’t actually change much. The main pattern is that third person singular subjects get the -s ending, while everything else uses the base form.

For example:

Present Simple Conjugation of the Verb To Work by Person and Number

Person & Number	Subject	Verb – to work	Example
1st Person Singular	I	work	– I work part-time.
2nd Person Singular	you	work	– You work part-time.
3rd Person Singular	he / she / it	works	– He works part-time.
1st Person Plural	we	work	– We work part-time.
2nd Person Plural	you	work	– You work part-time.
3rd Person Plural	they	work	– They work part-time.

In addition, this -s pattern only occurs in third person present tense. In past tense, verbs use the same form for every subject:

Past Simple Conjugation of the Verb To Work by Person and Number

Person & Number	Subject	Verb – to work	Example
1st Person Singular	I	worked	– I worked part-time.
2nd Person Singular	you	worked	– You worked part-time.
3rd Person Singular	he / she / it	worked	– He worked part-time.
1st Person Plural	we	worked	– We worked part-time.
2nd Person Plural	you	worked	– You worked part-time.
3rd Person Plural	they	worked	– They worked part-time.

Note: Future tenses have a different construction entirely; they use the auxiliary verb will + the base form of the main verb. For example: I will work / she will work / they will work. Here, the auxiliary will doesn’t change to match the subject’s number, and we still don’t see the -s pattern on the main verb work.

– The Verb To Be – A Special Case

The verb to be is different because it changes for first person singular (specifically: I am) instead of using the base form like other verbs (e.g., I work, I have, I study, I teach).

For example:

Present Simple Conjugation of the Verb To Be by Person and Number

Person & Number	Subject	Verb	Example
1st Person Singular	I	am	– I am at the station.
2nd Person Singular	you	are	– You are at the station.
3rd Person Singular	he / she / it	is	– He is at the station.
1st Person Plural	we	are	– We are at the station.
2nd Person Plural	you	are	– You are at the station.
3rd person plural	they	are	– They are at the station.

Practice Makes Perfect: Grammatical Person & Number

Put your knowledge of grammatical person and number to the test here in our interactive practice section.

Exercise 1: Identify the Person and Number

For each sentence, identify the grammatical person (1st, 2nd, or 3rd) and number (singular or plural) of the subject.

Example: She walks to work. → 3rd person, singular

1. She built her entire business from a table in her kitchen.
   
   
2. I got back from holiday two weeks ago and still haven’t unpacked.
   
   
3. They travel a lot for work.
   
   
4. As an ex-taxi driver, he knows every inch of the city.
   
   
5. You all did brilliantly today.
   
   
6. “We are what we are.” – Lexa [The 100, 2014]
   
   
7. Stephen King writes 2,000 words a day, every day, even on his birthday and Christmas.
   
   
8. You look familiar. Have we met before?

Exercise 1: Answers [Click]

1. 3rd person, singular (She)
   
   
2. 1st person, singular (I)
   
   
3. 3rd person, plural (They)
   
   
4. 3rd person, singular (he)
   
   
5. 2nd person, plural (You all)
   
   
6. 1st person, plural (We)
   
   
7. 3rd person, singular (Stephen King)
   
   
8. You – 2nd person, singular / we – 1st person, plural

---

Exercise 2: Choose the Correct Verb Form

Choose the correct verb form to complete each sentence.

1. They ____________ thick as thieves, those two. (are / is)
   
   
2. I ____________ new in town. Is there a supermarket nearby? (am / is)
   
   
3. We ____________ at university and have been friends ever since. (met / meet)
   
   
4. My dad ____________ the dog the most, even though he swore he never wanted one. (love / loves)
   
   
5. You ____________ too hard on yourself sometimes. (are / is)
   
   
6. “You all ____________ exactly who I am.” – Walter White [Breaking Bad, 2008] (know / knows)
   
   
7. She ____________ to see the best in everyone. (try / tries)
   
   
8. He ____________ his Duolingo streak and hasn’t been the same since. (lost / loses)

Exercise 2: Answers [Click]

1. are
   
   
2. am
   
   
3. met (past tense – past tense verbs do not change form to match the subject, except the verb to be)
   
   
4. loves
   
   
5. are
   
   
6. know
   
   
7. tries
   
   
8. lost (past tense – past tense verbs do not change form to match the subject, except the verb to be)

---

Exercise 3: Spot and Correct the Error

Some (not all) sentences below contain errors with person and number agreement. Find each error and rewrite the sentence correctly.

1. She applies herself to everything she does.
   
   
2. They was nowhere to be found.
   
   
3. You seem awfully calm for someone who has just missed their flight.
   
   
4. He don’t like being told what to do.
   
   
5. We was the only ones who showed up on time.
   
   
6. She have lived here for twenty years.
   
   
7. I were just about to say the same thing.
   
   
8. He go to the gym before work every day.
   
   
9. She works days. He works nights.
   
   
10. On this one occasion you was right and I were wrong.

Exercise 3: Answers [Click]

1. Correct as written.
   
   
2. They were nowhere to be found.
   
   
3. Correct as written.
   
   
4. He doesn’t like being told what to do.
   
   
5. We were the only ones who showed up on time.
   
   
6. She has lived here for twenty years.
   
   
7. I was just about to say the same thing.
   
   
8. He goes to the gym before work every day.
   
   
9. Correct as written.
   
   
10. On this one occasion you were right and I was wrong.

---

---

• ShareCopied to clipboard

Next: Tense >