Third person singular –
he, she, it, John, Mary, my father, the table
Generally the grammar of verb forms in any language changes depending on who is doing an action. The subject of the verb.
With the verb “to be” for example we say:
Singular
- 1st. I am English
2nd. You are a student
3rd. John is an architect
Plural
- 1st. We aren’t good students
- 2nd. You are doctors, aren’t you?
- 3rd. Sophie and Marc are brother and sister.
What do we mean by third (3rd) person singular?
– it refers to the subject of the verb. The person or thing that does the action:
The Third person singular refers to another (one other) person or thing that is not “me” or “you”
- – We can use the pronouns: she, he or it
- or
- – We can use proper nouns or noun phrases to identify who or what is the subject of the verb
- for example: James, Maria, my dog, the round table, your sister, his teacher, the weather, the tall woman in the red dress etc etc
- – James lives in New York; here “James” is the subject of the verb “lives”
- – My green pen writes well; here “my green pen” is the subject of the verb “writes”
- – The man wearing the baseball cap lived in New York last year; here “The man wearing the baseball cap” is the subject of the verb “lived”
Why do teachers talk so much about the third person singular?
Because verb forms make the biggest changes from the infinitive in the third person singular in English.
But the good news is:
It is only necessary to make these changes when using the present tenses and with “to be” in the past.
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