ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Grammatical person

Alright kiddo, you know how sometimes you talk about yourself and sometimes you talk about someone else, right? Well, that's what grammatical person is all about.

Basically, when we speak or write, we use different words depending on who is being talked about. So, if you're talking about yourself, you usually use words like "I," "me," and "my." But if you're talking about someone else, you might use words like "he," "she," "they," or "them."

These words are called personal pronouns, and they help us communicate who we are talking about. We call the different categories of personal pronouns grammatical person.

There are three grammatical persons: first person, second person, and third person.

First person is when we're talking about ourselves. We use words like "I" and "we" when we're in this grammatical person. For example, "I am going to the store" and "We are having pizza for dinner."

Second person is when we're talking directly to someone else. We use words like "you" when we're talking to someone directly. For example, "You are my friend" and "Can you please pass the salt?"

Third person is when we're talking about someone or something else. We use words like "he," "she," "they," and "it" in this case. For example, "She is running in the park" or "They went to the mall."

So, in a nutshell, grammatical person is all about using the right words to communicate who we're talking about: ourselves, someone else, or a group of people or things.