I (pronoun)

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This article is about the English personal pronoun. For other uses, see I (disambiguation).
Look up I, me, mine, my in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

I (IPA: /aɪ/) is the first-person, singular personal pronoun (subject case) in Modern English. It is the person you are referring to when you are referring to yourself.

Personal pronouns in standard Modern English
Singular Plural
Subject Object Reflexive Subject Object Reflexive
First I me myself we us ourselves
Second you you yourself you you yourselves
Third Masculine he him himself they them themselves
Feminine she her herself
Neuter it it itself

Contents

[edit] Usage

In orthography, this pronoun is comparable to proper nouns. In most writing I is always capitalised. This convention dates from around 1250, a little over a hundred years after the form i first developed from the earlier ic. However, internet slang on comment sites frequently shows a lower-case i.

The oblique cases of I are me (object) and my (possessive). A first person subjunctive can be used as a circumlocution, to avoid direct criticism in the second person.

  • I wouldn't believe all I read. You shouldn't believe all you read.
  • I wouldn't do that [if I were you]. You shouldn't do that

Compare:

  • One wouldn't do that oneself.

[edit] Etymology

Further information: Proto-Indo-European pronouns

English I originates from Old English (OE) ic. This transformation from ic to i had happened by about 1137 in Northern England. By around 1250 capitalisation began, to distinguish I as a distinct word. Writers of handwritten manuscripts began to use a capital I because the lower-case letter was hard to read and sometimes mistaken for part of the previous or succeeding word. This practice continued after the introduction of printing partly because it was already established and partly because it improved readability. ic in turn originated from the continuation of Proto-Germanic ik, and ek. ek was attested in the Elder Futhark inscriptions (in some cases notably showing the variant eka; see also ek erilaz). ik is assumed to have developed from the unstressed variant of ek.

Germanic cognates are: Old Frisian ik, Old Norse ek (Danish, Norwegian jeg), Old High German ih (German ich) and Gothic ik.

The Proto-Germanic root came, in turn, from the Proto Indo-European language (PIE). The reconstructed PIE pronoun is *egō, egóm, with cognates including Sanskrit aham, Hittite uk, Latin ego, Greek ἐγώ egō and Old Slavonic azъ.

The oblique forms are formed from a stem *me- (English me), the plural from *wei- (English we), the oblique plural from *ns- (English us).

[edit] Tables

Personal pronouns in Old English
Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive
1st Singular ic me(c) me min
Dual wit unc uncer
Plural we us ure
2nd Singular þu þe þin
Dual git inc incer
Plural ge eow eower
3rd Singular Masculine he hine him his
Neuter hit hit him his
Feminine heo hie hire hire
Plural hie hie him hira
Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive
Personal pronouns in Middle English
Singular Plural
Subject Object Possessive Subject Object Possessive
First I me mi(n) we us ure
Second thou thee thy ye you your
Third Impersonal hit it/him his he
they		 hem
them		 hir
their
Masculine he him his
Feminine sche hire hir
Personal pronouns in Early Modern English
  Nominative Objective Genitive Possessive
1st Person singular I me my / mine[1] mine
plural we us our ours
2nd Person singular informal thou thee thy / thine[1] thine
plural or formal singular ye you your yours
3rd Person singular he / she / it him / her / it his / her / his (its)[2] his / hers / his (its)[2]
plural they them their theirs

[edit] See also

v • d • e
Modern English personal pronouns
I · he · she · it · one · we · you · they
v • d • e
Middle English personal pronouns
I · thou · hit · he · sche · we · ye · they