In Modern English, we is a plural, first-person pronoun.
Morphology
In Standard Modern English, we has six distinct shapes for five word forms:
- we: the nominative (subjective) form
- us and ': the accusative (objective; also called the 'oblique'.) form
- our: the dependent genitive (possessive) form
- ours: the independent genitive (possessive) form
- ourselves: the reflexive form
There is also a distinct determiner we as in we humans aren't perfect, Similarly, us was used in Old English as the accusative and dative plural of we, from PIE *nes-. The following table shows the old English first-person plural and dual pronouns:
{| class=" wiki table"
|+Old English, first-person dual and plural
!
!Plural
!Dual
|-
!Nominative
|wē
|wit
|-
!Accusative
|ūs
|unc
|-
!Dative
|ūs
|unc
|-
!Genitive
|ūre
|uncer
|}
By late Middle English, the dual form was lost, and the dative and accusative had merged. so that, by the century's end, the Middle English forms of we had solidified into those we use today. and impersonal relative which. This is seen as a new personal / non-personal (or impersonal) gender system. The reference is not explicit but is generally consistent with a first-person plural.
Author's we
The author's we, pluralis auctoris or pluralis modestiae, is a practice referring to a generic third person as we (instead of one or the informal you):
- By adding four and five, we obtain nine.
- We are led also to a definition of "time" in physics. — Albert Einstein
We in this sense often refers to "the reader and the author" because the author often assumes that the reader knows and agrees with certain principles or previous theorems for the sake of brevity (or, if not, the reader is prompted to look them up). This practice is discouraged by some academic style guides because it does not distinguish between sole authorship and co-authorship. Again, the reference is not explicit, but is generally consistent with first-person plural.
Inclusive and exclusive we
Some languages distinguish between inclusive we, which includes both the speaker and the addressee(s), and exclusive we, which excludes the addressee(s). English does not make this distinction grammatically, though we can have both inclusive and exclusive semantics.
Imperative let's or let us allows imperatives to be inclusive.