first person

American  

[furst pur-suhn] / ˈfɜrst ˈpɜr sən /

noun

1. the grammatical person used by a speaker in statements referring to the speaker's own self first person singular or to a group including the speaker first person plural.

2. a pronoun or verb form in the first person, as I or am in English, or a set of such forms.

3. a literary style in which the narrative is told from the perspective of a narrator speaking directly.

   The story is written in the first person.

---

first person British  

noun

1. a grammatical category of pronouns and verbs used by the speaker to refer to or talk about himself or herself, either alone ( first person singular ) or together with others ( first person plural )

---

Etymology

Origin of first person

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

According to reporting in the New York Times, “American officials did not learn of the outbreak until Thursday, nine days after the World Health Organization did, and almost a month after the first person died.”

From Slate • Jun. 9, 2026

Nishanth, who goes by one name, became the first person in his family to attend college and earned a bachelor’s degree in business last year.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 7, 2026

Li said she was inspired by Yang Liwei, the first person sent to space by China's space programme.

From BBC • May 25, 2026

That patient, the first person to be treated by the unit, was American medical missionary Rick Sacra.

From Slate • May 14, 2026

Wittgenstein was surely doing both, and he deliberately moves back and forth between the first person singular and the first person plural to convey both views.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton