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

His mother said he initially wondered whether to answer the question in the first person, given he had inspired the poem, but eventually decided the examiner might not believe him.

From BBC • Jun. 9, 2026

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

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

From Slate • May 14, 2026

The passenger -- the wife of the first person to die in the outbreak -- had briefly been on a plane bound from Johannesburg to the Netherlands on April 25, but was removed before take-off.

From Barron's • May 10, 2026

The first person to greet her is Arlo.

From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold