📚Special Uses of We
📚The 1st person plural pronoun has a number of special uses:
👇👇👇👇👇📕(1) One common use is the 'INCLUSIVE AUTHORIAL we' in serious writing,
🎈as in:
▶️As we saw in chapter 3...
📗Here we seeks to involve the reader in a joint enterprise. Besides not having this 'intimate' appeal, you here would also be felt to be too informal or authoritative for discursive or scholarly writing.
🎈Compare example [a] with the more formal let's in [b]:
▶️[a] Now we turn to a different problem.
▶️[b] Let's turn now to a different problem.
📕(2) The so-called 'EDITORIAL we' is still common enough in formal (especially scientific) writing by a single individual, and is prompted by a desire to avoid I, which may be felt to be somewhat egotistical.
🎈For instance, the writer of a scholarly article may prefer [c] to [d]:
▶️[c] As we showed a moment ago...
▶️[d] As I showed a moment ago...
💥('Editorial' here is not applied to the fully justified use of we with reference to the consensus of an editorial board or other collective body.)
📕(3) The 'RHETORICAL we' is used in the collective sense of 'the nation', 'the party',
🎈as in:
▶️In the 19th century we neglected our poor as we amassed wealth. Today we are much more concerned with the welfare of the people as a whole.
📕(4) There is also a use of we in reference to the hearer (=you) which may occur
🎈for example when a doctor is talking to a patient:
▶️How are we feeling today?
📗In the context, this use of we may be understood to be condescending, but it also has an implication of sharing the problem with 'you' in the situational context of
a doctor/patient or
teacher/student relation, for example.
🎈A teacher wishing to instruct without overtly claiming authority may use the 'inclusive' 1st person plural:
▶️Now then, let's have a look at that project, shall we?
📗This can be an evasively polite equivalent of:
▶️Now then, let me have a look at that project, will you?
📕(5) We may occasionally be used also in reference to a 3rd person (=he, she).
🎈For example one secretary might say to another with reference to their boss:
▶️We are in a bad mood today.
#grammar@Grammarzabanenglish
