FM: Lesson - Personal Pronouns - 3rd Person - is, ea, id
is, ea, id - he, she, it
The image depicts the Greek philosopher Aristotle tutoring the future ruler, Alexander (called Alexander the Great by many historians). He listens intently to his instructor. Aristotle tutoring Alexander by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris 1895.
The pronouns he and him above both refer to Alexander in the image. In English, this is called a 3rd person personal pronoun. There is no true 3rd person personal pronoun in Latin. Instead, Latin uses a new type of pronoun, called a Demonstrative Pronoun, to take on the role of a 3rd person personal pronoun. There are three main demonstrative pronouns and each is capable of acting as the 3rd person pronoun. However, the one most frequently used in this role is the pronoun is, ea, id.
The difference in pronoun type arises due to a need to use gendered forms for the 3rd person (the same is true in English, where we separate he, she and it as gendered pronouns). Instead of using non-gendered pronouns (ego can be any gender: masculine, feminine or neuter), a 3rd person personal pronoun needs to demonstrate gender with a separate form for masculine, feminine and neuter:
- is is masculine, nominative, singular
- ea is feminine, nominative, singular
- id is neuter, nominative, singular
This pronoun uses the special endings of the irregular adjectives. Refer to the following chart for the forms of is, ea, id:
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | is | ei | ea | eae | id | ea |
| Genitive | eius | eorum | eius | earum | eius | eorum |
| Dative | ei | eis | ei | eis | ei | eis |
| Accusative | eum | eos | eam | eas | id | ea |
| Ablative | eo | eis | ea | eis | eo | eis |
Nota Bene
- Irregular Adjective Reminder:
- genitive singular = -ius (all genders): eius
- dative singular = -i (all genders): ei
- Outside of nominative singular (is, id), most other forms of the irregular adjective use 1st/2nd declension adjective endings.
- All three genders have unique forms, in both the singular and plural.
3rd Person Personal Pronouns in English
A pronoun is one of the few forms in English that retains some sense of case and gender. For personal pronouns, we use different forms to describe the subject, the object and the possessive. Also, each gender has its own forms. Below is a table containing the 3rd person forms of the personal pronoun in English. Which cases in Latin correspond to these English uses? Remember the following when translating these pronouns:
- Subject = Nominative
- Possessive = Genitive
- Object = Dative, Accusative and Ablative
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Usage | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
| Subject | he | they | she | they | it | they |
| Possessive | his | their(s) | her(s) | their(s) | its | their(s) |
| Object | him | them | her | them | it | them |