Meaning of we in English

pronoun

strong /wiː/ weak /wi/ us

strong /wiː/ weak /wi/

we pronoun (GROUP)

used as the subject of a verb to refer to a group including the speaker and at least one other person:

Can we all go to the swimming pool this afternoon?

If you don't hurry up we'll be late.

used by a speaker or a writer to refer to themselves and the people listening or reading:

In today's lecture, we will be exploring the world economic situation.

More examples

We were just chatting about what we did last weekend.
We weren't married in church, but we had a civil ceremony in a registry office.
A friend recently sent me a newspaper clipping about someone we were at school with.
As we approached the hall we could hear the sound of laughter.
We'd save time on our journey if we went by train.

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Linguistics: personal pronouns

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we pronoun (ALL PEOPLE)

used as the subject of a verb to refer to all people, especially when considered as a group:

This planet on which we all live should be cherished and not exploited.

More examples

The way we waste this planet's resources is criminal.
He claimed that we are all descended from apes.
We all have basic human rights that should be observed.
The ideas we hold influence the way we see the world.
We still don't know how the universe was created.

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we pronoun (YOU)

informal

used as the subject of a verb to mean "you", especially when talking to a child or someone who is ill:

We don't want to be late for school, do we?

"How are we this morning, Mrs Flanagan?" said the doctor.

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we pronoun (I)

formal

used by a queen or king when speaking officially to mean "I"

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Grammar

Pronouns: personal (I, me, you, him, it, they, etc.)

We use personal pronouns in place of noun phrases. We often use them to refer back to people and things that we have already identified (underlined): …

Subject and object pronouns

Personal subject pronouns act as the subject of a clause. We use them before a verb to show who is doing the verb. We do not usually leave out the pronoun: …

I, me

We use I and me to refer to the speaker or writer. I is the subject form and me is the object form: …

You

We use you to refer to the listener or reader. It is both the subject and the object form. You can refer to one person or more than one person. It is usually clear from the context whether you is singular or plural: …

He, him; she, her

He, him, she and her are singular third person pronouns. He and him are the masculine forms. She and her are the feminine forms: …

We use it to refer to things: …

We, us

We use we and us to refer to different groups of people, but always including the speaker. We and us can refer to the speaker + the listener, or the speaker + other people but not the listener, or people in general including the speaker: …

They, them

We use they and them to refer to specific groups of people, things and animals: …

Pronouns: one, you, we, they

One, you, we and they are generic personal pronouns. We can use one, you, we and they to refer to ‘people in general’. …

One, you and we

We can use one, you or we when we are making generalisations and not referring to any one person in particular. When used like this, one, you and we can include the speaker or writer: …

They

We can use they to talk about a wide group of people, such as an authority or an institution. In such cases, they does not refer to specific people: …

(Definition of we from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

we | American Dictionary

pronoun [ pl ]

/wi, wɪ/

we pronoun [pl] (PEOPLE)

the person speaking and one or more others:

If you don’t hurry up we won’t be on time.

We can be used by a speaker or a writer to refer to the listener or person reading and the person speaking or writing:

We have to get started now if we’re going to finish this afternoon.

We can also mean you:

Now everyone, we don’t want to be late, do we?

we pronoun [pl] (ALL PEOPLE)

all people; everyone:

We live on planet earth.

(Definition of we from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Translations of we

in Chinese (Traditional)

群體, （用作動詞的主語）我們, （講話者或作者用來指代自己與聽眾或讀者）我們…

in Chinese (Simplified)

群体, （用作动词的主语）我们, （讲话者或作者用来指代自己与听众或读者）我们…

in Spanish

nosotros/nosotras, nosotros, nosotras…

in Portuguese

nós…

in more languages

in Japanese

in Turkish

in French

in Catalan

in Dutch

in Arabic

in Czech

in Danish

in Indonesian

in Thai

in Vietnamese

in Polish

in Malay

in German

in Norwegian

in Korean

in Ukrainian

in Italian

in Russian

私達は（が）（一人称複数主格）, （総称的に人をさして）我々は（が）、私達は（が）, 私（わたし）たち…

biz…

nous, on…

nosaltres…

wij…

نَحْن…

my…

vi…

kami…

พวกเรา, เรา, คนเรา…

chúng tôi, chúng ta…

my, my (wszyscy)…

kami, kita…

wir (pl.)…

vi…

(나를 포함한 사람들) 우리, (일반적인 사람들) 우리…

ми…

noi…

мы, люди…

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WBC

WDV

we'd

we'll

we'll (soon) see about that idiom

we're

Meaning of we in English

we pronoun (GROUP)

we pronoun (ALL PEOPLE)

we pronoun (YOU)

we pronoun (I)

Grammar

we | American Dictionary

we pronoun [pl] (PEOPLE)

we pronoun [pl] (ALL PEOPLE)

Translations of we

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