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Questions tagged [royal-we]

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3 votes
1 answer
346 views

Why do Indian people usually ask questions in English using the first-person-plural form?

I don't know much about the languages spoken in India, so I'm going to assume the speaker is speaking Hindi natively. I've noticed that whenever a question is asked in an English forum, and it ...
user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
1k views

Why do "streamers" always use plural form to refer to "we" when they mean "I"? [closed]

I've been watching a lot of live video streams on Twitch in the last couple of years. One thing I've noticed and which bothers me is that they frequently say things like: We've almost beat this ...
Shamarie Greenwalt's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
8k views

What’s the difference between "How can I help you?"and "How can we help you?"

I heard this expression in a video about buying clothes. In that video, the shop-keeper welcomed the customer by saying "How can we help you?", even though the shopkeeper was the only ...
Polly Chen's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
155 views

Term for first person complement of the "Royal We"

The "Royal We" or nosism refers to the usage of "we" to mean "I", ("We are not amused", meaning "I am not amused"), or "you", ("We need to mop that floor", which may mean "you must mop the floor"). ...
agc's user avatar
  • 2,800
5 votes
1 answer
678 views

When 'we' refers only to other people

'The Royal We' is the use of 'we' to refer only to the user. I had thought until I looked it up that 'Royal We' referred to the use of 'we' with the inference (whether obvious or subtle) that the ...
Christian Fieldhouse's user avatar
24 votes
2 answers
3k views

"Royal we" agreement

I stumbled across a question about synonyms for "hypocrite", and of course I then got even more distracted by this comment: @MichaelPaulukonis: +1, great comment. Interesting question at the end: ...
Dog Lover's user avatar
  • 6,455
5 votes
2 answers
1k views

The Royal We: Who are "we"?

Although King George III of Great Britain did respond to a Loyal Address using the personal pronoun I: My Lords, I thank you for this dutiful and affectionate Address. The satisfaction which you ...
Andrew Leach's user avatar
  • 103k
8 votes
4 answers
4k views

The opposite of the "Royal we"

The “Royal We” is a term to indicate that, when someone is ostensibly speaking about a group of people, they’re actually referring to themselves as an individual. Someone I know (whom I will not ...
Dave M's user avatar
  • 725