second-person
The listener's perspective
Second-person refers to the grammatical perspective addressing someone directly—the "you" point of view.
In second-person narration, the reader becomes the protagonist: You walk into the bar and order a drink.
Second-person pronouns in English are you, your, yours, yourself, and yourselves.
The perspective is common in instructions, songs, and choose-your-own-adventure stories, but rare in literary fiction.
The person addressed
- yourSecond-person possessive
- yoursPossessive for addressee
- yourselfReflexive second person
- yourselvesPlural reflexive pronoun
One who peruses text
- protagonistStory's central figure
- storytellingRecounting events aloud
- perspectiveAttitude or spatial rendering
- viewpointWay of seeing things
voice · immersion · engagement · choose-your-own-adventure · empathy · experience · narrator · audience
Matter under discussion
- objectTangible entity or aim
- possessiveOverly attached, often toxically
- singularOne in number
- pluralMore than one
formal · informal · conjugation · case · nominative · accusative · dative · inflection
you
The person addressed
yourselves · thou · thee · thy · thine · ye · y'all · you're · you've · you'd
reader
One who peruses text
- protagonistStory's central figure
- storytellingRecounting events aloud
- perspectiveAttitude or spatial rendering
viewpoint · voice · immersion · engagement · choose-your-own-adventure · empathy · experience · narrator · audience · hypertext
subject
Matter under discussion
- objectTangible entity or aim
- possessiveOverly attached, often toxically
- singularOne in number
plural · formal · informal · conjugation · case · nominative · accusative · dative · inflection · politeness
- narrationvoice-over, narrator, telling, POV, point of view
second-personfirst-person narration
Story from speaker's viewpoint
third-person narration · omniscient narrator · stream of consciousness · unreliable narrator
second, person, secondly, seconds, seconded, seconding, persons, personal, personally