# Is,hic,ille third person pronoun



## purasbabosadas

I've seen these three words used as third person pronouns(he,she,it)
Which is most common in Latin?
1.is,ea,id
2.hic,haec,hoc
3.ille,illa,illud


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## bearded

Hello
Generally speaking, I would say that 1. corresponds to personal pronouns he/she/it , 2. corresponds to demonstrative 'this' (in the three genders), and 3.corresponds to demontrative 'that' (in the three genders). However, the distinction is not so clear-cut in Latin, e.g. _ille _is often used for 'he' when referring to someone previously mentioned....
It may perhaps interest you to know that in most Romance languages the determinative article (It. il, Fr. le, Sp. el..) derives from _ille._


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## Scholiast

salvete omnes!

bearded is quite right, this is only a footnote.

Judging (unscientifically) by the length of the respective entries in _OLD_, they would appear to be equally common. But you need to be aware (a) that these words can all function as demonstrative adjectives as well as pronouns (_ea res_, 'that matter'; _hic vir_ 'this man', _illam domum_, 'that household'); and (b) that there is another, _iste_/_ista_/_istud_, less common than the others, but found quite regularly in Cicero's forensic speeches, in the sense of 'that one there [beside you]', i.e. the opposing advocate's client or the parties he represents.

Σ


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## Snodv

While _is, ea, id_ is neutral as it pertains to demonstrative connotation, one may imagine _hic_ and _iste_ and _ille_ as (sort of) corresponding to the grammatical persons.  _Hic_ is "this one," close to me; _iste_ is "that one," close to you; _ille_ is "that one," close to a third person.  I seem to remember that sometimes _iste_ could have a sort of pejorative quality, as in "not one of _your_ garden variety teachers," or similar to "that old" in American English: "I like old Joe, but I don't care for _that old_ brother of his."  (In this sentence, the age of the men is not under consideration at all.)  
Another sense of _hic _"this" is "the latter," that is, the one most recently mentioned, while _ille_ can be "the former," the one previously mentioned (thus more distant).


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## purasbabosadas

I've noticed that "ipse" is also translated as a third person pronoun in the vulgate.It also seems to be used to show possessions in the third person(In Caesar's Gallic Wars "ipsorum naves" is found meaning "their ships")


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## Snodv

I would guess (without reading the passage) that _ipsorum _means something a little more specific, like "their _own_ ships" as contrasted with, say, ships belonging to another "them," possibly to avoid confusion.  _Suae/suas naves _would work too, but only if the antecedent were the subject.


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