Grammar girl here, one of my followers on Twitter named Andrew Heins tweeted a question

to me earlier this month.

He asked, why do we use plural forms of verbs with this singular subject I?

In other words, why do we say I go to the store?

When he talks about singular and plural, he is talking about what grammarians call number.

But the assumption that go is a plural form isn't entirely correct.

In addition to number, verb forms can also encode tense and person.

We talked about person in episode 259 when the topic was first person, second person,

and third person pronouns.

To summarize, the first person singular pronouns are the forms of I, including me, my, mine,

and myself.

First person plural pronouns are forms of we.

Second person pronouns are the forms of you.

In present-day English, we don't distinguish between singular and plural for second-person

pronouns, except for the singular form yourself and the plural yourselves.

You can refer to one person, you get the passenger seat, or many people.

Would you please form a line in front of the counter?

Third person singular pronouns are the forms of he, she, and it.

And finally, third person plural pronouns are forms of they.

Now let's look at the verb go and how it can give information about all three of these

things, number, tense, and person.

In the form goes, the S ending tells us not only that it's in the present tense, but also

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