royal we
1
9.9
- noun
- Formal
:
nosotros reales
- Dude, I—the royal we, you know, the editorial—
Examples
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And I'm sort of speaking in the royal we here because I find it a little intimidating.
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Kashi replied and said yes, it is our hand, the royal we I guess.
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I was just using the royal we and yeah, you can have that.
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There are times when the royal "we" is appropriate, and this is one of them.
Blog text (17) -
When she starts speaking in the royal we, there's no reasoning with her.
Fiction book (1993) -
It's a royal "We are pleased when we are served correctly," if you don't mind.
Blog text (4) -
IT'S THE ROYAL WE WANT.
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His pipe, his tweed jacket, his sardonic politesse, the use of the royal we, the cool game-playing with reputation—he was like a man masquerading as what he was.
Fiction book (1997) -
During official events, the queen often uses the royal we to express her authority.
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When making announcements, he prefers the royal we to emphasize the significance of his message.
Surface Forms
Morphology
royal + we
The phrase combines 'royal' (of a monarch) with 'we' (the first-person plural), so a learner can straightforwardly infer it refers to a 'we' used by royalty — i.e. a single person speaking with a plural pronoun to show dignity or authority. This sense is cross-linguistically common (the 'majestic/royal plural'), which makes the construction predictable for learners who know the constituent words.
Etymology
Royal we comes from kings and queens who used we instead of I when they spoke. By saying 'we' the ruler showed they spoke for the nation or for their office, so royal we now means one person, often a leader, using 'we' to sound more formal or powerful.