= 161. 2*362 (075. 8) К211 ббк [81. 2-2 Англ + 81. 2-2 Укр] я 73

2. The category of person
In the Indo-European languages the category of person serves to present an action as associated by the speaking person with himself/herself (or group of persons including the speaker), the person or persons addressed, and the person or thing (persons or things) not participating in the process of speech. Thus, in Ukrainian it is represented in sets of three-member opposemes such as:
читаю — читает - читае читаемо - читаете - читають.
Likewise in Modern German we have: gehe - gehst - geht gehen - geht — gehen.
In Modern English the category of person has certain peculiarities:

1. 
   The second member of the opposemes speak - speakest -speaks, am - is - are is not used colloquially. It occurs in Modern linglish only in poetry, in solemn or pathetic prose with a distinct archaic flavour. Thus, the category of person is practically represented by two-member opposemes: speak —speaks, am - is.
   
2. 
   Person opposemes are neutralized when associated with the "plural" meaning. A.I.Smirnitsky thinks that owing to the presence of the plural personal pronouns (we, you, they) person distinctions are felt in the plural of the verb as well, e.g.: we know -you know - they know.
   

The idea is open to criticism. If the verb itself (in the plural) does not show any person distinctions we are bound to admit that in Modern English the verb in plural has no person characteristics.
3. Person distinctions do not go with the meaning of the "past
tense" in the English verbs, e.g.: I (he) asked ... (compare the
Ukrainian, e.g.: я (mu, em) cnumae - вона спитала, воно спитало,
вониспитали) [24; 148-149].
In Ukrainian the category of person is closely connected with the category of person of pronouns. Its meaning is based on the opposition of six interconnected forms: 1, 2, 3 persons singular and 1, 2, 3 persons plural (я читаю-ми читаемо, etc.).
In Ukrainian personal forms - are one of main morphological characteristics of the verb: "due to their ability to point out the person as the doer or the source with which the action or the state is connected, these verb forms always perform the function of predicate in the sentence [5; 70]."
Almost all personal forms of Ukrainian verbs (except forms of the past tense and conditional mood) have personal endings of the first, second and third persons of singular and plural. These endings create the system of verb forms: пиш-у, -еш, -е, -емо, -erne, -уть; чита-ю, -еш, -е, -емо, -ете, -ютъ; крич-у, -иш, -итъ, -имо, -ите, -атъ; сто-ю, -гш, -гтъ, -то, -ime, -ять.
According to Yu.O. Zhluktenko [5; 70], unlike the Ukrainian language in English the category of person has only one formal expression, that is only in the third person singular of the Present Indefinite tense, where the ending -s is added to the verb stem, e.g.: he

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writes. This verb form is opposed to all other forms which do not have personal endings and so do not express the category of person. Besides, there are several verbs (can, may, must, ought, sometimes also need and dare) which do not have even this ending, and are not conjugated according to the person altogether.
hi Ukrainian the forms of the past tense and conditional mood do not express the category of person. The meaning of person is rendered by these verbs by lexical means, by usage of the corresponding personal pronouns, e.g.: я знав, ти знав, вт знав, ми знали, ей знали; я знав би, ти знав би, ми знали б, ей знали б.
In English forms of the past tense of verbs also do not have
some special characteristics. In future tense forms there has been
retained the difference of the first person from forms of the second
and the third persons in singular and in plural: I (we) shall write; he
(you, they) will write. Correspondingly, this difference is brought upon
the forms of the conditional mood with help verbs should and would.
But in the speech this difference is also lost due to the fact that help
verbs shall and will are shortened into one auxiliary element 41 (I'll
help, he'll write), and should and would is shortened to 'd ('d (h'd)
like to see him).
The function of person expression in the system of English verb has come over to the subject (as a main part of a sentence) to a large extent: in the first and second person this function is performed by a pronoun, and in the third person - both by the pronoun and by the noun. That is why in English the verb form is not practically used without a subject (except the imperative mood), e.g. when we have the question What does he do? we cannot answer simply * reads or *sleeps, we should necessarily say: he reads or he sleeps (compare in Ukrainian: Що втробитъ? - Спить.).
In Ukrainian personal verb forms are much more independent. They are very often used without the subject, at this the meaning of the personal verb form is not changed, e.g.: 3a ecix скажу, за ecix переболт ... (П. Тичина).
In these cases the person, having the connection with the action, can be clarified from the context. When this form cannot be clarified then the form of the third person plural acquires the meaning of the
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non-personal or indefinite-personal, e.g.: У нас встаютъ рано. Also the second person singular without the verb acquires the generalized-personal meaning: Без науки не обгйдешся [5; 70-71].