inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Acts 2:8)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, translators typically select the inclusive form (multitude of people talking with one another).

Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.

complete verse (Acts 2:8)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 2:8:

  • Uma: “Yet why is it that we hear them speak in our own languages?” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Why do we hear them able-to-speak in our (incl.) individual languages?” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Why is it that when we hear them speaking, the language that they are using is the language of each one of us?” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “How perhaps can it be that each one of us is hearing his own language?” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well how can this be, for each of us is hearing being spoken by them the language of the lands we have come from?” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Acts 2:8

In Greek the question in verse 7 is strictly rhetorical (no need for a reply is suggested), but in verse 8 there is a legitimate question, for the men do not understand how they can possibly hear, each in his own language. However, they are directing the question to themselves and to each other.

There is the problem of number in this sentence. Therefore one must often be somewhat more specific, for example, “each one of us hears in his own native language” or “all of us hear in our own native languages.” This solution may not, however, be admissible in some languages, for example, “How is it that each one of us must say, I hear them speaking in my own language?”

For native language one can use an identification-associated place, age, or kinship, for example, “language of my hometown,” “language which I spoke when I was a child,” or “language my parents taught me.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .