In that group of words, the noun 'John' is not the grammatical subject of the verb 'come'; the implied subject is indeed 'you'.

English Teacher
I have a basic question, however, as native speakers do not agree on this everywhere, I would just like to ask grammar specialists.
So the question is simple:
John, come here!
Is John the subject in this sentence? Or is it "you"?
In my opinion, and in Spanish for that matter, the correct answer would be "you", NOT John, as the person addressed is second person, not third person.
Of course, John and "you" are the same person here....++
Thanks for taking the time to answer, and if you can add a link to some grammar explanation, I would be grateful![]()
In that group of words, the noun 'John' is not the grammatical subject of the verb 'come'; the implied subject is indeed 'you'.
HI 5jj, you wouldn't know a web page where I could read more about this?
thanks
Thanks for all answers and explanations.
An imperative is always directed in some way at a person or people- that person or those people are the implied subject. I don't honestly think there's much more to it than this. You can add things like institutions and dogs, but there's always a target- there's no point in giving an instruction to no one or nothing. That's your implied subject. You could remove John from that sentence and it would still be a complete sentence Naming the person doesn't change anything, even if they and the implied subject are one and the same.
HI Tdol, very good point, you remove the name and it would still be a complete sentence, thanks a lot!
thanks to everybody![]()
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