: Re: First person from the point of view of a child Is it ok to use first person when the one speaking in the narration is a child? I guess it doesn't matter too much when the narration is

@YK4692630

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Many stories told from first person perspective are also told in the past tense. This implies that the narrator is telling a story they experienced in the past.

That means you can have an adult narrator telling a story they experienced in their childhood. In that case your narrator would be as eloquent as you would expect from any adult person. But remember that the character they talk about is still a child. There will be situations they didn't understand back then but understand now. The narrator might point that out:

Whenever Mr. Smith came to visit, my mother told me to go to my room and play by myself. I could hear the weird noises they were making in the bedroom. One time I asked my mother what they were doing in there. She told me they were playing a game for adults and that she would tell me more about that game when I got older. I was too young back then to realize they were having an affair.

But you can of course also have a narrator who is still a child. In that case you would tell the story using the language a child would use. This narrative style can indeed be a bit taxing for an adult reader (although I am not claiming it's an impossible feat to pull this off well), but it can be appropriate if you are writing a story for children. It keeps the language age-appropriate and makes it easier for the audience to self-identify with the protagonist.

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