he

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See also Appendix:Variations of "he"

Contents

[edit] English

[edit] Etymology 1

From Middle English, from Old English hē (“he”), from Proto-Germanic *hiz (“this, this one”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey- (“this, here”). Cognate with West Frisian hy (“he”), Low German he (“he”), Dutch hij (“he”), Danish han (“he”). Related to here.

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Pronoun

he third-person singular, masculine, nominative case (accusative him, reflexive himself, possessive his)

  1. (personal) Refers to a male person or animal already known or implied.
  2. (personal) Refers to a person whose gender is unknown.
  3. (personal) Refers to an animal whose gender is unknown.
[edit] Usage notes
  • See Wiktionary:English inflection for other personal pronouns.
  • Using he to refer to animals is considered sexist by some.
  • Some use he and she arbitrarily for an indefinite person in order to avoid being sexist.
[edit] Synonyms
  • (personal, A person whose gender is unknown): he or she, he/she, s/he, (informal) they, (Spivak) ey
  • (personal, An animal whose gender is unknown): it
[edit] Quotations
[edit] Translations
personal pronoun "he"
[edit] See also
English personal pronouns
Number Person Gender Subject Objective Reflexive Possessive Possessive Pronoun
Singular First — I me myself my mine
Second — you,
thou (archaic)		 you,
thee (archaic)		 yourself,
thyself (archaic)
theeself (archaic)		 your,
thy (archaic)		 yours,
thine (archaic)
Third Masculine he him himself his
Feminine she her herself her hers
Neuter it itself its its (rare)
Plural First — we us ourselves our ours
Second — you,
ye (archaic)		 you yourselves your yours
Third — they them themselves their theirs
Indefinite Third — one oneself one's —

[edit] Etymology 2

Transliteration of various Semitic letters, such as Phoenician 𐤄 (h), Hebrew ה (h) and Syriac ܗ (h, “hē”).

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Noun

he

  1. The name of the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets (Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic and others).
    • 1658: The same number in the Hebrew mysteries and Cabalistical accounts was the character of Generation; declared by the Letter He, the fifth in their Alphabet — Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus (Folio Society 2007, p. 210)
[edit] Translations
fifth letter of the various Semitic alphabets
[edit] External links

[edit] Statistics

[edit] Anagrams

[edit] Breton

[edit] Pronoun

he

  1. her

[edit] Usage notes

[edit] Catalan

[edit] Verb

he

  1. First-person singular present indicative form of haver.

[edit] Dutch

[edit] Interjection

he

  1. Said when surprised or when objecting to something.

[edit] Esperanto

[edit] Interjection

he

  1. interjection used to attract someone's attention, hey
  2. interjection expressing irony

[edit] Derived terms

[edit] See also

[edit] Finnish

[edit] Pronunciation

  • IPA: [he]
  		•  (file)
  • Hyphenation: he
  • Rhymes: -e

[edit] Pronoun

he

  1. (personal) they (only of people).

[edit] Declension

Declension of he
noun case singular plural
nominative hän he
genitive hänen heidän
partitive häntä heitä
accusative hänet heidät
inessive hänessä heissä
elative hänestä heistä
illative häneen heihin
adessive hänellä heillä
ablative häneltä heiltä
allative hänelle heille
essive hänenä heinä
translative häneksi heiksi
instructive – –
abessive hänettä heittä
comitative – –

[edit] Usage notes

  • In standard Finnish, he is practically never omitted, despite the verb showing both the person and the number. (compare the usage of hän, "she" / "he")

[edit] Synonyms

  • (dialectal): het
  • (dialectal): hyö
  • (colloquial): ne

[edit] See also

[edit] Hawaiian

[edit] Article

he (indefinite)

  1. a, an

[edit] Japanese

[edit] Syllable

he

  1. The hiragana syllable へ (he) or the katakana syllable ヘ (he) in Hepburn romanization.

[edit] Noun

he (hiragana へ)

  1. 屁: fart

[edit] Low German

[edit] Alternative forms

  • hei (Mecklenburgic-Western Pomeranian dialects)

[edit] Etymology

From Old Saxon hē (“he”) from Proto-Germanic *hiz (“his, this one”), from Proto-Indo-European *k'e-, *k'ey- (“this, here”). Cognate with English he (“he”), Dutch hij (“he”), Danish han (“he”). Related to here.

[edit] Pronunciation

  • IPA: /hɛɪ̯/

[edit] Pronoun

he m. (genitive sin, dative em, dative 2 jüm, accusative en)

  1. (personal) he

[edit] Usage notes

  • Which dative is employed depends on dialect, not on function.
  • Some dialects might consider any of the inflected forms obsolete.

[edit] Mandarin

[edit] Romanization

he

  1. Nonstandard spelling of hē.
  2. Nonstandard spelling of hé.
  3. Nonstandard spelling of hě.
  4. Nonstandard spelling of hè.

[edit] Usage notes

English transcriptions of Chinese speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Chinese language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

[edit] Middle English

[edit] Etymology

Old English hē

[edit] Pronoun

he

  1. he (third-person singular masculine subject pronoun)

[edit] Old English

[edit] Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *hiz (“this, this one”), from Proto-Indo-European *k'e-, *k'ey- (“this, here”). Cognate with Old Frisian hī, hē (“he”), Old Saxon hie, hē (“he”), Old Norse hánn, hann (“he”), Gothic 𐌷𐌹𐌼𐌼𐌰 (himma, “to this”). Related to hēr.

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Pronoun

hē m. (accusative hine, genitive his, dative him)

  1. he
    Declension of he
Singular Plural
nominative hē hī
accusative hine hī
genitive his hira
dative him him

[edit] Descendants

  • English: he

[edit] Old Saxon

[edit] Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *hiz.

[edit] Pronoun

hē m.

  1. he

[edit] Descendants

  • Low German: he

[edit] Spanish

[edit] Etymology 1

From Latin habeō.

[edit] Verb

he (infinitive haber)

  1. First-person singular (yo) present indicative form of haber.
[edit] See also
  • (with acute accent) hé

[edit] Etymology 2

From Arabic; related to Portuguese eis.

[edit] Adverb

he

  1. here is
[edit] Usage notes
  • Takes pronoun suffixes, e.g. heme, here I am.
[edit] See also

[edit] Etymology 3

[edit] Noun

he f.

  1. he; the Hebrew letter ה

[edit] Swedish

[edit] Etymology

Related to häva

[edit] Verb

he

  1. (regional) (colloquial) to put

[edit] Turkish

[edit] Noun

he

  1. The name of the Latin script letter H/h.

[edit] See also

Retrieved from "http://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=he&oldid=16192415"
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