he

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to: navigation, search
See also Appendix:Variations of "he"

Contents

English [edit]

Etymology 1 [edit]

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

Pronunciation [edit]

Pronoun [edit]

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.
    • July 18 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Dark Knight Rises[1]
      Though Bane’s sing-song voice gives his pronouncements a funny lilt, he doesn’t have any of the Joker’s deranged wit, and Nolan isn’t interested in undercutting his seriousness for the sake of a breezier entertainment.
  2. (personal) Refers to a person whose gender is unknown.
  3. (personal) Refers to an animal whose gender is unknown.
Usage notes [edit]
  • See Wiktionary:English inflection for other personal pronouns.
  • Using he to refer to people of unknown gender is considered sexist by some.
  • Some use he and she arbitrarily for an indefinite person in order to avoid being sexist.
Synonyms [edit]
  • (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
Quotations [edit]
Translations [edit]
personal pronoun "he"

Noun [edit]

he (uncountable)

  1. The game of tag, or it, in which the player attempting to catch the others is called "he".
See also [edit]
English personal pronouns
Number Person Gender Subject Objective Reflexive Possessive adjective 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)
Gender-neutral they them themself their theirs
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 —

Etymology 2 [edit]

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

Alternative forms [edit]

Pronunciation [edit]

Noun [edit]

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)
Translations [edit]
fifth letter of the various Semitic alphabets
External links [edit]
See also [edit]

Statistics [edit]

Anagrams [edit]

Breton [edit]

Pronoun [edit]

he

  1. her

Usage notes [edit]

Catalan [edit]

Verb [edit]

he

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

Dutch [edit]

Interjection [edit]

he

  1. Common misspelling of hè.
  2. Common misspelling of hé.

Esperanto [edit]

Interjection [edit]

he

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

Derived terms [edit]

See also [edit]

Finnish [edit]

Pronunciation [edit]

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

Pronoun [edit]

he

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

Declension [edit]

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 – –

Usage notes [edit]

  • 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")

Synonyms [edit]

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

See also [edit]

Hawaiian [edit]

Article [edit]

he (indefinite)

  1. a, an
    he wahine au
    I am a woman
    he wahine kāna
    he has a wife

Japanese [edit]

Romanization [edit]

he

  1. See へ
  2. See ヘ

Low German [edit]

Alternative forms [edit]

  • (in other dialects, including Mecklenburgisch Western Pomeranian and Low Prussian) hei

Etymology [edit]

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.

Pronunciation [edit]

  • IPA: /hɛɪ̯/

Pronoun [edit]

he m (genitive sin, dative 1 em, dative 2 jüm, accusative en)

  1. (in some dialects, including, Mecklenburgisch, Western Pomeranian and Low Prussian, personal) he (third person singular masculine pronoun)
    (Low Prussian) He ös to lat.
    He is too late.

Usage notes [edit]

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

Mandarin [edit]

Romanization [edit]

he

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

Usage notes [edit]

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.

Maori [edit]

Article [edit]

he

  1. a, an, some: indefinite article

Middle English [edit]

Etymology [edit]

Old English hē

Pronoun [edit]

he

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

Descendants [edit]

  • English: he

Old English [edit]

Etymology [edit]

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.

Pronunciation [edit]

Pronoun [edit]

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

  1. he
    Declension of he
Singular Plural
nominative hē hīe
accusative hine hīe
genitive his hiera, heora
dative him him, heom

Descendants [edit]

  • Middle English: he
    • English: he

Old Saxon [edit]

Alternative forms [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From Proto-Germanic *hiz.

Pronoun [edit]

hē m

  1. he

Declension [edit]

Old Saxon personal pronoun declensions
Personal pronouns
Singular 1. 2. 3. m 3. f 3. n
Nominative ik thū hē sīu it
Accusative mī, mik thī, thik ina sīa
Dative mī thī imu iru it
Genitive mīn thīn is ira is
Dual 1. 2. - - -
Nominative wit git - - -
Accusative unk ink - - -
Dative
Genitive unkaro inka - - -
Plural 1. 2. 3. m 3. f 3. n
Nominative wī gī sīa sīa sīu
Accusative ūs īu, gīu
Dative im
Genitive ūsar īuwar, gīuwar iro

Descendants [edit]

  • Low German: he

Spanish [edit]

Etymology 1 [edit]

From Latin habeō.

Verb [edit]

he (infinitive haber)

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

Etymology 2 [edit]

From Arabic; related to Portuguese eis.

Adverb [edit]

he

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

Etymology 3 [edit]

Noun [edit]

he f

  1. he; the Hebrew letter ה

Swedish [edit]

Etymology [edit]

Related to häva

Verb [edit]

he

  1. (regional) (colloquial) to put

Turkish [edit]

Noun [edit]

he

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

Noun [edit]

he (definite accusative heyi, plural heler)

  1. (informal) yup

See also [edit]

Retrieved from "http://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=he&oldid=20543562"