li

See also Appendix:Variations of "li"

English

Pronunciation

• IPA: /liː/
• Rhymes: -iː

Etymology 1

From Mandarin 里 (lǐ).

Noun

li (plural li)

1. A traditional Chinese unit of distance, now standardized to 500 metres.

Translations

Chinese unit of distance

• Chinese: 里
• Dutch: li (nl)

• French: li (fr) m

Etymology 2

From Mandarin 市厘 (lí).

Noun

li (plural li)

1. A traditional Chinese unit of weight, equal to one-thousandth of a liang, or fifty milligrams.

Etymology 3

From Mandarin 禮 (lǐ).

Noun

li (plural li)

1. (Chinese philosophy) A meaningful ceremony or ritual; etiquette, behaviour.

Etymology 4

From Mandarin 鬲 (lì).

Noun

li (plural li)

1. An ancient Chinese cauldron having three hollow legs.

Anagrams

• IL

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Albanian

Etymology 1

Noun

li f

1. smallpox

Etymology 2

From Latin līnum.

Noun

li m

1. flax

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Catalan

Pronoun

li (enclitic and proclitic)

1. him, her, it (indirect object)

Declension

Catalan personal pronouns and clitics

	strong/subject	weak (direct object)		weak (indirect object)		possessive
singular		proclitic	enclitic	proclitic	enclitic
1st person	jo, mi2	em, m’	-me, ’m	em, m’	-me, ’m	meu
2nd person	tu	et, t’	-te, ’t	et, t’	-te, ’t	teu
2nd person formal4	vós	us	-vos, -us	us	-vos, -us	vostre
2nd person  very formal1	vostè	el, l’	-lo, ’l	li	-li	seu
3rd person masculine	ell	el, l’	-lo, ’l	li	-li	seu
3rd person feminine	ella	la, l’3	-la	li	-li	seu
3rd person neuter		ho	-ho	li	-li	seu
3rd person reflexive	si	es, s’	-se, ’s	es, s’	-se, ’s	seu
plural
1st person	nosaltres	ens	-nos, ’ns	ens	-nos, ’ns	nostre
2nd person	vosaltres	us	-vos, -us	us	-vos, -us	vostre
2nd person formal1	vostès	els	-los, ’ls	els	-los, ’ls	seu
3rd person masculine	ells	els	-los, ’ls	els	-los, ’ls	seu
3rd person feminine	elles	les	-les	els	-los, ’ls	seu
3rd person reflexive	si	es, s’	-se, ’s	es, s’	-se, ’s	seu
adverbial
ablative/genitive		en, n’	-ne, ’n
locative		hi	-hi
1) Behaves grammatically as third person. 2) Only as object of a preposition.			3) Not before unstressed (h)i-, (h)u-. 4) Behaves grammatically as second person plural.

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Dutch

Noun

li m (uncountable)

1. li (Chinese unit of distance).

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Esperanto

Etymology

From Italian or French lui plus the i of personal pronouns.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /li/

Pronoun

li (accusative lin, possessive lia)

1. (personal pronoun) he

Related terms

• ili (“they”)

Derived terms

• ŝli

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA: /li/, X-SAMPA: /li/

Noun

li m (plural lis)

1. li (Chinese unit of distance).

Anagrams

• il

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Guernésiais

Etymology

From Old French li, from Vulgar Latin *illui, a Vulgar Latin dative of Classical Latin ille.

Pronoun

li

1. him

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Haitian Creole

Etymology 1

From French lui.

Pronoun

li

1. he
2. him
3. she
4. her
5. it

Etymology 2

From French lire.

Verb

li

1.  To read

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Ido

Pronoun

li

1. they

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Interlingue

Article

li

1. the

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Italian

Pronunciation

• Homophone: lì

Pronoun

li

1. them.

Related terms

• gli
• i
• le
• loro

Anagrams

• il

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Kurdish

Preposition

li

1. in

   li Kurdistanê (in Kurdistan)

2. li ser: on:
   li ser maseyê (on the table)

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Lojban

Cmavo

li

1. indicates that the next word is a number or mathematical expression used as a sumti

Usage notes

• A sumti phrase begun with li ends with the elidable terminator lo'o unless no ambiguity results (in which case the terminator is elided).
• The numerals following the li end with the elidable terminator boi (unless no ambiguity results (in which case the terminator is elided)).
• In some instances, lo'o and boi may be interchangeable, yielding parsings with essentially the same structure.

Related terms

• la
• le

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Maltese

Pronunciation

• IPA: /li/

Pronoun

li

1. (relative) who; that

   ir-raġel li seraq il-karozza

   the man who stole the car

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Mandarin

Romanization

li (form of li0 or li5)

1. See 哧
2. See 瑿

Romanization

li

1. Nonstandard spelling of lī.
2. Nonstandard spelling of lí.
3. Nonstandard spelling of lǐ.
4. Nonstandard spelling of lì.

Usage notes

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

See also

• -li

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Mauritian Creole

Etymology

From French le, lui

Pronoun

li

1. he, she, it (third-person singular personal pronoun)

See also

Mauritian Creole personal pronouns

			singular	plural
1st person			mo mwa (objective)	nou
2nd person			to (informal), ou (formal) twa (objective)	zot
3rd person			li	zot, bann-la

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Michif

Etymology

From French le.

Pronunciation

• IPA: [lɪ]

Article

li m (feminine la, masculine and feminine plural lii)

1. the

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Miskito

Noun

li

1. water

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Norwegian

Etymology

From Old Norse hlíð

Noun

li

1. A sloping mountainside or hillside covered with grass or forest.

Inflection

    Inflection of li

	indefinite singular	definite singular	indefinite plural	definite plural
Bokmål m	li	lien	lier	liene
Bokmål f	li	lia	lier	liene
Nynorsk f	li	lia [lii]	lier	liene

References

• “li” in The Bokmål Dictionary / The Nynorsk Dictionary – Dokumentasjonsprosjektet.
• “li” in The Ordnett Dictionary

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Old French

Etymology 1

From Latin ille (“that”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /li/

Article

li

1. the (masculine nominative singular and plural definite article)
   • circa 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, Érec et Énide:

     Li rois respont: "N'est pas mançonge"

     The king replied "this is no lie"

Inflection

Old French definite articles

Declension of the definite article le

	singular		plural
	masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine
nominative	li	la, le 1	li	les
oblique	le 1	la 1	les	les
1 These singular forms elide to l' before a vowel or non-aspirate h.

Etymology 2

Pronoun

li

1. third-person singular indirect object pronoun; to him, to her, to it

Descendants

• French: lui

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Polish

Etymology 1

Adverb

li (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) only

Etymology 2

From Mandarin

Noun

li n (indeclinable)

1. li, Chinese unit of distance
2. li, Chinese unit of weight
3. li, a meaningful ceremony or ritual

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Portuguese

Verb

li (infinitive: ler)

1. First-person singular (eu) preterite indicative of ler

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Romanian

Pronoun

li (dative form of ele; form of le)

1. to them

Usage notes

This word is used when le (which is dative) is combined with the following accusatives:

• îl (the accusative of el, contracted as li-l)
• îi (the accusative of ei, contracted as li-i)
• le (the accusative of ele)
• se (the reflexive accusative of all third-person pronouns)

See also

• vi
• ni

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Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *li.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /li/

Particle

li (Cyrillic spelling ли)

1. question-forming interrogative particle (postpositive, unlike other particles, never first word in a sentence)

   poznaješ li me — do you know me?

   jesi li stigao na odredište? — did you reach the destination?

   jeste li ga vid(j)eli — have you seen him?

   gd(j)e li se samo nalazimo? — where could we be?

   kad li će doći? — when will he/they come?

   je li? — Is it? (Is that so? Isn't that so?)

2. used as conjunction with da (not in Croatian, "da li" in any form is incorrect and should be replaced with "je li")

   da li — whether

   nemam pojma da li je došao — I have no idea whether he came (Croatian: "nemam pojma je li došao")

3. (as a conjunction) if

   pokušaš li me napasti, ja ću ti uzvratiti — should you try to attack me, I'll strike you back (when "li" is used in this sense, it is usually translated as a subjunctive form "should", and when "ako" is used, it is usually translated as "if" - ako me pokušaš napasti = if you try to attack me)

4. used as an emphatic intensifier

   a sn(ijeg) pada li pada — the snow just keeps falling and falling...

   d(ij)ete plače li plače — the child just keeps crying and crying...

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Sicilian

Etymology

From Latin illī or illae, nominative plurals of ille.

Article

li m, f pl.

1. the

The Sicilian Definite Article
	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	lu, û	la, â
Plural	li, î	li, î

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Volapük

Particle

li

1. Appended with a hyphen to a verb, it turns the entire clause it is in into a question.

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Walloon

Alternative forms

l', el

Article

li m, f

1. the (before a singular name)

Pronoun

li

1. him, her, it (direct object, before verb)