ni

See also Appendix:Variations of "ni"

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

ni

1. (linguistics) Initialism of noun inanimate.

See also

• na
• nad
• nid

Anagrams

• in, IN

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Albanian

Etymology

From Proto-Albanian *nū, from Proto-Indo-European *nū̆ 'now'. Cognate to Lithuanian and Sanskrit nū́ (“now”). Often occurs in coordination with other particles, cf. tani, nani, nime ‘id’.

Adverb

ni

1. now

Alternative forms

• tani
• nani
• nime

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Basque

Pronoun

ni

1. I (first-person singular personal pronoun)

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Breton

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *snīs (compare Old Irish sní).

Pronoun

ni

1. we (first-person plural personal pronoun)

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Catalan

Etymology 1

Conjunction

ni

1. neither, nor

Etymology 2

Noun

ni f (plural nis)

1. Nu; the Greek letter Ν (lowercase ν).

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Danish

Etymology

From Old Norse níu, from Proto-Germanic *newun, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁néwn̥ (“nine”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /niː/, [niːˀ]

Numeral

ni

1. (cardinal) nine

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Esperanto

Etymology

From Italian noi or French nous, plus the i of personal pronouns.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ni/

Pronoun

ni (first-person plural, accusative nin, possessive nia)

1. we (first-person plural personal pronoun)

   Ni batis lin.

   We hit him.

2. ourselves

   Ni diris al ni.

   We said to ourselves.

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French

Etymology

Middle French ny, from Old French ne, from Latin nec.

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

• IPA: /ni/

Conjunction

ni

1. neither; nor

Usage notes

• Chiefly used at least twice in the same sentence, such as ni riche, ni pauvre (“neither rich nor poor”)

See also

• soit

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Gothic

Romanization

ni

1. See 𐌽𐌹

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Hungarian

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈni/

Interjection

ni

1. lo!, look!

   itt van ni - look! here it is!

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Ido

Pronoun

ni

1. (personal) we (first-person plural personal pronoun)

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Interlingua

Alternative forms

• nec

Etymology

From French and Spanish ni, from Latin nec (“and not”).

Adverb

ni

1. and not.

   Io non sape, ni vole saper (I don’t know, and I don’t want to know)

2. Neither, nor.

   Illo ni me place ni displace (It neither pleases me nor displeases me)

3. And, or (following a "with no" or "without").

   Nos debe resister sin aqua ni alimento (We must resist with no water or food)

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Italian

Adverb

ni

1. (informal) Neither yes nor no (a play on no and si)

Noun

Wikipedia ^it

ni m and f (invariable)

1. nu (Greek letter)

Anagrams

• in

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Japanese

Romanization

ni

1. See に
2. See ニ

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Kedah Malay

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ni/

Pronoun

ni

1. you sg

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Latin

Alternative forms

• nei (in old orthography)

Etymology

From Old Latin nei, from Proto-Indo-European *néy (“not”). Cognates include Gothic 𐌽𐌴𐌹 (nei), Lithuanian nei, Old Church Slavonic ни (ni) and Old Irish ní.

Adverb

nī

1. not, if...not, unless- an absolutely negative particle like ne so only in combinations

Derived terms

• quid nī? (why not?)
• nīmīrum (not wonderful)
• nisi

Conjunction

nī

1. not, that not, unless; like ne in imperative and international clauses

   Ni quid tibi hinc in spem referas.

   Vinum aliudve quid ni laudato.

   Numa constituit, ut pisces, qui squamosi non essent, ni pollucerent ... ni qui ad polluctum emerent.

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Luxembourgish

Adverb

ni

1. never

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Malay

Etymology

Shortened form of ini, from Proto-Malayic *(i)ni(ʔ), from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *(i-)ni, from Proto-Austronesian *(i-)ni.

Alternative forms

• ini
• اين
• ني

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ni/
• Rhymes: -ni, -i

Determiner

ni

1. this (the (thing) here)
2. this (known (thing) just mentioned)
3. this (known (thing) about to be mentioned)
4. this (known (thing) that the speaker does not think is known to the audience)

Pronoun

ni

1. this (The thing, item, etc. being indicated)

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Mandarin

Romanization

ni

1. Nonstandard spelling of nī.
2. Nonstandard spelling of ní.
3. Nonstandard spelling of nǐ.
4. Nonstandard spelling of nì.

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.

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Navajo

Pronoun

ni

1. second person singular pronoun you
   • Shí dóó ni ayóo ałk’is niidlį́.

     You and I are really good friends.

2. second person singular possessive pronoun yours
   • Díí naaltsoos éí ni.

     This book is yours.

Usage notes

The verb in Navajo incorporates information about person, and many sentences may thus not have explicit independent pronouns. For instance:

• Hooghandi naniná.
• Ni éí hooghandi naniná.

Both sentences are grammatically complete, and mean essentially the same thing: you are at home. The verb naniná is in the second-person form, so the pronoun can be safely omitted, as in the first sentence. This is similar to pronoun dropping in other languages where the verb specifies person, such as Spanish. Meanwhile, the explicit use of ni in the second sentence emphasizes that the speaker is talking about you. This can be thought of as roughly equivalent to the use of emphasis in English: while the first sentence comes across as you're at home, the second one is more like you, you're at home.

See also

Navajo personal pronouns

	singular	duoplural
1st person	shí	nihí
2nd person	ni	nihí
3rd person	bí
4th person (3a)	hó

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Norwegian

Etymology

From Old Norse níu (whence also Danish ni, Icelandic níu, Faroese níggju and Swedish nio) from Proto-Germanic *newun, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁néwn̥. Cognates with Gothic 𐌽𐌹𐌿𐌽; Old English niġon (English nine); Old Frisian nigun (West Frisian njoggen); Old High German niun (German neun).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ni/, X-SAMPA: /ni/

Cardinal number

ni

1. nine

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Old High German

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ni/

Particle

ni

1. not

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Portuguese

Etymology

From Ancient Greek νῦ (nu)

Noun

ni f (plural nis)

1. nu (the thirteenth letter of the Greek alphabet).

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Romanian

Pronoun

ni (dative form of noi; form of ne)

1. to us

Usage notes

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

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

See also

• li
• vi

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Samoan

Article

ni

1. some (plural indefinite article)

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Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *ni (“nor, not”), from Proto-Balto-Slavic *nej, from Proto-Indo-European *ney. Compare ni-, ne.

Particle

ni (Cyrillic spelling ни)

1. (emphasizes negation) even, either

   ni ja to ne znam — even I don't know that; I don't know that either

   nisam ht(j)eo ni da čujem za pr(ij)edlog — I didn't even want to listen about the proposal

Conjunction

ni (Cyrillic spelling ни)

1. neither, nor

   ona nije ni pametna ni(ti) marljiva — she is neither smart nor industrious

   ni traga ni glasa o .. — not a trace about ..

   ni kriv ni dužan — completely innocent

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Sicilian

Alternative forms

• nni

Pronunciation

• IPA: [ni]
• (unstressed) IPA: [nɪ]

Pronoun

ni

1. us, accusative of nuàutri
2. us, dative of nuàutri
3. us, reflexive of nuàutri

Inflection

nominative	nuàutri
prepositional	nuàutri
accusative	ni
dative	ni
reflexive	ni
possessive	nostru

See also

• nuàutri
• vi

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Spanish

Etymology 1

From Latin nec.

Conjunction

ni ... ni

1. Neither ... nor.

Antonyms

• o ... o

Etymology 2

Noun

ni f (plural níes)

1. nu; the Greek letter Ν, ν

Synonyms

• ny

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Swahili

Verb

ni

1. is

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Swedish

Etymology

Since 1661, through contraction of the Old Swedish verb suffix -(e)n and the older pronoun I, e.g. vissten I > visste ni ’did you know’. Compare Icelandic þér and þið which developed similarly. The Old Swedish ī, ir derive from Old Norse ír, variant of ér, from Proto-Germanic *jūz, from Proto-Indo-European *yū́.

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

/niː/

Pronoun

ni

1. you (plural nominative)
2. you (second-person singular nominative formal) (capitalized Ni, rare in modern use)

Usage notes

• Both ni and er are 2nd person plural, and are also used as the courteous or "formal" 2nd person singular (like the German Sie), capitalized (Ni, Er) or not. The use of titles an courteous forms is a political issue in Sweden. The courteous "ni" was introduced (following the pattern of e.g. French) around the year 1900, and largely abolished following a proposal in 1967 by Bror Rexed to simply use du instead. Friends of this democratic du-reform take offence when addressed with ni.

Declension

Swedish personal pronouns

	subject	object	possessive
singular	full	full	common	neuter	plural
1st person	jag	mig	min	mitt	mina
2nd person	du	dig	din	ditt	dina
3rd person masculine	han	honom	hans
3rd person feminine	hon	henne	hennes
3rd person common	den	den	dess
3rd person neuter	det	det	dess
3rd person indefinite	man	en	ens
3rd person reflexive	—	sig	sin	sitt	sina
plural
1st person	vi	oss	vår	vårt	våra
2nd person	ni	er	er	ert	era
3rd person	de	dem	deras
3rd person reflexive	—	sig	sin	sitt	sina

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Tagalog

Pronunciation

• (file)

• IPA: /niː/

Preposition

ni

1. Of; possessive particle. Used only with personal names.

   Bisikleta ni Juan

   Juan's bicycle

2. Objective marker for personal names—objective form of si; functional equivalent of ng.

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Uzbek

Particle

ni (Cyrillic ни)

1. accusative case marker. It is placed after the direct object of a transitive verb.
   • Men O'zbek tilini o'rganyapman.

     "I am studying Uzbek."

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Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ni/, X-SAMPA: ni

Etymology 1

From Proto-Celtic *snīs (compare Old Irish sní).

Pronoun

ni

1. us; we

Etymology 2

Adverb

ni

1. not

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Zulu

Pronoun

-ni

1. Combining stem of nina.

See also

2nd person plural concords^[edit]

Full noun prefix:	–
Basic noun prefix:	–
Subject concord:	ni-
Object concord:	-ni-
Possessive concord:	–
Adjective concord:	eniba-
Relative concord:	eni-
Pronoun:	nina, -ni, -inu1
1 With possessive concords.
See Appendix:Zulu concords for a full table.