hij

Afrikaans

Pronoun

hij

1. Obsolete spelling of hy.

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch hi, from Old Dutch hie, hē, from Proto-West Germanic *hiʀ, from Proto-Germanic *hiz. Doublet of ie.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɦɛi̯/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: hij
• Rhymes: -ɛi̯
• Homophone: hei

Pronoun

hij

1. Third-person singular, masculine, subjective: he.

   Hij loopt. ― He walks.

   De tafel is duur omdat hij van glas is gemaakt.

   The table is expensive because it is made of glass.

Usage notes

• When the word occurs other than as the first word of a clause and is not emphatically stressed, it is usually pronounced as /i/. This is a completely accepted pronunciation in standard speech.
• The word can also be used to refer to inanimate nouns of the feminine gender.

Inflection

Dutch personal pronouns

	subject		object		possessive			reflexive	genitive5
singular	full	unstr.	full	unstr.	full	unstr.	pred.
1st person	ik	'k1	mij	me	mijn	m'n1	mijne	me	mijner, mijns
2nd person	jij	je	jou	je	jouw	je	jouwe	je	jouwer, jouws
2nd person archaic or regiolectal	gij	ge	u	–	uw	–	uwe	u	uwer, uws
2nd person formal	u	–	u	–	uw	–	uwe	zich	uwer, uws
3rd person masculine	hij	ie1	hem	'm1	zijn	z'n1	zijne	zich	zijner, zijns
3rd person feminine	zij	ze	haar	h'r1, 'r1, d'r1	haar	h'r1, 'r1, d'r1	hare	zich	harer, haars
3rd person neuter	het	't1	het	't1	zijn	z'n1	zijne	zich	zijner, zijns
plural
1st person	wij	we	ons	–	ons, onze2	–	onze	ons	onzer, onzes
2nd person	jullie	je	jullie	je	jullie	je	–	je	–
2nd person archaic or regiolectal6	gij	ge	u	–	uw	–	uwe	u	uwer, uws
2nd person formal	u	–	u	–	uw	–	uwe	zich	uwer, uws
3rd person	zij	ze	hen3, hun4	ze	hun	–	hunne	zich	hunner, huns
1) Not as common in written language. 2) Inflected as an adjective. 3) In prescriptivist use, used only as direct object (accusative). 4) In prescriptivist use, used only as indirect object (dative).				5) Archaic. Nowadays used for formal, literary or poetic purposes, and in fixed expressions. 6) To differentiate from the singular gij, and in a similar vein to "you lot" or "you guys" in English, it is common to use gijlui ("you people") or gijlieden ("you people") or one of their contracted variants, and their corresponding objects, possessives and reflexives, in the plural.

Descendants

• Afrikaans: hy
• Javindo: hij, gij
• Jersey Dutch: hai, he
• Petjo: hij

Middle Dutch

Pronoun

hij

1. Alternative spelling of hi

Middle English

Etymology 1

Pronoun

hij

1. Alternative form of I (“I”)

Etymology 2

Pronoun

hij

1. Alternative form of he (“they”)