هو

See also: Appendix:Variations of "hu"

Arabic

Pronunciation

• (Standard Arabic) IPA^(key): /hu.wa/
  • (pausa) IPA^(key): /hu.wah/ or IPA^(key): /huː/
  • (with a preceding وَ (wa) or فَ (fa)) IPA^(key): /wa.hu.wa/, IPA^(key): /wah.wa/, IPA^(key): /fa.hu.wa/, IPA^(key): /fah.wa/

• Audio:

  (file)

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Proto-Semitic *šuʔa

Arabic هو

Inherited from Proto-Semitic *šuʔa.

Pronoun

هُوَ • (huwa) m (genitive ـهُ (-hu) or ـهِ (-hi), accusative ـهُ (-hu) or ـهِ (-hi) or إِيَّاهُ (ʔiyyāhu))

1. he (subject pronoun)
   1. (Sufism) Allah, God
2. it (subject pronoun, referring to inanimate nouns of masculine gender)
3. having a copulative effect, usually inserted when both the مُبْتَدَأ (mubtadaʔ) and خَبَر (ḵabar) are definite.

   اَلْوَقْت هُوَ اَلْمَال.

   al-waqt huwa l-māl.

   Time is money.

4. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
   • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 2:96:

     وَمَا هُوَ بِمُزَحْزِحِهِ مِنَ الْعَذَابِ أَن يُعَمَّرَ

     wamā huwa bimuzaḥziḥihi mina l-ʕaḏābi ʔan yuʕammara

     But even if they were to live that long, it would not save them from the punishment.

Further reading

• Huwa on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

See also

Arabic personal pronouns

Isolated nominative1 pronouns
		singular	dual	plural
1st person		أَنَا (ʔanā)	نَحْنُ (naḥnu)
2nd person	m	أَنْتَ (ʔanta)	أَنْتُمَا (ʔantumā)	أَنْتُمْ (ʔantum), أَنْتُمُ (ʔantumu)2
	f	أَنْتِ (ʔanti)		أَنْتُنَّ (ʔantunna)
3rd person	m	هُوَ (huwa)	هُمَا (humā)	هُمْ (hum), هُمُ (humu)2
	f	هِيَ (hiya)		هُنَّ (hunna)
Isolated accusative pronouns
		singular	dual	plural
1st person		إِيَّايَ (ʔiyyāya)	إِيَّانَا (ʔiyyānā)
2nd person	m	إِيَّاكَ (ʔiyyāka)	إِيَّاكُمَا (ʔiyyākumā)	إِيَّاكُم (ʔiyyākum), إِيَّاكُمُ (ʔiyyākumu)2
	f	إِيَّاكِ (ʔiyyāki)		إِيَّاكُنَّ (ʔiyyākunna)
3rd person	m	إِيَّاهُ (ʔiyyāhu)	إِيَّاهُمَا (ʔiyyāhumā)	إِيَّاهُمْ (ʔiyyāhum), إِيَّاهُمُ (ʔiyyāhumu)2
	f	إِيَّاهَا (ʔiyyāhā)		إِيَّاهُنَّ (ʔiyyāhunna)
Enclitic accusative and genitive pronouns
		singular	dual	plural
1st person		ـنِي (-nī), ـنِيَ (-niya), ـي (-y), ـيَ (-ya)3	ـنَا (-nā)
2nd person	m	ـكَ (-ka)	ـكُمَا (-kumā)	ـكُم (-kum), ـكُمُ (-kumu)2
	f	ـكِ (-ki)		ـكُنَّ (-kunna)
3rd person	m	ـهُ (-hu), ـهِ (-hi)4	ـهُمَا (-humā), ـهِمَا (-himā)4	ـهُم (-hum), ـهُمُ (-humu)2, ـهِم (-him)4, ـهِمِ (-himi)2,4
	f	ـهَا (-hā)		ـهُنَّ (-hunna), ـهِنَّ (-hinna)4

1. Also used to emphasize attached pronouns and as a copula.
2. ـمْ (-m) becomes ـمُ (-mu) (or ـمِ (-mi) with vowel harmony) before the so-called elidable hamza (such as the definite article الـ (al--)).
3. Specifically, ـنِي (-nī, “me”) is attached to verbs, but ـِي (-ī) or ـيَ (-ya, “my”) is attached to nouns. In the latter case, ـيَ (-ya) is attached to nouns whose construct state ends in a long vowel or diphthong (e.g. in the sound masculine plural and the dual), while ـِي (-ī) is attached to nouns whose construct state ends in a short vowel, in which case that vowel is elided (e.g. in the sound feminine plural, as well as the singular and broken plural of most nouns). Furthermore, -ū of the masculine sound plural is assimilated to -ī before ـيَ (-ya) (presumably, -aw of masculine defective -an plurals is similarly assimilated to -ay). Prepositions use ـِي (-ī) or ـيَ (-ya), even though in this case it has the meaning of “me” rather than “my”. The sisters of inna can use either form (e.g. إِنَّنِي (ʔinnanī) or إِنِّي (ʔinnī)).
4. Vowel harmony: ـهِـ (-hi-) occurs after -i, -ī, or -ay, and ـهُـ (-hu-) elsewhere (after -a, -ā, -u, -ū, -aw).

Etymology 2

From هُوَ (huwa, “it”), calqued from German Es, possibly through Latin id.

Noun

هُوَ • (huwa) m

1. (psychology) id

Declension

Declension of noun هُوَ (huwa)

singular	singular invariable
	indefinite	definite	construct
informal	هُوَ huwa	الْهُوَ al-huwa	هُوَ huwa
nominative	هُوَ huwa	الْهُوَ al-huwa	هُوَ huwa
accusative	هُوَ huwa	الْهُوَ al-huwa	هُوَ huwa
genitive	هُوَ huwa	الْهُوَ al-huwa	هُوَ huwa

References

• Wehr, Hans (1979), “هو”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN

Bakhtiari

Etymology

From Old Persian 𐏃𐎠𐎢𐎺 (hauv), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *só (“name”). Cognate with Avestan 𐬵𐬀 (ha).

Noun

هو (ho)

1. he, that

   هو کجه بی؟ ― ho kojeh bi? ― Where was he?

Chadian Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic هُوَ (huwa).

Pronoun

هو • (hū) m

1. he (subject pronoun)

Egyptian Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic هُوَ (huwa).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhowwæ/

Pronoun

هو • (húwwa) m

1. he (subject pronoun)

See also

Egyptian Arabic personal pronouns

		singular	plural
1st person		أنا (ʔana)	إحنا (ʔiḥna)
2nd person	m	إنت (ʔinta)	إنتوا (ʔintu)
	f	إنتي (ʔinti)
3rd person	m	هو (huwwa)	هم (humma, hum)
	f	هي (hiyya)

Hijazi Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic هُوَ (huwa).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /huw.wa/

Pronoun

هو • (huwwa) m, enclitic form ـه (-u).

1. he (subject pronoun)
2. it (subject pronoun, referring to animals and inanimate nouns of masculine gender)

See also

Hijazi Arabic personal pronouns

		Singular	Plural
1st person		أَنَا (ʔana)	إِحْنَا (ʔiḥna) / نِحْنَ (niḥna)
2nd person	m	إِنْتَ (ʔinta)	إِنْتُو (ʔintu)
	f	إِنْتِ (ʔinti) / إِنْتِي (ʔinti)
3rd person	m	هُوَّ (huwwa)	هُمَّ (humma)
	f	هِيَّ (hiyya)

Khalaj

Noun

هَو (həv) (definite accusative هَوی, plural هَولَر)

1. Arabic spelling of həv (“house”)

Declension

Declension of هو

	singular	plural
nominative	هو	هولَر
genitive	هوۆݧ	هولَریݧ
dative	هوکه	هولَرکه
definite accusative	هوۆ	هولَری
locative	هوچه	هولَرچه
ablative	هوده	هولَرده
instrumental	هوله	هولَرله
equative	هوواره	هولَرواره

Moroccan Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic هُوَ (huwa).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /huw.wa/

Pronoun

هو • (huwwa) m

1. he (subject pronoun)

See also

Moroccan Arabic personal pronouns

1st person		آنا (ʔāna), أنا (ʔana)	حنا (ḥnā)
2nd person	m	انت (ntā), انتينا (ntīna), انتين (ntīn)	انتوما (ntūma), انتوم (ntūm)
	f	انت (ntī), انتينا (ntīna), انتين (ntīn)
3rd person	m	هو (huwwa)	هوما (hūma), هوم (hūm)
	f	هي (hiyya)

North Levantine Arabic

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Semitic *šuʔa

Arabic هُوَ (huwa)

▲

Arabic هُوَه (huwah)influ.

North Levantine Arabic هو

Conventionally derived from Arabic هُوَ (huwa, “he”). See below for more detail.

The gemination of the w was likely a regular development of semivowels, seen also in هِيِّي (hiyye, “she”) from Arabic هِيَ (hiya); other examples include مِيِّة (miyye, “hundred”) from Arabic مِئَة (miʔa) (via an intermediate ungeminated *مِيَة (*miya, “hundred”)), رِيِّة (riyye, “lung”) from Arabic رِئَة (riʔa), and possibly لِيِّة (liyye, “tail fat of a sheep”) from Arabic أَلْيَة (ʔalya).

This innovated gemination is difficult to determine the extent of due to its occasionally affecting non-semivowels as well — see قِجِّة (ʔijje, “piggy bank”), هِنِّي (hinne, “they”), and regionally in Mount Lebanon جِهَّة (jihha, “side”), لِغَّة (liḡḡa, “language”) — but it seems to have affected semivowels most regularly, with the Mount Lebanon forms being an unrelated later shift that affected gutturals and the gemination in هِنِّي (hinne, “they”) also being a later analogical reshaping to match it to the shape of the other third-person pronouns.

Alternative forms and the final vowel

The regular North Levantine Arabic reflex of Arabic هُوَ (huwa) would have been هُو (hū). This form does exist, but the retention of a final -e in هُوِّي (huwwe, “he”) remains unaccounted for.

Subject pronouns are not totally unfamiliar with anomalous retentions of final short vowels: إنْتَا (ʔinta, “you”, masculine) and إِنْتِي (ʔinti, “you”, feminine) descend from أَنْتَ (ʔanta) and أَنْتِ (ʔanti) respectively. However, if we take إنْتَا (ʔinta, “you”) < أَنْتَ (ʔanta) as a point of comparison for هُوِّي (huwwe, “he”) < هُوَ (huwa), we would expect a North Levantine Arabic *هُوَّا (huwwa, “he”) to occur at least as frequently as إنْتَا (ʔinta, “you”) does. But forms like *هُوَّا (huwwa) generally don't obtain until near Egypt, and it'd be a stretch to explain this as an instance of *-ā > *-ē raising like بكي (bike, biki, “crying”) because the form هُوِّي (huwwe) occurs even in e.g. Jordanian dialects with بُكَا (buka).

Pronoun

هو • (huwwe) m

1. he (subject pronoun)

   Enclitic form: ـه (-o/-h)

Derived terms

• شُو (šū, “what”)

See also

North Levantine Arabic personal pronouns

		Singular	Plural
1st person		أنا (ʔana)	نحنا (niḥna)
2nd person	m	انت (ʔinta, ʔinte)	انتو (ʔintu)
	f	انتي (ʔinti)
3rd person	m	هو (huwwe)	هن (hinne) / هنن (hinnen)
	f	هي (hiyye)

Pashto

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ho/
• (Northeastern) IPA^(key): /ɑo/

Adverb

هو • (ho)

1. yes

Persian

Etymology

Probably dialectal variant of هبر (habar, “pus”), from Proto-Indo-European *sab-, *sap-; cognate with English sap. Compare Central Kurdish ھەو (hew, “pus, inflammation”).

Noun

هو • (how)

1. pus

Descendants

• Middle Armenian: հու (hu) (possibly)

References

• Steingass, Francis Joseph (1892), “هو”, in A Comprehensive Persian–English dictionary, London: Routledge & K. Paul
• Ačaṙean, Hračʻeay (1971–1979), “հու”, in Hayerēn armatakan baṙaran [Armenian Etymological Dictionary] (in Armenian), 2nd edition, a reprint of the original 1926–1935 seven-volume edition, Yerevan: University Press
• Martirosyan, Hrach (2010), Etymological Dictionary of the Armenian Inherited Lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 8), Leiden and Boston: Brill, page 421

Sindhi

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [hu]

Pronoun

هُو • (hū) (Devanagari हू)

1. he, that; masculine third-person singular distal personal pronoun
2. they, those; third-person plural distal personal pronoun

Related terms

Sindhi personal pronouns

person					direct	oblique	genitive	dative
1st person	Singular				آئُون (āū̃), مان (mā̃) • आउं, मां	مُون (mū̃) • मूं	مُنهِنجو (mũhĩjo) • मुंहिंजो	مُون کي (mū̃ khe) • मूं खे
	Plural				اَسِين (asī̃) • असीं	اَسان (asā̃) • असां	اَسان جو (asā̃ jo) • असां जो	اَسان کي (asā̃ khe) • असां खे
2nd person	Singular				تُون (tū̃) • तूं	تو (to) • तो	تُنهِنجو (tũhĩjo) • तुंहिंजो	تو کي (to khe) • तो खे
	Plural				تَوهِين (tavhī̃), اَوهِين (avhī̃) • तव्हीं, अव्हीं	تَوهان (tavhā̃), اَوهان (avhā̃) • तव्हां, अव्हां	تَوهان جو (tavhā̃ jo) • तव्हां जो	تَوهان کي (tavhā̃ khe) • तव्हां खे
3rd person	Nonspecific	Proximal	Singular	Masculine	هِي (hī) • ही	هِنَ (hina) • हिन	هِنَ جو (hina jo) • हिन जो	هِنَ کي (hina khe) • हिन खे
				Feminine	هِيءَ (hīa) • हीअ
			Plural		هِي (hī) • ही	هِنَنِ (hinani) • हिननि	هِنَنِ جو (hinani jo) • हिननि जो	هِنَنِ کي (hinani khe) • हिननि खे
		Distal	Singular	Masculine	هُو (hū) • हू	هُنَ (huna) • हुन	هُنَ جو (huna jo) • हुन जो	هُنَ کي (huna khe) • हुन खे
				Feminine	هُوءَ (hūa) • हूअ
			Plural		هُو (hū) • हू	هُنَنِ (hunani) • हुननि	هُنَنِ جو (hunani jo) • हुननि जो	هُنَنِ کي (hunani khe) • हुननि खे
	Specific	Proximal	Singular	Masculine	اِهو (iho) • इहो	اِنْهين (inhẽ) • इन्हें	اِنْهين جو (inhẽ jo) • इन्हें जो	اِنْهين کي (inhẽ khe) • इन्हें खे
				Feminine	اِها (ihā) • इहा
			Plural		اِهي (ihe) • इहे	اِنْهَنِ (inhani) • इन्हनि	اِنْهَنِ جو (inhani jo) • इन्हनि जो	اِنْهَنِ کي (inhani khe) • इन्हनि खे
		Distal	Singular	Masculine	اُهو (uho) • उहो	اُنْهين (unhẽ) • उन्हें	اُنْهين جو (unhẽ jo) • उन्हें जो	اُنْهين کي (unhẽ khe) • उन्हें खे
				Feminine	اُها (uhā) • उहा
			Plural		اُهي (uhe) • उहे	اُنْهَنِ (unhani) • उन्हनि	اُنْهَنِ جو (unhani jo) • उन्हनि जो	اُنْهَنِ کي (unhani khe) • उन्हनि खे

References

• Khānu, Balocu (1960–1988), “هُو”, in Jāmiʻ Sindhī lughāta (in Sindhi), Hyderabad, Sindh: Sindhī Adabī Borḍ
• Trumpp, Ernest (1872), Grammar Of The Sindhi Language‎^[2], London, United Kingdom: Order of Her Majesty's Government for India, pages 198-199

Soqotri

Alternative forms

• هوهن (hóhon)

Etymology

Akin to Mehri [script needed] (hû), Shehri [script needed] (he).

Pronoun

هو (ho)

1. I. first-person singular pronoun
   • 2014, “The Story of the Makon”, in Vitaly Naumkin, compiler, Corpus of Soqotri Oral Literature, volume 1, page 66, line 12:

     عٞامٞر: دمنؤو أه؟ عامُر: هو رجدهي

     ʕémər di-mənóʔo ɛ ʕö́mor ho rígdihi

     They asked: "Where are you from?" He said: "I am from Rigdiho."

References

• Naumkin, Vitaly; et al. (2014), “Glossary”, in Corpus of Soqotri Oral Literature, volume 1, Leiden: Brill, →DOI, →ISBN, page 549
• Naumkin, Vitaly; et al. (2018), “Glossary”, in Corpus of Soqotri Oral Literature, volume 2, Leiden: Brill, →DOI, →ISBN, page 470
• Leslau, Wolf (1938), “ho”, in Lexique Soqotri (sudarabique moderne) avec comparaisons et explications étymologiques (in French), Wiesbaden: Libraire C. Klincksieck, page 138

South Levantine Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic هُوَ (huwa).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /huw.we/, [ˈhʊw.we]

• Audio (Jerusalem):

  (file)

Pronoun

هو • (huwwe) m (enclitic form ـه (-o, -h))

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

See also

South Levantine Arabic personal pronouns

		Singular	Plural
1st person		أنا (ʔana)	احنا (ʔiḥna)
2nd person	m	انت (ʔinta)	انتو (ʔintu)
	f	انتي (ʔinti)
3rd person	m	هو (huwwe)	هم (homme)
	f	هي (hiyye)

Tunisian Arabic

Pronoun

هُوَّ (huwwa) m (f هي, pl هما)

1. he (subject pronoun)