elle

See also: -elle, Elle, ellē, êlle, and élle

Corsican

Etymology

From Latin illae, feminine plural form of ille (“that”), from Old Latin olle (“that”). Cognates include Italian elle (“they”) and French elles (“they”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛlːe/
• Hyphenation: el‧le

Pronoun

elle f

1. they (feminine)
2. them (disjunctive)

See also

Corsican personal pronouns

			nominative	dative	accusative	disjunctive
singular	1st person		eiu	mi		mè
	2nd person		tù	ti		tè
	3rd person	m	ellu	li	u, l'	ellu
		f	ella		a, l'	ella
plural	1st person		noi	ci		noi
	2nd person		voi	vi		voi
	3rd person	m	elli	li	i, l'	elli
		f	elle		e, l'	elle

References

• “elle” in INFCOR: Banca di dati di a lingua corsa
• https://web.archive.org/web/20210928184944/https://gbatti-alinguacorsa.pagesperso-orange.fr/

Danish

Noun

elle c

1. indefinite plural of el

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛl/
• (Quebec, informal) IPA^(key): /a/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Grenoble)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Hérault)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Saint-Étienne)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Massy)):

  (file)

• Homophones: aile, ailes, elles, hèle, hèles, hèlent, L
• Rhymes: -ɛl

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old French ele, from Latin illa, feminine of ille.

Pronoun

elle f (third-person singular, plural elles, accusative la, dative lui, emphatic elle, possessive determiner son)

1. she

   Je crois qu'elle est partie.

   I think she left.

2. it (feminine gender third-person singular subject pronoun)

   Voilà ma voiture. Elle a cinq ans.

   That's my car. It is five years old.

3. disjunctive form of elle; her; à elle = hers

   C’est à elle.

   It's hers.

Synonyms

• cézigue (argot)

Related terms

French personal pronouns

number	person	gender	nominative (subject)	accusative (direct complement)	dative (indirect complement)	locative (at)	genitive (of)	disjunctive (tonic)1	emphatic reflexive	relative	proximal	distal
singular	first	—	je, j’	me, m’		—	—	moi	moi-même	—
	second	—	tu	te, t’		—	—	toi	toi-même	—
	third	masculine	il2	le, l’	lui	y	en	lui	lui-même	celui	celui-ci	celui-là
		feminine	elle	la, l’				elle	elle-même	celle	celle-ci	celle-là
		indeterminate	on3, l’on (formal), ce4, c’, ça	—	—	—	—	—	—	ce	ceci	cela, ça
		reflexive	—	se, s’5		—	—	soi	soi-même	—
plural	first	—	nous	nous		—	—	nous	nous-mêmes	—
	second6	—	vous	vous		—	—	vous	vous-mêmes, vous-même6	—
	third	masculine	ils7	les	leur	y	en	eux7	eux-mêmes7	ceux	ceux-ci	ceux-là
		feminine	elles					elles	elles-mêmes	celles	celles-ci	celles-là

¹ The disjunctive (tonic) forms are also used after an explicit preposition (de/d’, à, pour, chez, dans, vers, sur, sous, ...), instead the accusative, dative, genitive, locative, or reflexive forms, where a preposition is implied.
² Il is also used as an impersonal nominative-only pronoun.
³ On can also function as a first person plural (although agreeing with third person singular verb forms).
⁴ The nominal indeterminate form ce (demonstrative) can also be used with the auxiliary verb être as a plural, instead of the proximal or distal gendered forms.
⁵ The reflexive third person singular forms (se or s’) for accusative or dative are also used as third person plural reflexive.
⁶ Vous is also used as the polite singular form, in which case the plural disjunctive tonic vous-mêmes becomes singular vous-même.
⁷ Ils, eux and eux-mêmes are also used when a group has a mixture of masculine and feminine members.

Etymology 2

Noun

elle m (plural elles)

1. The name of the Latin-script letter L/l.

Further reading

• “elle”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Etymology 1

From Latin el (the name of the letter L).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛl.le/
• Rhymes: -ɛlle
• Hyphenation: èl‧le

Noun

elle f (invariable)

1. The name of the Latin-script letter L/l.

See also

• (Latin-script letter names) lettera; a, bi, ci, di, e, effe, gi, acca, i, gei / i lunga, cappa, elle, emme, enne, o, pi, cu, erre, esse, ti, u, vu / vi, doppia vu, ics, ipsilon / i greca, zeta

Etymology 2

From Latin illae, nominative feminine plural of ille.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈel.le/
• Rhymes: -elle
• Hyphenation: él‧le

Pronoun

elle f pl

1. (dated, literary) plural of ella

   Synonyms: esse, loro

Derived terms

• elleno

See also

Italian personal pronouns (alternative)

Number	Person	Gender	Nominative	Reflexive	Accusative	Dative	Locative	Genitive	Disjunctive
Singular	third	m	esso1, egli, elli3	si, s'	lo, l'	gli	vi, v'	ne, n'	esso, sé
		f	essa, ella, Ella2		la, l'	le			essa, sé
Plural	third	m	essi, eglino3, ellino3, elli3	si, s'	li	loro	vi, v'	ne, n'	essi, sé
		f	esse, elle3, elleno3		le				esse, elle3, sé
1	Refers predominantly to non-humans.
2	Highly elevated variant of Lei.
3	Archaic.

Further reading

• elle in Dizionario Italiano Olivetti, Olivetti Media Communication
• elle in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)
• elle in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Latvian

Elle

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle Dutch elle or borrowed from Middle Low German helle (compare German Hölle, English hell). It is mentioned already in 16th-century literature and 17th-century dictionaries.

Noun

elle f (5th declension)

1. (theology) hell (in many religions, the place where some or all souls go after death)
2. (Christianity) hell (where the souls of sinners go after death to be punished by devils)

   nonākt ellē ― to end up in hell

   elles krāsns ― the furnace of hell

   elles mocības ― the torments of hell

3. (figuratively) infernal (very intense, tough, terrible, horrible)

   elles karstums ― infernal heat

   elles troksnis ― infernal noise

   elles darbs ― infernal, terrible, toughwork

   elles mokas ― infernal, horrible suffering

Declension

Declension of elle (5th)

	singular (vienskaitlis)	plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative	elle	elles
genitive	elles	eļļu
dative	ellei	ellēm
accusative	elli	elles
instrumental	elli	ellēm
locative	ellē	ellēs
vocative	elle	elles

Synonyms

• pekle

Middle English

Noun

elle

1. alternative form of elne (“ell”)

Middle French

Pronoun

elle f

1. she

Northern Sami

Pronunciation

• (Kautokeino) IPA^(key): /ˈeːlle/

Verb

ēlle

1. inflection of eallit:
   1. first-person dual present indicative
   2. third-person plural past indicative

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

elle (present tense ellar, past tense ella, past participle ella, passive infinitive ellast, present participle ellande, imperative elle/ell)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

References

• “elle” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Portuguese

Pronoun

elle m (feminine ella, plural elles, feminine plural ellas)

1. pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of ele

Spanish

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /ˈeʝe/ [ˈe.ʝe]

• IPA^(key): /ˈeʝe/ [ˈe.ʝe] (most of Spain and Latin America)
• IPA^(key): /ˈeʎe/ [ˈe.ʎe] (rural northern Spain, Andes Mountains, Paraguay, Philippines)
• IPA^(key): /ˈeʃe/ [ˈe.ʃe] (Buenos Aires and environs)
• IPA^(key): /ˈeʒe/ [ˈe.ʒe] (elsewhere in Argentina and Uruguay)

 

• Rhymes: -eʝe

• Rhymes: -eʝe (most of Spain and Latin America)
• Rhymes: -eʎe (rural northern Spain, Andes Mountains, Paraguay, Philippines)
• Rhymes: -eʃe (Buenos Aires and environs)
• Rhymes: -eʒe (elsewhere in Argentina and Uruguay)

• Syllabification: e‧lle

Noun

elle f (plural elles)

1. name of the digraph Ll/ll, previously considered a letter

   Synonym: doble ele

Pronoun

elle gender-neutral (plural elles)

1. (gender-neutral, neologism) they, them (singular); a gender-neutral singular third-person personal pronoun

   elle es muy alte

   they are very tall

   • 2020, Alex Iantaffi, Meg-John Barker, translated by Raquel García Rojas, Cómo entender tu género: una guía práctica para explorar quién eres, Dos Bigotes, →ISBN:

     Meg-John ha notado que rara vez corrige a alguien si esa persona utiliza los pronombres incorrectos para referirse a elle en la presentación al comienzo de una conferencia.

     Meg-John has noticed that they rarely correct someone if that person uses the wrong pronouns to refer to them in the presentation at the beginning of a lecture.

Usage notes

The adjectives, determiners and nouns that correspond to this gender-neutral pronoun end in -e.

See also

Spanish personal pronouns

				Nominative	Disjunctive	Dative	Accusative	Comitative
First-person	Singular			yo	mí	me		conmigo
	Plural	Masculine1		nosotros		nos		—
		Feminine		nosotras
Second-person	Singular	Tuteo		tú	ti	te		contigo
		Voseo		vos	—
		Formal2	Masculine1	usted		le, se3	lo
			Feminine				la
	Plural	Familiar4	Masculine1	vosotros		os
			Feminine	vosotras
		Formal/general2	Masculine1	ustedes		les, se3	los
			Feminine				las
Third-person	Singular	Masculine1		él		le, se3	lo
		Feminine		ella			la
		Neuter		ello5			lo
	Plural	Masculine1		ellos		les, se3	los
		Feminine		ellas			las
	Reflexive			—	sí	se		consigo

1. Like other masculine words, masculine pronouns can be used when the gender of the subject is unknown or when the subject is plural and of mixed gender.
2. Treated as if it were third person for purposes of conjugation and reflexivity.
3. If le or les precedes lo, la, los, or las in a clause, it is replaced with se (e.g. se lo dije instead of *le lo dije).
4. Used primarily in Spain.
5. Used only in rare circumstances.

Further reading

• “elle”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

Tagalog

Alternative forms

• elye

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Spanish elle, the Spanish name of the letter LL / ll.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈʔelje/ [ˈʔɛl.jɛ]
• Rhymes: -elje
• Syllabification: el‧le

Noun

elle (Baybayin spelling ᜁᜎ᜔ᜌᜒ)

1. (historical) the name of the Latin-script letter LL/ll, in the Abecedario

See also

• ele

Turkish

Etymology

el +‎ le (from el and ile)

Adverb

elle

1. by hand, manually

Verb

elle

1. second-person singular imperative of ellemek