er

See also: Appendix:Variations of "er"

English

Etymology

Mimetic (sound of hesitation)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɜː/
• Used in non-rhotic dialects. Compare uh.

Interjection

er

1. Said when hesitating in speech.

Verb

er ‎(third-person singular simple present ers, present participle erring, simple past and past participle erred)

1. (informal) To utter the word "er" when hesitating in speech, found almost exclusively in the phrase um and er.

   He ummed and erred his way through the presentation.

See also

• uh

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: known · thee · hope · #317: er · children · English · sure

Anagrams

• 're, RE, Ré, r.e., re

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Afrikaans

Noun

er ‎(plural erre or ers, diminutive erretjie)

1. The name of the Latin-script letter R/r.

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Alemannic German

Pronoun

er m

1. (personal) he; it

Declension

Alemannic German personal pronouns

		nominative	accusative	dative	possessive
1st person singular		ich, i	mich, mi	mir, mer	miin
2nd person singular	familiar	du	dich	dir	diin
	polite	Si		Ine, Ene	Ire
3rd person singular	m	er	in	im	siin
	f	si		ire
	n	es		im	siin
1st person plural		mir	öis		öise
2nd person plural		ir	öi		öie
3rd person plural		si		ine, ene	ire

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Breton

Contraction

er

1. e (preposition "in") + ur (indefinite article "a(n)")
2. e (preposition "in") + ar (definite article "the")

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Cornish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [eːɹ]

Etymology 1

From Proto-Celtic *eriro- ‎(“eagle”) (compare Breton erer, Welsh eryr, Old Irish irar), from Proto-Indo-European *or ‎(“large bird”).

er (an eagle)

Noun

er m ‎(plural eryon or eres)

1. eagle

Etymology 2

Noun

er m ‎(plural erys)

1. heir

Etymology 3

Non-lemma forms.

Noun

er

1. Soft mutation of ger.

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Crimean Tatar

Adjective

er

1. every

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Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛr/, [æɐ̯]

Verb

er

1. present tense of være

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛr/, /ər/, /dər/

Etymology 1

Weak form of der, the unstressed form of daar ("there")

Adverb

er

1. there (unspecific to distance)
2. (with a preposition) him, her, it, them.

   Ik heb ermee gewerkt.

   I have worked with it/them.

   Je kunt er de bergen boven zien.

   You can see the mountains above it/them.

Usage notes

• Er is an unstressed variety of hier and daar, used when it is not needed to emphasize the specific location relative to the speaker.
• With a preposition, er is used instead of hem, haar, het, ze to create a pronominal adverb. See also Category:Dutch pronominal adverbs.

Etymology 2

From Old Dutch iro, genitive of the personal pronoun (3rd person plural).

Adverb

er

1. (partitive pronoun) of them, of those (often not translated in English)

   Mijn broer heeft drie kinderen en ik heb er twee.

   My brother has three children and I have two. (literally: two of those)

   Ik zie er geen meer.

   I don't see any more (of them).

Synonyms

• ervan

Derived terms

See Category:Dutch pronominal adverbs

Related terms

• daar
• hier
• waar

See also

• er zijn

Anagrams

• re

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Faroese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [er]

Verb

er

1. he, she, it is, 3rd person singular present form of vera (to be)
   • hann er skipari

     he is captain

   • hon er úr Føroyum

     she is from the Faroe Islands

   • tað er í ordan

     it's alright

Conjugation

   Conjugation of vera

v
infinitive	vera
present participle	verandi
past participle	-
supine	verið
number	singular			plural
person	first	second	third	all
indicative	eg	tú	hann/hon/tað	vit, tit, teir/tær/tey, tygum
present	eri	ert	er	eru
past	var	vart	var	vóru
imperative	–	tú	–	tit
present	—	ver!	—	verið!

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German

Etymology

From Old High German er, from Proto-Germanic *iz. Displaced the northern Old High German forms with h-, e.g. hē, her (see he).

Pronunciation

• (standard) IPA^(key): /eːɐ̯/, /ɛʁ/

• pronunciation 1

  (file)

• pronunciation 2

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eːɐ̯

• (colloquially in unstressed position) IPA^(key): /ɐ/

Pronoun

er

1. (personal) he.

   Wo ist Klaus? Wo ist er? — Where is Klaus? Where is he?

   (file)

2. (personal) it (when the grammatical gender of the object/article/thing/animal etc., being referred to, is masculine (der)).

   Dies ist mein Hund. Er heißt Waldi. — This is my dog. Its name is Waldi.

   (file)

   Dort steht ein Baum. Er ist über hundert Jahre alt. — There stands a tree. It is more than 100 years old.

   (file)

Inflection

German personal pronouns

		nominative	accusative	genitive	dative	possessive
1st person singular		ich	mich	meiner († mein)	mir	mein
2nd person singular (familiar)1		du	dich	deiner († dein)	dir	dein
3rd person singular	m	er	ihn	seiner († sein)	ihm	sein
	f	sie		ihrer	ihr
	n	es		seiner († sein)	ihm	sein
1st person plural		wir	uns	unser	uns	unser
2nd person plural (familiar)		ihr	euch	euer	euch	euer
3rd person plural		sie		ihrer	ihnen	ihr
polite address	naturally: 2. person sg. or pl.; grammatically: 3. person pl.	Sie		Ihrer	Ihnen	Ihr

¹Often capitalized, especially in letters

In contemporary German, the genitive forms of personal pronouns are restricted to formal style and are infrequent even then. They may be used

• for the genitive object still found in a handful of verbs: Ich erbarmte mich seiner. – "I had mercy on him". (Colloquially one would either use the dative case, or a prepositional object, or replace the verb with another.)
• after the preposition statt ("instead of, in place of"): Ich kam statt seiner in die Mannschaft. – I joined the team in his place. (This sounds antiquated, for which reason an seiner Statt or an seiner Stelle is preferable.)

External links

• er in Duden online

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Hunsrik

Alternative forms

• ëyer (Portuguese based orthography)

Etymology

From Old High German er, from Proto-Germanic *iz. Displaced the northern Old High German forms with h-, e.g. hē, her (see he).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛɐ/

Pronoun

er

1. he

Inflection

Hunsrik personal pronouns

	nominative		accusative		dative
	Proclitic	Enclitic	str.	unstr.	str.	unstr.
1st person singular	ich	-ich	mich	—	meer	mer
2nd person singular (informal)	du	-du, -de	dich	—	deer	der
3rd person singular (m)	er, där	-er	ihn	en	ihm	em
3rd person singular (f)	sie, die	-se	sie / ihns	se	eer	re
3rd person singular (n)	es, das	's	es	—	ihm	em
1st person plural	meer	mer	uns	—	—	—
2nd person plural	deer	der	eich	—	—	—
3rd person plural	sie, die	-se	sie	se	denne	–

External links

• Online Hunsrik Dictionary

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Icelandic

Verb

er

1. First-person singular indicative present form of vera.

   Ég er skemmtilegur.

   I am fun (masculine)

   Hver er ég?

   Who am I?

2. Third-person singular indicative present form of vera.

   Veit einhver hvar pabbi minn er?

   Does anybody know where my dad is?

   Hver er hann?

   Who is he?

Pronoun

er

1. (relative) which

   Maður er sá, er Jón heitir.

   There is a man who is named John.

   Konan, er hann var að tala við.

   The woman to whom he was talking.

   Þetta er borgin, er hann kom frá.

   This is the city from which he originated.

   Bærinn, er hún ætlar til.

   The town to which she's heading.

2. (archaic) in relations with a demonstrative pronoun (this, that, these) or personal pronoun (I, we, they), which represents the genitive of a relative pronoun.

   Það er sú bók, er menn þekkja eigi höfund hennar.

   There is a book whose author people don't know.

Conjunction

er

1. (with an "indexical"; ábendingarorð) of a place, of a time
   • Judges 2:19

     En er dómarinn andaðist, breyttu þeir að nýju verr en feður þeirra, með því að elta aðra guði til þess að þjóna þeim og falla fram fyrir þeim. Þeir létu eigi af gjörðum sínum né þrjóskubreytni sinni.

     But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

   Þar er ég kom.

   There whence I came.

   Þá er þegar myndin var búin.

   When the movie was finished.

Derived terms

• þá er þegar

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Latin

Etymology 1

From Proto-Italic *hēr, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰḗr ‎(“hedgehog”) (whence also Ancient Greek χήρ ‎(khḗr, “hedgehog”)), a root noun from *ǵʰer- ‎(“to be excited, be bristly”), whence also Ancient Greek χοῖρος ‎(khoîros, “young pig”) and Albanian derr ‎(“pig”) from *ǵʰór-yos.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /eːr/

Noun

ēr m ‎(genitive ēris); third declension

1. hedgehog

Usage notes

There is some uncertainty as to the exact forms of this word, especially regarding whether the lemma form of this was ēr or ēris, as the forms attested in literature could point to either option. Another form, irim (acc. sing.; found in Plautus, Capt. 184), seems to be a spelling variant.

Inflection

Third declension.

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	ēr	ērēs
genitive	ēris	ērum
dative	ērī	ēribus
accusative	ērem	ērēs
ablative	ēre	ēribus
vocative	ēr	ērēs

Related terms

• ērīcius ‎(“hedgehog; picket”)

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /er/, [ɛr]

Noun

er ‎(indeclinable)

1. The name of the letter R.

Usage notes

• Multiple Latin names for the letter R, r have been suggested. The most common is er or a syllabic r, although there is some evidence which also supports, as names for the letter, rē, rrr, ər, rə, and even (in the fourth- or fifth-century first Antinoë papyrus, which gives Greek transliterations of the Latin names of the Roman alphabet’s letters) ιρρε ‎(irrhe).

Coordinate terms

• (Latin’s names for the letters of its own alphabet): ā (A), bē (B), cē (C), dē (D), ē (E), ef (F), gē (G), hā (H), ī (I), kā (K), el (L), em (M), en (N), ō (O), pē (P), kū (Q), er (R), es (S), tē (T), ū (V), ix / īx / ex (X), ȳ/ī graeca/ypsilon (Y), zēta (Z)

References

• ēr in Charlton T. Lewis & Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• er in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ēr” in Félix Gaffiot (1934), Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• Arthur E. Gordon, The Letter Names of the Latin Alphabet (University of California Press, 1973; volume 9 of University of California Publications: Classical Studies), especially pages 30–31, 42–44, and 63

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Latvian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɛɾ]

(file)

Noun

er m (invariable)

1. The Latvian name of the Latin script letter R/r.

See also

• Latvian letter names:

  a (A), garais ā (Ā), bē (B), cē (C), čē (Č), dē (D), e (E), garais ē (Ē), ef (F), gā (G), ģē (Ģ), hā (H), i (I), garais ī (Ī), jē (J), kā (K), ķē (Ķ), el (L), eļ (Ļ), em (M), en (N), eņ (Ņ), o (O), pē (P), er (R), es (S), eš (Š), tē (T), u (U), garais ū (Ū), vē (V), zē (Z), žē (Ž)

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Low German

Pronoun

er

1. Alternative spelling of ehr

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Mambae

Noun

er

1. water

References

• Mambai Language Manual: Ainaro Dialect (2001)

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Mandarin

Romanization

er (Zhuyin ㄦ˙)

1. Pinyin transcription of 儳
2. Pinyin transcription of 兒
3. Nonstandard spelling of ér.
4. Nonstandard spelling of ěr.
5. Nonstandard spelling of èr.

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.

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Manx

Etymology

From Old Irish for.

Preposition

er

1. on
2. onto
3. during
4. for

Inflection

	Singular				Plural
Person	1st	2nd	3rd m.	3rd f.	1st	2nd	3rd
Normal	orrym	ort	er	urree	orrin	erriu	orroo
Emphatic	orryms	orts	ersyn	urreeish	orrinyn	erriuish	orroosyn

Pronoun

er

1. 3rd person singular of er

   on him/it

Derived terms

• ersyn (emphatic)

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Norwegian Bokmål

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /æːɾ/, /æɾ/

Verb

er

1. present tense of være (=to be)

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Norwegian Nynorsk

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛːr/ (example of pronunciation)

Verb

er

1. present tense of vera and vere

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Old Dutch

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *airiz; see also ær. Cognate with Old Saxon ēr.

Adverb

er ‎(ēr)

1. previously, in an earlier period, in a bygone time
2. earlier, before a certain time or period

Preposition

er ‎(ēr)

1. (temporal) before, earlier than

Conjunction

er ‎(ēr)

1. ere, afore

References

er in the INL database

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Old Frisian

Pronoun

er

1. he

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Old High German

Etymology 1

From Proto-Germanic *airiz, whence also Old English ær.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /eːr/

Adjective

ēr

1. early

Adverb

ēr

1. ere, before
2. formerly

Conjunction

ēr

1. before, until

Preposition

ēr (+ dative)

1. before

Etymology 2

From Proto-Germanic *aiz, akin to Old English ār, Old Norse eir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /eːr/

Noun

ēr n

1. ore
2. brass

Etymology 3

From Proto-Germanic *iz ‎(“he”), akin to Gothic 𐌹𐍃 ‎(is, “he”), Latin is ‎(“he”).

Alternative forms

• her

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /er/

Pronoun

er

1. he

Descendants

• Middle High German: er
  • German: er

References

• Joseph Wright, An Old High German Primer

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Old Norse

Etymology

From Old Norse es. The final -s was replaced by -r due to analogy to the plural forms of vera.

Pronoun

er

1. who, which, that

Conjunction

er

1. where
2. when

Verb

er

1. third-person singular indicative present tense of vera

Descendants

• Faroese: er
• Icelandic: er

References

• er in Charlton T. Lewis & Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• er in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press

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Old Saxon

Etymology 1

From Proto-Germanic *airiz, whence also Old English ær.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /eɪr/

Adjective

ēr

1. early

Declension

Positive forms of ēr

Strong declension
gender	masculine		neuter		feminine
case	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
nominative	ēr	ēre	ēr	ēre	ēr	ēru
accusative	ērana	ēre	ēr	ēre	ēra	ēru
genitive	ēres	ērarō	ēres	ērarō	ēraro	ērarō
dative	ērumu	ērum	ērumu	ērum	ēraro	ērum
Weak declension
gender	masculine		neuter		feminine
case	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
nominative	ēro	ēru	ēra	ēru	ēra	ēru
accusative	ērun	ērun	ēra	ērun	ērun	ērun
genitive	ērun	ēronō	ērun	ēronō	ērun	ēronō
dative	ērun	ērum	ērun	ērum	ērun	ērum

Adverb

ēr

1. before, ere
2. formerly

Conjunction

ēr

1. before

Preposition

ēr (+ dative)

1. before

Etymology 2

From Proto-Germanic *aiz, whence also Old English ār.

Noun

ēr ?

1. copper, bronze
2. ore

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Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɛr]

Noun

er

1. genitive plural of era

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Scots

Verb

er

1. (South Scots) Second-person simple present form of ti be
2. (South Scots) Plural simple present form of ti be
3. (South Scots) First-person singular simple present form of an obscure form of ti be

   A'm er so!

Usage notes

Used emphatically. See ir.

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Swedish

Etymology

Contraction of earlier eder, from Old Norse yðr, from Proto-Germanic *izwiz, dative/accusative of *jūz, from Proto-Indo-European *yū́.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /eːr/

Pronoun

er c ‎(neuter possessive only ert, plural era)

1. you (plural, object)
2. (possessive) your, yours; (speaking to more than one person, about one object)
3. (reflexive) of ni; compare yourselves

   Skulle ni vilja lära er jonglera?

   Would you guys like to learn how to juggle?

Usage notes

• See ni for a note on its use as a courteous 2nd person singular.
• Even though er (2) and its archaic form eder is the possessive pronoun, it does have a genitive form ers and eders, which is only used in expressions like ers majestät (your majesty) and ers höghet (your highness).

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 gender-neutral	hen*	hen*/henom*	hens*
3rd person common	den	den	dess
3rd person neuter	det	det	dess
3rd person indefinite	man/en	en	ens
3rd person reflexive	—	sig	sin	sitt	sina
plural
1st person	vi	oss	vår	vårt	våra
2nd person	ni	er eder (dated)	er	ert	era
3rd person	de	dem	deras
3rd person reflexive	—	sig	sin	sitt	sina

*Not universally accepted.

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Turkish

Etymology 1

From Old Turkic er, from Proto-Turkic *ẹ̄r ‎(“early”), which, according to the controversial Altaic hypothesis, is possibly derived from Proto-Altaic *ḗre ‎(“early”).

Adjective

er

1. early

References

• *ḗre in Starostin, Sergei; Dybo, Anna; Mudrak, Oleg (2003) Etymological dictionary of the Altaic languages (Handbuch der Orientalistik; VIII.8), Leiden, New York, Köln: E.J. Brill

Etymology 2

From Old Turkic er, from Proto-Turkic *ēr ‎(“man”), which, according to the controversial Altaic hypothesis, is possibly derived from Proto-Altaic *ā́ri (~ *ḗra) ‎(“man”). Related to noun-forming suffix -er.

Noun

er ‎(definite accusative eri, plural erler)

1. brave
2. man, male
3. noble
4. conscript, private (soldier of the lowest rank of the army)
5. tribesman
6. warrior

Declension

declension of er

	singular (tekil)	plural (çoğul)
nominative (yalın)	er	erler
definite accusative (belirtme)	eri	erleri
dative (yönelme)	ere	erlere
locative (bulunma)	erde	erlerde
ablative (çıkma)	erden	erlerden
genitive (tamlayan)	erin	erlerin

possessive forms of er

benim (my)	singular (tekil)	plural (çoğul)
nominative (yalın)	erim	erlerim
definite accusative (belirtme)	erimi	erlerimi
dative (yönelme)	erime	erlerime
locative (bulunma)	erimde	erlerimde
ablative (çıkma)	erimden	erlerimden
genitive (tamlayan)	erimin	erlerimin
senin (your)	singular (tekil)	plural (çoğul)
nominative (yalın)	erin	erlerin
definite accusative (belirtme)	erini	erlerini
dative (yönelme)	erine	erlerine
locative (bulunma)	erinde	erlerinde
ablative (çıkma)	erinden	erlerinden
genitive (tamlayan)	erinin	erlerinin
onun (her/his/its)	singular (tekil)	plural (çoğul)
nominative (yalın)	eri	erleri
definite accusative (belirtme)	erini	erlerini
dative (yönelme)	erine	erlerine
locative (bulunma)	erinde	erlerinde
ablative (çıkma)	erinden	erlerinden
genitive (tamlayan)	erinin	erlerinin
bizim (our)	singular (tekil)	plural (çoğul)
nominative (yalın)	erimiz	erlerimiz
definite accusative (belirtme)	erimizi	erlerimizi
dative (yönelme)	erimize	erlerimize
locative (bulunma)	erimizde	erlerimizde
ablative (çıkma)	erimizden	erlerimizden
genitive (tamlayan)	erimizin	erlerimizin
sizin (your)	singular (tekil)	plural (çoğul)
nominative (yalın)	eriniz	erleriniz
definite accusative (belirtme)	erinizi	erlerinizi
dative (yönelme)	erinize	erlerinize
locative (bulunma)	erinizde	erlerinizde
ablative (çıkma)	erinizden	erlerinizden
genitive (tamlayan)	erinizin	erlerinizin
onların (their)	singular (tekil)	plural (çoğul)
nominative (yalın)	erleri	erleri
definite accusative (belirtme)	erlerini	erlerini
dative (yönelme)	erlerine	erlerine
locative (bulunma)	erlerinde	erlerinde
ablative (çıkma)	erlerinden	erlerinden
genitive (tamlayan)	erlerinin	erlerinin

predicative forms of er

simple present	singular	plural
ben (I am)	erim	erlerim*
sen (you are)	ersin	erlersin*
o (he/she/it is)	er / erdir	erler* / erlerdir*
biz (we are)	eriz	erleriz
siz (you are)	ersiniz	erlersiniz
onlar (they are)	erler	erlerdir
simple past	singular	plural
ben (I was)	erdim	erlerdim*
sen (you were)	erdin	erlerdin*
o (he/she/it was)	erdi	erlerdi*
biz (we were)	erdik	erlerdik
siz (you were)	erdiniz	erlerdiniz
onlar (they were)	erdiler	erlerdi
indirect / unwitnessed past	singular	plural
ben (I was)	ermişim	erlermişim*
sen (you were)	ermişsin	erlermişsin*
o (he/she/it was)	ermiş	erlermiş*
biz (we were)	ermişiz	erlermişiz
siz (you were)	ermişsiniz	erlermişsiniz
onlar (they were)	ermişler	erlermiş
*Not used, but perhaps rarely - chiefly grammatical formations. Note: Plural forms are not used with adjectives.

Verb

er

1. reach (imperative)

References

• *ā́ri in Starostin, Sergei; Dybo, Anna; Mudrak, Oleg (2003) Etymological dictionary of the Altaic languages (Handbuch der Orientalistik; VIII.8), Leiden, New York, Köln: E.J. Brill

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West Frisian

Pronoun

er

1. he

Usage notes

• (he): Er is used before the object of the sentence or after the verb, if there is one. It is never the first word of a sentence.

1. • Doe't er in swolch naam -- "When he took a swallow", (literally "When he a swallow took")

Especially in narrative, er is used in the past tense. In other cases, hy is used.