m'

See also: Appendix:Variations of "m"

English

Etymology 1

Contraction

m'

1. (colloquial) Clitic form of I'm.
   • 1968, Barry England, part 1, in Figures in a Landscape, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 57:

     When MacConnachie let go, he put a hand to his head and muttered, “M’tired.”

   • 1982 [1979], Antonine Maillet, translated by Philip Stratford, chapter 1, in Pélagie, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company; Toronto, Ont.: Doubleday Canada, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 10:

     No one had ever been able to fathom the origin of this little girl, barely three, who by way of baggage had only a nickname, the Beaubassin she came from, and but one word in her mouth: “M’hungry!”

     [original: On n’avait jamais réussi a défricher les origines de cette petite fille d’à peine trois ans, qui n’apportait pour tout bagage qu’un surnom, le nom de sa terre de Beaubassin et un cri : « Zé faim! »]

   • 2005, John Aberdein, “The Speckled Slope”, in Amande’s Bed, Edinburgh: Thirsty Books, →ISBN, page 303:

     – Heave me up that haversack, Annie. / – What’s in? / – Ye’ll see. / – M’hungry.

   • 2009 October 13, Charlie Huston, My Dead Body: A Novel (Joe Pitt Casebooks; 5), New York, N.Y.: Del Rey, →ISBN, page 291:

     ―Baby. / She pulls her face from where it’s buried in my neck. / ―M’tired.

   • 2010, Daniel Homan, chapter 5, in The Queen of Hearts, [Rockville, Md.]: Prime Books, →ISBN, page 127:

     “M’tired of the thing,” the man yells. “Tired of the Manor.”

   • 2015, Matthew J. Metzger, chapter 11, in The Suicidal Peanut, Glen Allen, Va.: JMS Books, →ISBN, page 86:

     “M’tired,” Nick said, and yawned again.

Derived terms

• m'sorry

Related terms

• 'm (“am”)

Etymology 2

Determiner

m'

1. (archaic or colloquial) Clitic form of my.
   • 1985, Stuart Seaton, “Randolph”, in Inheritance, London: Collins, →ISBN, section 1, page 131:

     ‘Guess I feel like sleepin’ meself,’ he said. ‘Trouble is, I’m on next watch. Guess I’ll change thet with m’tired friend there. […]”

   • 2015, Brian Staveley, chapter 7, in The Providence of Fire (Chronicle of the Unhewn Thrown; 2), London: Tor, →ISBN, page 107:

     “That’s what he thinks,” she said finally, waving the cane at her brother. “Hopes the goddess might unscramble his egg. I told ’im she’s just as likely ta hoist up m’tired old tits, and I ain’t countin’ on that, either.”

2. (poetic, rare) Prevocalic form of my.

Derived terms

• m'lady
• m'learned friends
• m'lord

Catalan

Pronoun

m'

1. contraction of em

Usage notes

• m' is the elided (elida) form of the pronoun. It is used before verbs beginning with a vowel.

  M'avorreixo. ― I'm bored.

Declension

Catalan personal pronouns and clitics

			strong/subject	weak (direct object)		weak (indirect object)		possessive
				proclitic	enclitic	proclitic	enclitic
singular	1st person	standard	jo, mi3	em, m’	-me, ’m	em, m’	-me, ’m	meu
		majestic1	nós	ens	-nos, ’ns	ens	-nos, ’ns	nostre
	2nd person	standard	tu	et, t’	-te, ’t	et, t’	-te, ’t	teu
		formal1	vós	us	-vos, -us	us	-vos, -us	vostre
		very formal2	vostè	el, l’	-lo, ’l	li	-li	seu
	3rd person	m	ell	el, l’	-lo, ’l	li	-li	seu
		f	ella	la, l’4	-la	li	-li	seu
		n		ho	-ho	li	-li	seu
plural
	1st person		nosaltres	ens	-nos, ’ns	ens	-nos, ’ns	nostre
	2nd person	standard	vosaltres	us	-vos, -us	us	-vos, -us	vostre
		formal2	vostès	els	-los, ’ls	els	-los, ’ls	seu
	3rd person	m	ells	els	-los, ’ls	els	-los, ’ls	seu
		f	elles	les	-les	els	-los, ’ls	seu
3rd person reflexive			si	es, s’	-se, ’s	es, s’	-se, ’s	seu
adverbial	ablative/genitive			en, n’	-ne, ’n
	locative			hi	-hi

¹ Behaves grammatically as plural.   ² Behaves grammatically as third person.
³ Only as object of a preposition.   ⁴ Not before unstressed (h)i-, (h)u-.

Franco-Provençal

Pronoun

m' (ORB, broad)

1. apocopic form of mè

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m‿/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Pronoun

m'

1. prevocalic form of me

   Je m'appelle Marcel. — I'm called Marcel.

2. (in certain contexts) prevocalic form of moi

   Donne-m'en deux. — Give me two.

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
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
		feminine	elle	la, l’				elle	elle-même
		indeterminate	on3, l’on (formal), ce4, c’, 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
		feminine	elles					elles	elles-mêmes

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.

Further reading

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

Haitian Creole

Etymology

Contraction of mwen, from French moi.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m/

Pronoun

m'

1. alternative spelling of m; contraction of mwen

Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mˠ/ (before a word starting with a, o, u, fha, fho, or fhu)
• IPA^(key): /mʲ/ (before a word starting with e, i, fhe, or fhi)

Determiner

m' (triggers lenition of a following noun)

1. apocopic form of mo

See also

Irish personal pronouns

	person		conjunctive (emphatic)	disjunctive (emphatic)	possessive determiner
singular	first		mé (mise)		mo L m' before vowel sounds
	second		tú (tusa)1	thú (thusa)	do L d' before vowel sounds
	third	m	sé (seisean)	é (eisean)	a L
		f	sí (sise)	í (ise)	a H
		n	—	ea	—
plural	first		muid, sinn (muidne, muide), (sinne)		ár E
	second		sibh (sibhse)1		bhur E
	third		siad (siadsan)	iad (iadsan)	a E

^L Triggers lenition   ^E Triggers eclipsis   ^H Triggers h-prothesis

¹ Also used as the vocative

The reflexive is formed by adding féin to the relevant pronoun.
For instance, "myself" = mé féin, "yourselves" = sibh féin.

Italian

Pronoun

m' (apocopated)

1. apocopic form of mi

Usage notes

Commonly elides before a vowel, especially i and e.

See also

Italian personal pronouns

		singular						plural
		first	second	second formal / polite5	third			first	second	second formal / polite5	third
				m or f	m	f				m or f	m	f
nominative		io	tu	Lei, Ella8	lui, egli8, ello8, elli3, 8, esso8	lei, ella8, essa8		noi	voi, Voi7	Loro	loro
elli3, 8, ellino4, 8, eglino4, 8, essi8	elle3, 8, elleno4, 8, esse8
atonic (clitic)11	accusative / dative-reflexive	mi, m', -mi, me9	ti, t', -ti, te9	―	si6, s', -si, se9			ci, c', -ci, ce9	vi, Vi7, v', V'7, -vi, -Vi7, ve9	―	si, s', -si, se9
	accusative			La, -La, L'	lo, l', -lo, il4	la, l', -la				Le, -Le	li, -li	le, -le
	dative			Le, -Le	glie9					Loro10	loro10, gli2, -gli2, glie9
					gli, -gli	le, -le, gli2, -gli2
	locative	―			ci, c', vi1, v'1			―			ci, c', vi1, v'1
	partitive	ne, n'		ne, n'
tonic12	prepositional-reflexive	―			sé			―			sé
	oblique	me	te	Lei	lui, esso8	lei, essa8		noi	voi, Voi7	Loro	loro,
											essi8	elle8, esse8
1	Formal.
2	Informal.
3	Archaic.
4	Obsolete.
5	Grammatically third person forms used semantically in the second person as a formal or polite way of addressing someone (with the first letter frequently capitalised as a sign of respect, and to distinguish them from third person subjects). Unlike the singular forms, the plural forms are mostly antiquated terms of formal address in the modern language, and second person plural pronouns are almost always used instead.
6	Also used as indefinite pronoun meaning “one”, and to form the passive.
7	Formal (capitalisation optional); in many regions, can refer to just one person (compare with French vous).
8	Traditional grammars still indicate the forms egli (animate), ello / ella (animate), esso / essa and their plurals as the nominative forms of the third person pronouns; outside of very formal or archaizing contexts, all such forms have been replaced by the obliques lui, lei, loro.
9	Forms used when followed by a third-person direct object proclitic (lo, la, li, le, or ne).
10	Used after verbs.
11	Unstressed forms, stand alone forms are found proclitically (except dative loro / Loro), others enclitically (-mi, -ti, etc.).
12	Disjunctive, emphatic oblique forms used as direct objects placed after verbs, in exclamations, along prepositions (prepositional) and some adverbs (come, quanto, etc.); also used with a to create alternative emphatic dative forms.

Louisiana Creole

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m‿/

Pronoun

m'

1. prevocalic form of mo (“I”)

   M'ap bwa labyèr. ― I'm drinking beer.

Middle French

Pronoun

m' (apocopate)

1. (before vowel sound) apocopic form of me

Usage notes

• The apostrophe may be omitted in older manuscripts

  il menvoia ― he sent me

Old French

Pronoun

m'

1. prevocalic form of me (“me, myself”)
2. prevocalic form of mon, ma (“my, mine”)
   • 13th century, Herman de Valenciennes, Assomption Nostre Dame, page 7, column 2, lines 16–17:

     ceo sacez m'amie tuit cil que te requerunt
     a tun commandement merci auvrunt

     this you know, my friend, that all those who are looking for you
     upon your command will have mercy

Old Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m/ (before a back vowel sound)
• IPA^(key): /mʲ/ (before a front vowel sound)

Determiner

m' (triggers lenition of a following noun)

1. apocopic form of mo

Sassarese

Pronoun

m'

1. apocopic form of mi, used before a vowel

Scottish Gaelic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m/

Determiner

m'

1. apocopic form of mo

See also

Scottish Gaelic possessive determiners

		singular		plural
		+ C	+ V	+ C	+ V
first person		moL	m'	ar	arN
second person		doL	d'	ur	urN
third person	m	aL	—	an, am1	an
	f	a	aH

^L Triggers lenition; ^H Triggers H-prothesis; ^N Triggers eclipsis
¹ Used before b-, f-, m- or p-

References

• Armstrong, R. A. (1825), “m'”, in A Gaelic Dictionary, in Two Parts‎^[1], London, →OCLC