yours
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- your's (archaic)
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English youres, ȝoures, attested since the 1300s. Equivalent to your + -s (compare -'s); formed by analogy to his. Displaced yourn in standard speech.[1]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /jɔː(ɹ)z/
- Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)z
- (US) enPR: yôrz, IPA(key): /jɔɹz/, /jɝz/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)z
- Homophone: yaws (in some non-rhotic accents)
Pronoun[edit]
yours
- That which belongs to you (singular); the possessive second-person singular pronoun used without a following noun.
- If this edit is mine, the other must be yours. Their encyclopedia is good, but yours is even better. It’s all yours.
- That which belongs to you (plural); the possessive second-person plural pronoun used without a following noun.
- 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
- “Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better. […]”
- Written at the end of a letter, before the signature.
Usage notes[edit]
- In British English the adverb almost invariably follows the word yours at the end of a letter; in most dialects of American English it usually precedes it. As a general rule, sincerely is only employed if the name of the recipient is already known to the writer; a letter begun with Dear Sir or Dear Madam finishes with faithfully. Yours on its own and yours ever are less formal than the other forms.
Synonyms[edit]
- yourn (obsolete outside Britain and US dialects, especially Appalachia)
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
possessive pronoun, singular
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possessive pronoun, plural
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sincerely
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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See also[edit]
English personal pronouns
Dialectal and obsolete or archaic forms are in italics.
References[edit]
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “yours”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Middle English[edit]
Pronoun[edit]
yours
- Alternative form of youres
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms suffixed with -s
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɔː(ɹ)z
- Rhymes:English/ɔː(ɹ)z/1 syllable
- English terms with audio links
- English terms with homophones
- English lemmas
- English pronouns
- English possessive pronouns
- English second person pronouns
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English pronouns