my

See also: Appendix:Variations of "my"

Translingual

Etymology

Abbreviation of English Myanmar, formerly Burma, where Burmese is spoken.

Symbol

my

  1. (international standards) ISO 639-1 language code for Burmese.

See also

  • Wiktionary’s coverage of Burmese terms

English

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • (stressed) enPR: IPA(key): /maɪ/
    • (Canada, Dialectal) IPA(key): /mʌɪ/, [məi̯]
    • Audio (US):(file)
  • (unstressed) IPA(key): /maɪ/, /mə/
    • (UK, Ottawa Valley) IPA(key): /mɪ/, /mi/
  • (Ireland, Liverpool, some speakers) IPA(key): /mi/
  • Homophones: muh, me (some dialects)
  • Rhymes: -aɪ

Etymology 1

From Middle English mi, my, apocopated form of min, myn, from Old English mīn (my, mine), from Proto-West Germanic *mīn, from Proto-Germanic *mīnaz (my, mine, pron.) (possessive of *ek (I)), from Proto-Indo-European *méynos (my; mine).

Cognate with West Frisian myn (my), Afrikaans my (my), Dutch mijn (my), German mein (my), Swedish min (my). More at me.

Determiner

my

  1. First-person singular possessive determiner. See Appendix:Possessive#English.
    1. Belonging to me.
      I can't find my book.
    2. Associated with me.
      My seat at the restaurant was uncomfortable.
      Don't you know my name?
      I recognised him because he had attended my school.
    3. Related to me.
      My parents won't let me go out tonight.
    4. In the possession of me.
      I have to take my books back to the library soon.
Derived terms
Translations
See also
English personal pronouns

Dialectal and obsolete or archaic forms are in italics.

personal pronoun possessive
pronoun
possessive
determiner
subjective objective reflexive
first
person
singular I
me (colloquial)
me myself
me
mysen
mine my
mine (before vowels, archaic)
me
plural we us ourselves
ourself
oursen
ours
ourn (obsolete outside dialects)
our
second
person
singular standard
(historically
formal)
you you yourself
yoursen
yours
yourn (obsolete outside dialects)
your
archaic
(historically
informal)
thou thee thyself
theeself
thysen
thine thy
thine (before vowels)
plural standard you
ye (archaic)
you yourselves yours
yourn (obsolete outside dialects)
your
colloquial you all
y'all
you guys
you all
y'all
you guys
y'allselves all yours
y'all's
you guys'
your guys'
all your
y'all's
your all's (nonstandard)
you guys'
your guys'
informal /
dialectal
(see list of dialectal forms at you and inflected forms in those entries)
third
person
singular masculine he him himself
hisself (archaic)
hissen
his
hisn (obsolete outside dialects)
his
feminine she her herself
hersen
hers
hern (obsolete outside dialects)
her
neuter it
hit
it
hit
itself
hitself
its
his (archaic)
its
his (archaic)
hits
genderless1 they them themself, themselves theirs their
nonspecific
(formal)
one one oneself one's
plural they them
hem, 'em
themselves
theirsen
theirs
theirn (obsolete outside dialects)
their

1 See Appendix:English third-person singular pronouns for attested neopronouns.

Etymology 2

An abbreviation of an oath such as my word or my Lord

Interjection

my

  1. Used to express surprise, shock or amazement.
    My, what big teeth you have!
Derived terms

Afrikaans

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /məi/

Etymology 1

From Dutch mij.

Pronoun

my (subject ek)

  1. me (object)
Alternative forms
  • mij (obsolete)
  • mijn (obsolete, rare)

See also

Afrikaans personal pronouns
subjective objective possessive
determiner
possessive
pronoun
singular 1st ek my myne
2nd jy jou joune
2nd, formal u u s’n
3rd masc hy hom sy syne
fem sy haar hare
neut dit sy syne
plural 1st ons ons s’n
2nd julle / jul1 julle s’n
3rd hulle / hul1 hulle s’n
1 The forms jul and hul are unstressed variants. They are used mostly in possessive function, but also otherwise, chiefly when the pronoun is repeated within the same sentence.

Etymology 2

From Dutch mijn.

Determiner

my

  1. my; of me
Alternative forms

See also

Afrikaans personal pronouns
subjective objective possessive
determiner
possessive
pronoun
singular 1st ek my myne
2nd jy jou joune
2nd, formal u u s’n
3rd masc hy hom sy syne
fem sy haar hare
neut dit sy syne
plural 1st ons ons s’n
2nd julle / jul1 julle s’n
3rd hulle / hul1 hulle s’n
1 The forms jul and hul are unstressed variants. They are used mostly in possessive function, but also otherwise, chiefly when the pronoun is repeated within the same sentence.

Cameroon Pidgin

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Determiner

my

  1. 1st person singular possessive determiner

See also

Cameroon Pidgin possessive determiners
singular plural
1st person my we
2nd person your wuna
3rd person yi dia

Chinese Pidgin English

Etymology

From English my.

Pronoun

my

  1. I (subject pronoun)
    Synonyms: I, me
    • 1836 January, “Jargon spoken at Canton: how it originated and has grown into use; mode in which the Chinese learn English; examples of the language in common use between foreigners and Chinese”, in The Chinese Repository, volume IV, number 9, page 433:
      My wanchee takee go away alla this cover, putee nother piece,’ replied I.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
  2. me (object pronoun)
    Synonym: me
  3. my (possessive pronoun)

Cornish

Alternative forms

  • (Revived Late Cornish) me

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *mi, from Proto-Celtic *mī. Cognate with Breton me, Irish , Manx mee, Scottish Gaelic mi, and Welsh mi.

Pronoun

my

  1. I, me
    My a welas.
    I saw.

See also

Cornish personal pronouns
number person independent
(subject)
suffixed infixed possessive
(dependent)
enclitic emphatic reduced
singular first my vy evy ma, a 'm owA
second ty jy, sy1 tejy ta, a 'thM dhaS
third2 m ev ev eev va, a 'n yS
f hi hi hyhi N/A 's hyA
plural first ni ni nyni 'gan, 'n agan, 'gan
second3 hwi hwi hwyhwi 'gas, 's agas, 'gas
third i i ynsi 's agaA, 'gaA

1 Uncommon.
2 hun and ins have been suggested as non-binary 3rd person singular pronouns, though these have not yet officially adopted.
3 Infrequently used as a formal alternative to the singular.

S Triggers soft mutation A Triggers aspirate mutation M Triggers mixed mutation

Mutation

Mutation of my
unmutated soft aspirate hard mixed mixed after 'th
my vy unchanged unchanged fy vy

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Cornish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Czech

Etymology

Inherited from Old Czech my, from Proto-Slavic *my, from Proto-Indo-European *wéy.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈmɪ]
  • Audio:(file)

Pronoun

my

  1. we

Declension

Czech personal pronouns
singular plural
1st person my
2nd person familiar ty vy
polite vy
3rd person m on oni1
f ona ony
n ono ona
reflexive sebe, se (clitic)

1 animate referents only, for inanimate ones ony is used.

Further reading

Danish

Noun

my n (singular definite myet, plural indefinite myer)

  1. The Greek letter μ (mu)

Declension

Declension of my
neuter
gender
singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative my myet myer myerne
genitive mys myets myers myernes

Noun

my c

  1. micron

Synonyms

References

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /mɛi̯/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛi̯
  • Homophone: mei

Pronoun

my

  1. obsolete spelling of mij

Usage notes

Egyptian

Etymology

From mj (like) +‎ -j (adverbializing suffix).

Pronunciation

Adverb

  1. likewise
  2. accordingly

References

  • James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 86.

Lower Sorbian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *my, from Proto-Indo-European *nos.

Pronoun

my pl

  1. we

Declension

Manx

Etymology 1

From Old Irish , from Proto-Celtic *mā, *ma (compare Cornish and Breton mar), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂.

Pronunciation

Conjunction

my

  1. if
Usage notes

Counterfactual conditional questions take dy.

Etymology 2

Inherited from Old Irish mo (my)

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /mə/

Determiner

my (triggers lenition)

References

  1. ^ Christopher Lewin (forthcoming) Sheean as Screeu, St John's: Culture Vannin, page 148

Middle English

Determiner

my (subjective pronoun I)

  1. alternative form of mi

Old Czech

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *my.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): (13th CE) /ˈmɨ/
  • IPA(key): (15th CE) /ˈmi/

Pronoun

my

  1. we (first person plural)

Declension

Descendants

  • Czech: my

References

Old Polish

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *my. First attested in the 14th century.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): (10th–15th CE) /mi/
  • IPA(key): (15th CE) /mi/

Pronoun

my

  1. we; first person plural
  2. we; I royal first person plural

Declension

Descendants

  • Polish: my
  • Silesian: my

References

  • B. Sieradzka-Baziur, Ewa Deptuchowa, Joanna Duska, Mariusz Frodyma, Beata Hejmo, Dorota Janeczko, Katarzyna Jasińska, Krystyna Kajtoch, Joanna Kozioł, Marian Kucała, Dorota Mika, Gabriela Niemiec, Urszula Poprawska, Elżbieta Supranowicz, Ludwika Szelachowska-Winiarzowa, Zofia Wanicowa, Piotr Szpor, Bartłomiej Borek, editors (2011–2015), “my, ny (?)”, in Słownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków: IJP PAN, →ISBN

Polish

Pronunciation

 
  • IPA(key): /ˈmɘ/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes:
  • Syllabification: my

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old Polish my.

Pronoun

my

  1. we; first person plural
  2. we; I royal first person plural
  3. we; I editorial first person plural
Declension

See also

  • Appendix:Polish pronouns

Etymology 2

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek μῦ (), from Phoenician 𐤌 (m‬ /⁠mēm⁠/).

Alternative forms

Noun

my n (indeclinable)

  1. mu (Greek letter Μ, μ)

Trivia

According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), my is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 88 times in scientific texts, 30 times in news, 138 times in essays, 200 times in fiction, and 419 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 875 times, making it the 49th most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.[1]

References

  1. ^ Ida Kurcz (1990) “my”, in Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej [Frequency dictionary of the Polish language] (in Polish), volume 1, Kraków, Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Języka Polskiego, page 259

Further reading

Portuguese

Pronoun

my

  1. obsolete form of mim

Scots

Alternative forms

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English mi, my, apocopated form of min, myn, from Old English mīn (my, mine), from Proto-West Germanic *mīn, from Proto-Germanic *mīnaz (my, mine, pron.) (possessive of *ek (I)), from Proto-Indo-European *méynos (my; mine).

Determiner

my

  1. my
    Synonym: mine

See also

References

Silesian

Etymology

Inherited from Old Polish my.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈmɪ/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes:
  • Syllabification: my

Pronoun

my

  1. first-person plural pronoun; we
    Coordinate term: (singular)

Declension

Declension of my
plural
nominative my
genitive nŏs, nas
dative nōm, nam
accusative nŏs, nas
instrumental nami
locative nŏs, nas

Further reading

  • my in silling.org

Slovak

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *my, from Proto-Indo-European *nos.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [mi]
  • Audio:(file)

Pronoun

my

  1. we

Declension

Slovak personal pronouns
substantive possessive
singular plural singular plural
1st person ja my môj náš
2nd person familiar ty vy tvoj váš
polite vy váš
3rd person m on oni* / ony jeho ich
f ona jej
n ono jeho
reflexive seba, sa (clitic) svoj

* masculine animate only, ony otherwise

Further reading

  • my”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025

Swedish

Noun

my n

  1. The Greek letter μ (mu)

Upper Sorbian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *my, from Proto-Indo-European *wéy.

Pronoun

my

  1. we

Declension

Upper Sorbian personal pronouns
First person pronouns
singular dual plural
nominative ja mój my
genitive mje
(after preposition) mnje
naju nas
dative mi
(after preposition) mni
namaj nam
accusative mje
(after preposition) mnje
naju nas
instrumental mnu namaj nami
locative mni nas
Second person pronouns
singular dual plural
nominative ty wój wy
genitive će
(after preposition) tebje
waju was
dative ći
(after preposition) tebi
wamaj wam
accusative će
(after preposition) tebje
waju was
instrumental tobu wamaj wami
locative tebi was
Third person pronouns
masculine singular feminine singular neuter singular dual virile dual nonvirile plural virile plural nonvirile
nominative wón wona wono wonaj wonej woni wone
genitive jeho
(after preposition) njeho
jeje
(after preposition) njeje
jeho
(after preposition) njeho
jeju jich
(after preposition) nich
dative jemu
(after preposition) njemu
jej
(after preposition) njej
jemu
(after preposition) njemu
jimaj
(after preposition) nimaj
jim
(after preposition) nim
accusative jón
(after preposition) njón
(animate) jeho
(animate after preposition) njeho
ju
(after preposition) nju
jo, je
(after preposition) njo, nje
jeju
(after preposition) njeju
jej
(after preposition) njej
jich
(after preposition) nich
je
(after preposition) nje
instrumental nim njej nim nimaj nimi
locative nich

Further reading

  • my” in Soblex

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian , from Proto-Germanic *miz.

Pronunciation

  • (Clay) IPA(key): /mɛi̯/
  • (Wood) IPA(key): /mi/

Pronoun

my

  1. object of ik