he

English Online Dictionary. What means he‎? What does he mean?

Translingual

Symbol

he

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

English

Alternative forms

• hee, hée (obsolete)

Etymology 1

From Middle English he, from Old English hē, from Proto-West Germanic *hiʀ, from Proto-Germanic *hiz (“this, this one”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱís (“this”).

Cognate with Scots he (“he”), North Frisian he, hi (“he”), Saterland Frisian hie (“he”), West Frisian hy (“he”), Dutch hij, ie (“he”), German Low German he (“he”), Middle High German her (“he”) Central Franconian hä (“he”), Gothic *𐌷𐌹𐍃 (*his, “this”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, Canada) enPR: hē, IPA^(key): /ˈhiː/, (unstressed form) IPA^(key): /hi/, /i/
• (US) enPR: hē, IPA^(key): /hi/, [hi], [çi], (unstressed form) IPA^(key): /i/
• Rhymes: -iː

Pronoun

he (third-person singular, masculine, nominative case, oblique him, reflexive himself, possessive his)

1. (personal) A male person or animal already known or implied.
   • July 18 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Dark Knight Rises[2]

     Though Bane’s sing-song voice gives his pronouncements a funny lilt, he doesn’t have any of the Joker’s deranged wit, and Nolan isn’t interested in undercutting his seriousness for the sake of a breezier entertainment.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:he.
2. (personal, sometimes proscribed, see usage notes) They; he or she (a person whose gender is unknown or irrelevant).
3. (personal, sometimes proscribed) It; an animal whose gender is unknown.
4. A genderless object regarded as masculine, such as certain stars or planets (e.g. Sun, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter) or certain ships.

   Antonyms: she, it

Usage notes

• He was traditionally used as both a masculine and a gender-neutral pronoun, but since the mid-20th century generic usage has sometimes been considered sexist and limiting. It is deprecated by some style guides, such as Wadsworth. In place of generic he, writers and speakers may use he or she, alternate he and she as the indefinite person, use the singular they, or rephrase sentences to use plural they.

Synonyms

• (person whose gender is unknown): one, you (indefinite, colloquial); he or she, he/she, they, s/he, or these other third-person pronouns (see "Combined forms", "Invented pronouns")
• (animal whose gender is unknown): it

Derived terms

Translations

See also

References

Determiner

he

1. (African-American Vernacular) Synonym of his

Noun

he (countable and uncountable, plural hes)

1. (uncountable) The game of tag, or it, in which the player attempting to catch the others is called "he".
2. The player who chases and attempts to catch the others in this game.
3. (informal) A male.

Etymology 2

Transliteration of various Semitic letters, such as Phoenician 𐤄 (h), Hebrew ה (h), Classical Syriac ܗ (h, “hē”), and Old South Arabian 𐩠 (h).

Alternative forms

• hay
• hei
• hey

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /heɪ/

Noun

he

1. The name of the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets (Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic and others).
2. The name of the first letter of the Old South Arabian abjad.

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Hebrew alphabet

Further reading

• He (letter) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 3

Interjection

he

1. (uncommon, usually reduplicated) An expression of laughter.

   Synonyms: ha, hehe (more common)

Anagrams

• -eh, E.H., EH, eH, eh

Aukan

Noun

he

1. paca (large South and Central American rodent)

References

• Aukan-English Dictionary (SIL), citing Vernon (1985)

Breton

Etymology

Compare Welsh ei.

Determiner

he (requires spirant mutation)

1. her

   he zad ― her father

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈe]
• Rhymes: -e

Etymology 1

Noun

he f (plural hes)

1. he (fifth letter of various Semitic alphabets)

Etymology 2

Alternative forms

• haig

Verb

he

1. first-person singular present indicative of haver

Classical Nahuatl

Etymology

A natural expression.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [é]

Interjection

he

1. an expression of physical pain; ouch.

References

• Alonso de Molina (1571) Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, Editorial Porrúa, page 22r

Danish

Interjection

he

1. (onomatopoeia) Signifies a laugh, especially one that is slightly mischievous.

See also

• ha

Dutch

Interjection

he

1. Misspelling of hè.
2. Misspelling of hé.

Esperanto

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [he]
• Hyphenation: he

Interjection

he

1. interjection used to attract someone's attention, hey
2. interjection expressing irony

Derived terms

• he ho

See also

• hej

Fasu

Noun

hẹ or hȩ́ (Fasu)

1. water
2. river

   he Aiyo ― the River Aiyo

3. lake

   he Kutupu ― Lake Kutubu

4. liquid

Synonyms

• hi (Namumi)

References

• Karl J. Franklin, Comparative Wordlist 1 of the Gulf District and adjacent areas (1975), page 67
• Eunice Loeweke, Jean May, General grammar of Fasu (Namo Me) (1980)
• Eunice Loeweke, Jean May, Fasu Namo Me dictionary (1981, digitized 2006)

Finnish

Etymology 1

From Proto-Finnic *hek, from Proto-Finno-Permic *sej. Cognates include Northern Sami sii, Erzya сынь (siń). The word is inflected as plural, but there is no plural marker in the nominative, except in dialects (het). See hän for more details on history of usage.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhe/, [ˈhe̞]
• Rhymes: -e
• Hyphenation^(key): he

Pronoun

he

1. (personal) they (plural, only of people)
2. (respectful) he, she, one, (singular) they (of a single human being, like hän)
3. they (in indirect speech: referring to the subjects of the main clause, regardless of whether they are human beings or not, i.e. logophoric pronoun)

Usage notes

• In standard Finnish, he is practically never omitted, despite the verb showing both the person and the number (compare the usage of hän).

Declension

• Irregular (inflectional stem hei-, as if in the plural). The comitative and instructive forms don't exist; the abessive is hardly used.
• In addition to the standard set of cases, he and other personal pronouns have a specific accusative form, heidät.

Synonyms

• (dialectal): het
• (dialectal): hyö
• (colloquial): ne

Derived terms

Descendants

• Kven: het

See also

Further reading

• “1. he”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[3] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2024-10-09

Etymology 2

From Phoenician 𐤄 (h) and/or Biblical Hebrew ה.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhe(ː)/, [ˈhe̞(ː)]
• Rhymes: -e
• Hyphenation^(key): he

Noun

he

1. he (fifth letter of the Hebrew and Phoenician scripts and the Northwest Semitic abjad)

Declension

German Low German

Alternative forms

• hee
• (in other dialects, including Mecklenburgisch, West Pomeranian and Low Prussian) hei
• (in other dialects, including Sauerländisch) hai
• (in other dialects, including regional Westphalian and East Frisian as rare alternative form) hä

Etymology

From Middle Low German hê, from Old Saxon hē, from Proto-West Germanic *hiʀ, from Proto-Germanic *hiz (“this, this one”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hɛɪ̯/

Pronoun

he m (genitive sin, dative 1 em, dative 2 en, dative 3 jüm, accusative 1 em, accusative 2 en)

1. (in some dialects, including, Münsterland, Mecklenburgisch, Western Pomeranian and Low Prussian, personal) he (third-person singular masculine pronoun)

Usage notes

• Which dative is employed depends on dialect, not on function.
• Some dialects might consider any of the inflected forms obsolete.

Further reading

• G. Ungt, Twee Geschichten in Mönstersk Platt. Ollmanns Jans in de Friümde un Ollmanns Jans up de Reise, 1861. The text has dative em and accusative em and en, and on page 22 the author notes: "Hier und in vielen Fällen steht der Dativ em statt des Accusativ en (ihm statt ihn) nach der Bequemlichkeit, die sich diese Mundart erlaubt." (Here and in many other places stands the dative em instead of the accusative en ...)

Hadza

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɦe/

Verb

he

1. to say, to tell

   Synonyms: î, hiyagga

Hawaiian

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /he/

Article

he (indefinite)

1. a, an

Ido

Etymology

From h +‎ -e.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /he/, /hɛ/

Noun

he (plural be-i)

1. The name of the Latin script letter H/h.

See also

• (Latin script letter names) litero; a, be, ce, che, de, e, fe, ge, he, i, je, ke, le, me, ne, o, pe, que, re, se, she, te, u, ve, we, xe, ye, ze ^{(Category: io:Latin letter names)}

Japanese

Romanization

he

1. The hiragana syllable へ (he) or the katakana syllable ヘ (he) in Hepburn romanization.

Kholosi

Etymology

Cognate with Sindhi ھِي (hī, “this”).

Pronoun

he

1. it (proximal)

References

• Eric Anonby, Hassan Mohebi Bahmani (2014) “Shipwrecked and Landlocked: Kholosi, an Indo-Aryan Language in South-west Iran”, in Cahier de Studia Iranica xx‎^[4], pages 13-36

Kikuyu

Etymology

Hinde (1904) records kuha as an equivalent of English give in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu, listing also Swahili kupa, etc. as its equivalents.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hɛ/

Verb

he (infinitive kũhe)

1. to give

Derived terms

(Proverbs)

• mwana ndaheanagwo

Related terms

(Nouns)

• kĩhe(e)o class 7
• maheeo class 6

References

• Armstrong, Lilias E. (1940). The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu, p. 361. Rep. 1967. (Also in 2018 by Routledge).

Lakota

Particle

he

1. question-marking particle used by females in formal speech

   Mázaškaŋškaŋ tóna he? ― what time is it?

Usage notes

Informally, both men and women use this question-marking particle. When speaking formally, however, only women use it. In a formal setting, men use huwó, hwo, or huŋwó.

Synonyms

• huwó (used by men)

Mandarin

Romanization

he (he⁵／he⁰, Zhuyin ˙ㄏㄜ)

1. Hanyu Pinyin reading of 荷

he

1. Nonstandard spelling of hē.
2. Nonstandard spelling of hé.
3. Nonstandard spelling of hě.
4. Nonstandard spelling of hè.

Usage notes

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

Maori

Etymology

Cognate with Hawaiian he

Article

he

1. a, an, some: indefinite article

See also

• te (for "the" in singular)
• ngā (for "the" in plural)

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English hē, from Proto-West Germanic *hiʀ, from Proto-Germanic *hiz (“this, this one”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /heː/

Pronoun

he (accusative him or hine, genitive his or hisen, possessive determiner his)

2. Third-person singular masculine pronoun: he
   • 14th century, Chaucer, General Prologue:

3. it; used also of inanimate objects
4. (impersonal) Third-person singular impersonal pronoun: one; you

Usage notes

In addition to referring to male humans and animals, this pronoun was used for inanimate objects belonging to the masculine grammatical gender early in Middle English. As grammatical gender obsolesced, this pronoun continued to refer to inanimate objects.

Alternative forms

• hee, ȝe, e, hey, hi, hie, hye, heo, ho, hæ, ha, a

Descendants

• English: he
• Scots: he
• Yola: hea, he, hey, hay

See also

References

• “he, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

From Old English hīe, hī. Compare þei.

Pronoun

he (accusative hem or he, genitive heres or heren, possessive determiner here)

2. Third-person plural nominative pronoun: they
3. Third-person plural accusative pronoun: them

Alternative forms

• heo, heȝ, hey, hei, ha, hay, hy, hi, hye, hie, hig, hiȝ, hij, hio, ho, hoe, hue, huy, hui, e, i, a

Descendants

• Yola: hi, h'

See also

References

• “he, pron.(3).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 3

Pronoun

he

1. Alternative form of heo (“she”)

Etymology 4

Interjection

he

1. Alternative form of hey (“hey”)

Etymology 5

Noun

he

1. Alternative form of heye (“hedge”)

Etymology 6

Adjective

he (comparative her, superlative hest)

1. Alternative form of heigh (“high”)

Etymology 7

Verb

he (third-person singular simple present heth, present participle hende, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle hed)

1. Alternative form of hyen (“to go quickly”)

Middle Low German

Etymology

From Old Saxon hē.

Pronunciation

• Stem vowel: ê⁴
  • (originally) IPA^(key): /heː/

Pronoun

hê

1. (third person singular masculine nominative) he

Declension

North Frisian

Pronoun

he

1. Alternative form of hi

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

he

1. (dialectal, Trøndelag) alternative form of hev (“have, has”)

   E he ei bok om føgla. He hann løst å kjøp ho?

   I have a book about birds. Does he want to buy it? (literally "does he have desire to by her?")

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *hiʀ, from Proto-Germanic *hiz (“this, this one”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xeː/, [heː]

Pronoun

hē m (accusative hine, genitive his, dative him)

1. he
2. it (when the thing being referred to is masculine)
3. they (singular) (denotes someone of unknown gender)

Declension

Descendants

• Middle English: he, hee, ȝe, e, hey, hi, hie, hye, heo, ho, hæ, ha, a
  • English: he
  • Scots: he
  • Yola: hea, he, hey, hay

References

• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “hē”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎^[6], 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Old Saxon

Alternative forms

• hie

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *hiʀ, from Proto-Germanic *hiz.

Pronoun

hē m

1. he

Declension

Descendants

• German Low German: he

Polish

Etymology

Onomatopoeic.

Pronunciation

• (Masovia):
  • (Near Masovian) IPA^(key): /ˈxɛ/

Interjection

he

1. (Near Masovian, often repeated) used to direct oxen to move forward

   Coordinate terms: byś, eć, kse

Further reading

• Władysław Matlakowski (1891) “he”, in “Zbiór wyrazów ludowych dawnej ziemi czerskiej”, in Sprawozdania Komisyi Językowej Akademii Umiejętności, volume 4, Krakow: Drukarnia Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, page 372

Portuguese

Verb

he

1. Obsolete spelling of é.

Romanian

Interjection

he

1. Alternative form of hei

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English he, from Old English hē.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hi/, /hɪ/
• Rhymes: -iː

Pronoun

he (third-person singular, masculine, nominative case; accusative him, reflexive himsel, possessive his)

1. he

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈe/ [ˈe]
• Rhymes: -e
• Syllabification: he
• Homophones: hé, e

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Arabic هَا (hā, “behold!, lo!, look!”). Cognate to Galician eis and Portuguese eis.

Adverb

he

1. (literary) here is [with (suffixed) accusative or aquí or ahí or allí]
2. (literary) behold (+ aquí)

Usage notes

• Takes pronoun suffixes, e.g. heme (“here I am”), and is mostly used together with aquí, ahí, allí.

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Noun

he f (plural hes)

1. he; the Hebrew letter ה

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

he

1. inflection of haber:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative
   3. second-person singular voseo imperative

References

Further reading

• “he”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28

Swedish

Alternative forms

• hä

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /heː/

Etymology 1

Related to häva.

Verb

he (present her, preterite hedde, supine hett, imperative he)

1. (regional, colloquial, northern) to put

   Synonym: (Hälsingland region) häva

Usage notes

Not widely known to native Swedish speakers. Primarily used in certain regions of Norrland in Sweden.

Conjugation

Etymology 2

Pronoun

he n

1. (regional, Northern Sweden, Ostrobothnia) it

Usage notes

In Sweden, primarily used in the northern parts of norrland. In Finland, used in the northern part of Swedish-speaking Ostrobothnia.

See also

• det

Tagalog

Pronunciation

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈhe/ [ˈhɛ]
• Rhymes: -e
• Syllabification: he

Etymology 1

Interjection

he! (Baybayin spelling ᜑᜒ)

1. Alternative form of tse

Etymology 2

Noun

he (Baybayin spelling ᜑᜒ) (historical)

1. Alternative spelling of ge

Anagrams

• eh

Tokelauan

Etymology

From Proto-Nuclear Polynesian *se. Cognates include Hawaiian he and Maori he.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [he]
• Hyphenation: he

Article

he

1. Singular indefinite article; any, an

Derived terms

See also

References

• R. Simona, editor (1986), Tokelau Dictionary‎^[7], Auckland: Office of Tokelau Affairs, page 304

Turkish

Etymology 1

Noun

he (definite accusative heyi, plural heler)

1. The name of the Latin-script letter H/h.

See also

• (Latin-script letter names) harf; a, be, ce, çe, de, e, fe, ge, yumuşak ge, he, ı, i, je, ke, le, me, ne, o, ö, pe, re, se, şe, te, u, ü, ve, ye, ze

Etymology 2

Noun

he

1. Letter of the Arabic alphabet: ه

Etymology 3

Particle

he

1. Alternative form of ha

Interjection

he

1. Alternative form of ha

Yanomamö

Alternative forms

• fe

Noun

he

1. head

References

• Lizot, Jacques (2004) Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua yãnomãmɨ‎^[8] (in Spanish), Vicariato apostólico de Puerto Ayacucho, →ISBN

Yola

Pronoun

he

1. Alternative form of hea

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 31

Yoruba

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hē/

Verb

he

1. to come across, to come by

   Mo rí ẹ̀bùn he, mo sì bẹ̀rẹ̀ sí í ṣí i. ― I came across a gift and started to open it.

Usage notes

• often used in a serial verb construction with rí.

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hè/

Verb

hè

1. (Ikalẹ) (transitive) Ikalẹ form of sè (“to cook”)

Usage notes

• he when followed by a direct object.

Derived terms