'm

See also: Appendix:Variations of "m"

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əm/, /m̩/ or, next to a vowel, sometimes /m/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Etymology 1

Contraction of am.

Verb

’m (clitic)

1. Am, used especially in I'm.
   • 2008, Elizabeth George, Playing for the Ashes, Bantam, →ISBN, page 158:

     “So how'm I not good?”

2. (dialect) Various forms of be.
   • 1874, Frances Mary Peard, Thorpe Regis:

     You'm no better than a baby when they've clacketed at ye for an hour or two without a word of sense from beginnin' to end.

   • 1962, John Le Carre, A Murder of Quality:

     "He'm a bad one. Ooh, he'm a bad one, Mister," and she laughed softly. "I seed 'im flying, riding on the wind," she laughed again, "and the moon be'ind 'im, lightin' up the way. They'm close as sisters, moon and Devil."

   • 2016, Alan Moore, Jerusalem, Liveright, page 180:

     “Ah, it's a wonder we’m got two sticks to us name, with all that plunder what youm 'ad already.”

See also

• ’d
• ’ll
• ’re
• ’s (third person)
• ’ve

Etymology 2

Pronoun

'm

1. Alternative form of 'em
   • 1967-1969, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure

     I picked up two stones and threw ’m in the air, heard ’m drop

Etymology 3

Contraction of madam/ma'am.

Noun

’m

1. Represents the word madam or ma'am when used as a formal address of a female; as in yes'm and no'm.

Bavarian

Etymology

Merged unstressed form of am and em or dem.

Article

'm m or n

1. a (dative)
2. the (dative)

See also

		m		n		f		pl
		stressed	unstressed	stressed	unstressed	stressed	unstressed	stressed	unstressed
definite	nominative	der, da	—	das, es, des	's	de	d'	de	d'
	accusative	en, den	'n
	dative	em, dem	'm	em, dem	'm	der, da	—
	genitive1	des		des		der, da		der, da
indefinite	nominative	a	—	a	—	a	—
	accusative	an	'n
	dative	am	'm	am	'm	a, ana	'na

Bavarian articles

¹) higher, formal register

Catalan

Pronoun

'm

1. Contraction of me.

Usage notes

• 'm is the reduced (reduïda) form of the pronoun. It is used after verbs ending with a vowel.

  Truca'm. ― Call me.

Declension

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

Catalan personal pronouns and clitics

Cornish

Determiner

'm

1. my

Pronoun

'm

1. me

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əm/

• Audio:

  (file)

Pronoun

'm

1. Contraction of hem.

   Hij heeft 'm neergeschoten.

   He shot him.

Declension

	subject		object		possessive			reflexive	genitive5
singular	full	unstr.	full	unstr.	full	unstr.	pred.
1st person	ik	'k1	mij	me	mijn	m'n1	mijne	me	mijner, mijns
2nd person	jij	je	jou	je	jouw	je	jouwe	je	jouwer, jouws
2nd person archaic or regiolectal	gij	ge	u	–	uw	–	uwe	u	uwer, uws
2nd person formal	u	–	u	–	uw	–	uwe	zich	uwer, uws
3rd person masculine	hij	ie1	hem	'm1	zijn	z'n1	zijne	zich	zijner, zijns
3rd person feminine	zij	ze	haar	h'r1, 'r1, d'r1	haar	h'r1, 'r1, d'r1	hare	zich	harer, haars
3rd person neuter	het	't1	het	't1	zijn	z'n1	zijne	zich	zijner, zijns
plural
1st person	wij	we	ons	–	ons, onze2	–	onze	ons	onzer, onzes
2nd person	jullie	je	jullie	je	jullie	je	–	je	–
2nd person archaic or regiolectal6	gij	ge	u	–	uw	–	uwe	u	uwer, uws
2nd person formal	u	–	u	–	uw	–	uwe	zich	uwer, uws
3rd person	zij	ze	hen3, hun4	ze	hun	–	hunne	zich	hunner, huns
1) Not as common in written language. 2) Inflected as an adjective. 3) In prescriptivist use, used only as direct object (accusative). 4) In prescriptivist use, used only as indirect object (dative).				5) Archaic. Nowadays used for formal, literary or poetic purposes, and in fixed expressions. 6) To differentiate from the singular gij, gelle (object form elle) and variants are commonly used colloquially in Belgium. Archaic forms are gijlieden and gijlui ("you people").

Dutch personal pronouns

North Frisian

Pronoun

'm (Föhr-Amrum, Mooring)

1. Reduced form of jam (“you, you all”, subject)

Usage notes

• Note that jam is both subject and object case, but the reduced form 'm occurs only for the subject.
• On Föhr and Amrum, 'm is added to an imperative to make it plural, e.g. kom (“come!”, singular), kom'm (“come!”, plural). This usage is not common in Mooring, the simple form being used for both numbers (as in English).

See also

		personal				possessive
		subject case		object case		masculine referent	feminine / neuter referent	plural referent
		full	reduced	full	reduced			attributive	independent
singular	1st	ik	'k	mi		man	min		minen
	2nd	dü	–	di		dan	din		dinen
	3rd m.	hi	'r	ham	'n	san	sin		sinen
	3rd f. / n.	hat	at, 't		at, 't
plural	1st	wi	'f	üs		üüs			üüsen
						üsens
	2nd	jam	'm	jam		jau			jauen
						jamens
	3rd	jo	's	jo	's	hör			hören
						hörens
notes		The reduced forms with an apostrophe are enclitic; they immediately follow verbs or conjunctions. Dü is deleted altogether in such contexts. At is not enclitic; it can stand in any unstressed position and refers mostly to things. In reflexive use, only full object forms occur. Dual forms wat / onk and jat / jonk are obsolete, as is feminine jü / hör. Independent possessives are distinguished from attributive ones only with plural referents. The forms üsens, jamens, hörens are used optionally (and decreasingly) when the possessor is a larger community, such as a village, city or nation.

Personal and possessive pronouns (Föhr-Amrum dialect)

		personal				possessive
		subject case		object case		masculine referent	feminine / neuter / plural referent
		full	reduced	full	reduced
singular	1st	ik	'k	me		man	min
	2nd	dü	–	de		dan	din
	3rd m.	hi	'r	ham	'n	san	sin
	3rd f.	jü	's	har	's	harn	har
	3rd n.	hat	et, 't	ham	et, 't	san	sin
plural	1st	we		üs		üüsen	üüs
	2nd	jam	'm	jam		jarnge
	3rd	ja	's	ja, jam	's	jare
notes		The reduced forms with an apostrophe are enclitic; they immediately follow verbs or conjunctions. Dü is deleted altogether in such contexts. Et is not enclitic and can stand in any unstressed position; the full subject form hat is now rarely used. In reflexive use, only full object forms occur. Dual forms wat / unk and jat / junk are obsolete. Attributive and independent possessives are not distinguished in Mooring.

Personal and possessive pronouns (Mooring dialect)

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m/

Etymology 1

Determiner

'm

1. (literary) my (triggers h-prothesis of a following vowel)

   Synonym: fy

   Rwy'n myned yn ôl adref i’m hannwyl famwlad.

   I am going back home to my dear homeland.

Pronoun

'm

1. (literary) me (used after vowels as the direct object of a verb; triggers h-prothesis of a following vowel)

   Synonyms: fi, i

   Dywed na’m hadwaenai.

   He/She says that he/she would not recognise me.

   Fe’m ganed i deulu di-Gymraeg.

   I was born (lit. "One gave birth to me") into a non-Welsh-speaking family.

Usage notes

• The determiner can be considered a "contraction" of fy used after mostly functional vowel-final words.
• The pronoun occurs after certain vowel-final preverbal particles, such as fe, a, ni, na, oni and pe.

Etymology 2

Particle

'm

1. (colloquial) Contraction of ddim (“not”).

   Dwyt ti’m yn cofio Macsen.

   You don’t remember Macsen.

Further reading

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “'m”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies