'm

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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.
    what'm I gon' do?
    • 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

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

Bavarian articles
singular plural
masculine neuter feminine
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

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

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-.

Cornish

Etymology

From my. Cognate with Welsh 'm.

Determiner

'm

  1. my

Pronoun

'm

  1. me
    Hi a'm kwelas.
    She saw me.

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

Dutch

Pronunciation

Pronoun

'm

  1. Contraction of hem.
    Hij heeft 'm neergeschoten.
    He shot him.

Declension

Dutch personal pronouns
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 u, zich7 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 u, zich7 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"). 		7) Zich is preferred if the reflexive pronoun immediately follows the subject pronoun u, e.g. Meldt u zich aan! 'Log in!', and if the subject pronoun u is used with a verb form that is identical with the third person singular but different from the informal second person singular, e.g. U heeft zich aangemeld. 'You have logged in.' Only u can be used in an imperative if the subject pronoun is not overt, e.g. Meld u aan! 'Log in!', where u is the reflexive pronoun. Otherwise, both u and zich are equally possible, e.g. U meldt u/zich aan. 'You log in.'

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 and possessive pronouns (Föhr-Amrum dialect)
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
f or 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
  • 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 (Mooring 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
f jü 's har 's harn har
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

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.

Welsh

Pronunciation

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
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