ကို

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word ကို. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word ကို, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say ကို in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word ကို you have here. The definition of the word ကို will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofကို, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
See also: က, ကဲ့, and

Burmese

Etymology 1

Inherited from Proto-Tibeto-Burman *(g/k)əw-n (elder brother, senior male relative).

Pronunciation

Noun

ကို (kui)

  1. (honorific) Form of address for younger men
    ကို ဇေယျာ သော်
    kui jeyya sau
    Ko Zayar Thaw
Coordinate terms

Etymology 2

From Old Burmese ကိုဝ် (kuiw).

Pronunciation

  • Phonetic respellings: ကို, ဂို
  • IPA(key): /kò/, /ɡò/
  • Romanization: MLCTS: kui • ALA-LC: kui • BGN/PCGN: ko/go • Okell: kou/kou

Particle

ကို (kui)

  1. indicates a direct or indirect object
    ကင်မရာကို ခပ်ဝေးဝေးမှာ ထားပါ။
    kangma.rakui hkap-we:we:hma hta:pa||
    Put the camera at a fair distance.
    ငါ့ကို များများ ပေးပါး။
    nga.kui mya:mya: pe:pa:||
    Give me a lot.
    အမေ့ကို ထမင်းချက်ဖို့ ပြောထားသေးလား။
    a.me.kui hta.mang:hkyakhpui. prau:hta:se:la:||
    Did you tell mother to cook?
Usage notes

Triggers induced creaky tone of a preceding low tone in pronouns and personal referents. Often omitted, especially in the colloquial language.

Preposition

ကို (kui)

  1. to (indicating a destination), in, at
    ဘယ်တုန်းက ဒီမြို့ကို ရောက်သလဲ။
    bhaitun:ka. di-mrui.kui rauksa.lai:||
    When did you arrive in this town?
Usage notes
  • IPA(key): /kò/ (after /ʔ/)
  • IPA(key): /ɡò/ (after a vowel or /ɴ/)

References

  • Pain, Frederic. "Towards a panchronic perspective on a diachronic issue: the rhyme<-uiw> in Old Burmese." Australian Journal of Linguistics 37.4 (2017): 424-464.
  • ကို” in Myanmar–English Dictionary (Myanmar Language Commission 1993). Searchable online at SEAlang.net.
  • ကို” in Burmese/Myanmar Dictionary of Grammatical Forms (Routledge 2001, →ISBN), by John Okell and Anna Allott.