Borrowed from Chinese 雷 (léi).
Lei (plural Leis)
From Middle High German leie, probably from Celtic and ultimately from a substrate language. Cognate with Luxembourgish Lee, Dutch lei.
Lei f (genitive Lei, plural Leien)
lei (“wreath; child”). Also a short form of numerous compound names containing the word lei.
Lei
Lei (plural voi)
| Number | Person | Gender | Nominative | Reflexive | Accusative | Dative | Conjunctive | Disjunctive | Locative | Partitive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | first | — | io | mi, m', -mi | me | me | — | |||
| second | — | tu | ti, t', -ti | te | te | |||||
| third | m | lui | si2, s', -si | lo, l', -lo | gli, -gli | glie, se2 | lui, sé | ci, c', vi, v' (formal) |
ne, n' | |
| f | lei, Lei1 | la, La1, l', L'1, -la, -La1 | le3, Le1, -le3, -Le1 | lei, Lei1, sé | ||||||
| Plural | first | — | noi | ci, c', -ci | ce | noi | — | |||
| second | — | voi, Voi4 | vi, Vi4, v', V'4, -vi, -Vi4 | ve | voi, Voi4 | |||||
| third | m | loro, Loro1 | si, s', -si | li, Li1, -li, -Li1 | gli, -gli, loro (formal), Loro1 |
glie, se | loro, Loro1, sé | ci, c', vi, v' (formal) |
ne, n' | |
| f | le, Le1, -le, -Le1 | |||||||||
| 1 | Third person pronominal forms used as formal terms of address to refer to second person subjects (with the first letter frequently capitalised as a sign of respect, and to distinguish them from third person subjects). Unlike the singular forms, the plural forms are mostly antiquated terms of formal address in the modern language, and second person plural pronouns are almost always used instead. | |||||||||
| 2 | Also used as indefinite pronoun meaning “one”, and to form the passive. | |||||||||
| 3 | Often replaced by gli, -gli in informal language. | |||||||||
| 4 | Formal (capitalisation optional); in many regions, can refer to just one person (compare with French vous). | |||||||||
Lei