Old Church Slavonic

Pronoun

она • ‎(ona)

1. she
2. nominative singular feminine of онъ ‎(onŭ)
3. nominative and accusative dual masculine of онъ ‎(onŭ)
4. nominative and accusative plural neuter of онъ ‎(onŭ)

See also

• ѭ ‎(jǫ)

Russian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɐˈna]

Pronoun

она́ • ‎(oná) ‎(masculine counterpart он, neuter counterpart оно́)

1. third-person feminine singular pronoun: she, it.
2. third-person feminine singular objective pronoun: her, it.

   Да как же она́, так и говори́т?‎ ― Da kak že oná, tak i govorít? ― What is she like? Does she talk?

   Её нет до́ма‎ (genitive) ― Jejó net dóma ― She’s not home.

   Ей не спи́тся.‎ (dative) ― Jej ne spítsja. ― She is unable to sleep.

   Я ви́жу её.‎ (accusative) ― Ja vížu jejó. ― I see her.

   За не́ю пять рубле́й.‎ (instrumental) ― Za néju pjatʹ rubléj. ― She owes five rubles.

   Он э́то при ней сказа́л.‎ (prepositional) ― On éto pri nej skazál. ― He said it in her presence.

Declension

Usage notes

• Whenever a preposition stands immediately before any of the oblique cases of the third-person pronoun (singular or plural) and directly governs it, then an н- is prefixed to the pronoun: от неё ‎(ot nejó, “from her”), на ней ‎(na nej, “on her”), у неё ‎(u nejó, “she has”), к ней ‎(k nej, “to her”), с не́ю ‎(s néju, “with her”).
• The explanation for the н-prothesis is that, originally, some Russian prepositions ended in the letter -н: сън (sŭn, “with”...cf. Greek σύν ‎(σύν), Latin cum). Eventually, the final н of these prepositions migrated across to the pronoun, so that вън её became modern в неё ‎(v nejó), and then this was extended to include all prepositions when governing any third-person pronoun.
• Note that if the preposition does not directly govern её ‎(jejó) (i.e., when её is a possessive pronoun), then the н- is not inserted: у её бра́та ‎(u jejó bráta, “at her brother’s”), о её ма́тери ‎(o jejó máteri, “about her mother”), в её ко́мнате ‎(v jejó kómnate, “in her room”).
• When there is another word separating a preposition and any oblique case of она, the н- is not added: у само́й её ‎(u samój jejó, “with her herself”).

Related terms

• её ‎(jejó)
• свой ‎(svoj)

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *ona, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eno-

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ǒna/
• Hyphenation: о‧на

Pronoun

о̀на ‎(Latin spelling òna)

1. she
2. they (nominative plural of о̀но ‎(“it”))

Declension