Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

My

(mī)

Adj.

& p

oss.

ron.

[OE.

, fr.

min

. See

Mine

, and cf., for loss of n,

Adj.

]

Of or belonging to me; – used always attributively;

as,

body;

book

; – mine is used in the predicate;

as, the book is

mine

. See

Mine

Webster 1828 Edition

My

MY

, pronoun. adj. [contracted from migen, mine. Me was originally mig, and the adjective migen. So in L. meus. See Mine.]

Belonging to me; as, this is my book. Formerly, mine was used before a vowel, and my before a consonant; my is now used before both. We say, my book; my own book; my old friend. Mine is still used after a verb; as, this book is mine.

Definition 2024

My

See also: Appendix:Variations of "my"

English

Noun

megayear

Synonyms

Pronoun

Alternative letter-case form of my often used when speaking as God or another important figure who is understood from context.

German

Noun

My n ‎(genitive My or Mys, plural Mys)

mu (Greek letter)

Declension

Declension of My

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	das	My	die	Mys
genitive	eines	des	Mys	der	Mys
dative	einem	dem	My	den	Mys
accusative	ein	das	My	die	Mys

Swedish

Etymology

A character in the Moomin books by Tove Jansson, Little My, named for the Greek letter μ, mu (my in Swedish ), because she was the smallest thing that there is.

Proper noun

A female given name popular in Sweden since the 1980s.

my

See also: Appendix:Variations of "my"

English

Alternative forms

ma, mah, me, muh

Determiner

First-person singular possessive determiner. See Appendix:Possessive#English.
1. Belonging to me.
  I can't find my book.
2. Associated with me.
  
  My seat at the restaurant was uncomfortable.
  
  Don't you know my name?
  
  I recognised him because he had attended my school.
3. Related to me.
  My parents won't let me go out tonight.
4. In my possession.
  I have to take my books back to the library soon.

Related terms

mine

Derived terms

terms derived using my

Translations

belonging to me

Afrikaans: my
Albanian: im (sq)
American Sign Language: FlatB@Chest-PalmBack
Arabic: ـِي ‎(-ī) (suffix, enclitic pronoun)
Egyptian Arabic: ـي ‎(-i), ـيا ‎(ya)
Armenian: իմ (hy) ‎(im)
Aromanian: njeu m, meu m, nja f, mea f
Asturian: mio (ast), míu (ast) m, mía (ast) f
Azeri: mənim
Bashkir: минең ‎(mineñ)
Belarusian: мой ‎(moj)
Bengali: আমার (bn) ‎(amar)
Brahui: kanna
Breton: ma (br)
Bulgarian: мой (bg) ‎(moj)
Catalan: meu (ca) m
Chinese:

Cantonese: 我嘅 ‎(ngo⁵ ge³, o⁵ ge³), 我的 ‎(ngo⁵ dik¹, o⁵ dik¹) (formal, written)

Mandarin: 我的 (zh) ‎(wǒ-de)
Coptic: ⲡⲁ m ‎(pa), ⲧⲁ f ‎(ta), ⲛⲁ m pl, f pl ‎(na)
Czech: můj (cs) m
Danish: min (da) c
Dutch: mijn (nl)
Egyptian: 𓀀 m ‎(i), 𓁐 f ‎(i), 𓇋 m, f ‎(i)
Esperanto: mia (eo)
Estonian: minu, mu (et)
Faroese: mín
Finnish: (minun (genitive of minä)) + -ni (possessive suffix)
French: mon (fr) m, ma (fr) f, mes (fr) pl
Friulian: gno m
Galician: meu (gl) m, miña (gl) f
Georgian: ჩემი ‎(čemi)
German: mein (de) m
Greek: μού ‎(moú)
Ancient: ἐμός ‎(emós), μου ‎(mou) (genitive personal pronoun)
Hawaiian: koʻu, kaʻu
Hebrew: שֶׁלִּי ‎(shelí)
Hindi: मेरा (hi) ‎(merā)
Hungarian: -m, -om, -am, -em, -öm
Icelandic: minn (is)
Ido: mea (io)
Indonesian: saya (id)
Interlingua: mi
Irish: mo (ga) (before a consonant), m' (before a vowel)
Istriot: meîo m, mio m
Italian: mio (it) m
Japanese: 私の (ja) ‎(わたしの, watashi-no), (male speaker) 僕の (ja) ‎(ぼくの, boku-no), 我が (ja) ‎(わが, wa-ga) (also written: 我 (ja))
Kalmyk: мини ‎(mini)
Kazakh: менің (kk) ‎(meniñ)
Khmer: របស់ខ្ញុំ ‎(raboh kñom)
Korean: 나의 ‎(naui), 내 (ko) ‎(nae), 저의 (ko) ‎(jeoui), 제 (ko) ‎(je)
Kyrgyz: менин (ky) ‎(menin)
Latin: meus (la) m
Latvian: mans
Lithuanian: mano (lt)
Lojban: mi (jbo)
Low German: ^{(please verify)}mien
Macedonian: мој ‎(moj)
Malay: saya (ms)
Malayalam: എന്റെ (ml) ‎(enṟe)
Maltese: tiegħi

Manchu: mini ‎(mini)
Maore Comorian: -angu
Maori: tāku, tōku, āku, ōku
Mazanderani: مه ‎(me)
Mirandese: miu m
Nahuatl: noca, no (nah)
Navajo: shi-
North Frisian:
Föhr: man m
Norwegian: min (no) m
Novial: men
Occitan: meu (oc) m
Ojibwe: nii-
Old Church Slavonic: мои ‎(moi)
Old English: mīn
Oriya: ମୋର (or) ‎(mor), ମୋ (or) ‎(mo)
Persian: ـم (fa) ‎(-am) (suffix), من (fa) ‎(... man)
Pipil: nu-
Pitjantjatjara: ngayuku
Polish: mój (pl) m
Portuguese: meu (pt) m, minha (pt) f
Quechua: (possessive suffix) -y
Romanian: meu (ro) m
Russian: мой (ru) m ‎(moj)
Sardinian: meu m, miu m
Logudorese: meu m
Scots: ma
Scottish Gaelic: mo
Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic: мој

Roman: moj
Shor: меең
Sicilian: meu (scn) m, m
Sinhalese: මගේ ‎(magē)
Slovak: môj (sk)
Slovene: mój (sl)
Slovincian: mȯ́i̭ m
Sorbian:
Lower Sorbian: mój
Southern Altai: мениҥ ‎(mänïŋ)
Spanish: mi (es)
Swedish: min (sv) c, mitt (sv) n
Tagalog: (after noun) ko (tl), (before noun) aking
Tajik: ... ман (tg) ‎(... man)
Talysh: چمن ‎(cəmən), (for all persons) اشتن ‎(əštan)
Tatar: минем ‎(minem)
Telugu: నా (te) ‎(nā), నా యొక్క ‎(nā yokka)
Thai: ของผม ‎(kŏng pŏm) (male speaker), ของดิฉัน ‎(kŏng dì-chăn) (female speaker), ของฉัน ‎(kŏng chăn) (generic, informal)
Tlingit: ax̱
Turkish: benim (tr)
Turkmen: meniň
Ukrainian: мій (uk) ‎(mij)
Urdu: میرا ‎(merā)
Uzbek: mening (uz)
Vietnamese: của tôi, tôi (vi) (usually post-position)
Volapük: obik (vo)
Welsh: fy
West Frisian: myn
Yiddish: מײַן ‎(mayn)
Zhuang: duh gou
Zulu: possessive concord + -mi

Number	Person	Type	Subject	Objective	Reflexive	Possessive adjective	Possessive pronoun
Singular	First	—	I	me	myself	my, mine (archaic)	mine
Second	—	you	you	yourself	your	yours, yourn (obsolete outside dialects)
Archaic	thou	thee	thyself, theeself	thy, thine	thine
Third	Masculine	he	him	himself, hisself (archaic)	his	his, hisn (obsolete outside dialects)
Feminine	she	her	herself	her	hers, hern (obsolete outside dialects)
Neuter	it	itself	its	its
Indefinite	one	oneself	one's	—
Plural	First	—	we	us	ourselves	our	ours, ourn (obsolete outside dialects)
Second	—	you, ye (archaic)	you	yourselves	your	yours, yourn (obsolete outside dialects)
Third	—	they	them	themselves	their	theirs, theirn (obsolete outside dialects)

Etymology 2

An abbreviation of an oath such as my word or my lord

Interjection

(dated) Used to express surprise, shock or amazement.
My, what big teeth you have!

Derived terms

my my

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: him · she · they · #34: my · were · are · their

Afrikaans

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /məi/

Etymology 1

From Dutch mij.

Pronoun

my ‎(subject ek)

me (object)

	subjective	objective	possessive
singular	1st	ek	my	my
2nd	jy	jou	jou
2nd, formal	u	u
3rd, masc	hy	hom	sy
3rd, fem	sy	haar	haar
3rd, neut	dit	sy
plural	1st	ons	ons
2nd	julle	julle / jul¹
3rd	hulle	hulle / hul¹
1. In the second and third persons plural, the usual possessive forms are julle and hulle (like the subjective and objective forms), but jul and hul are sometimes used instead when the sentence would otherwise be ambiguous.

Etymology 2

From Dutch mijn.

Determiner

my; of me

	subjective	objective	possessive
singular	1st	ek	my	my
2nd	jy	jou	jou
2nd, formal	u	u
3rd, masc	hy	hom	sy
3rd, fem	sy	haar	haar
3rd, neut	dit	sy
plural	1st	ons	ons
2nd	julle	julle / jul¹
3rd	hulle	hulle / hul¹
1. In the second and third persons plural, the usual possessive forms are julle and hulle (like the subjective and objective forms), but jul and hul are sometimes used instead when the sentence would otherwise be ambiguous.

Cornish

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *mi, from Proto-Celtic *mī.

Pronoun

I, me

Czech

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *my, from Proto-Indo-European *nos

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /mɪ/

Pronoun

Declension

Declension of my

	singular	plural
nominative	já	my
genitive	mě/mne	nás
dative	mně/mi	nám
accusative	mě/mne	nás
vocative	—
locative	mně	nás
instrumental	mnou	námi

Danish

Noun

my n

The Greek letter μ (mu)

Noun

my c

micron

Synonyms

Egyptian

Alternative forms

Hieroglyphic signage

W19-M17-M17

Pronunciation

Wikipedia: Manuel de Codage

Adverb

accordingly

Lojban

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /mə/

Cmavo

my ‎(selma'o BY2 BY2)

Letteral for m.

Lower Sorbian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *my, from Proto-Indo-European *nos

Pronoun

my pl

Declension

Declension of the first-person pronouns

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ja	mej	my
Genitive	mě (after preposition) mnjo	naju	nas
Dative	mě (after preposition) mnjo	nama	nam
Accusative	mě (after preposition) mnjo	naju	nas
Instrumental	mnu	nama	nami
Locative	mnjo	nama	nas
Possessive determiner	mój	naju	naš

Manx

Conjunction

Polish

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *my, from Proto-Indo-European *nos

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /mɨ/

Pronoun

we (first person pl)

Declension

declension of my

	plural
nominative	my
genitive	nas
dative	nam
accusative	nas
instrumental	nami
locative	nas
vocative	—

Portuguese

Pronoun

Obsolete form of mim.

Slovak

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *my, from Proto-Indo-European *nos

Pronoun

Related terms

Swedish

Noun

my n

The Greek letter μ (mu)

Upper Sorbian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *my, from Proto-Indo-European *nos

Pronoun

West Frisian

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /mɛɪ/
IPA^(key): /mi/ (Eastern)

Pronoun

Etymology

From Middle English my, apocopated form of min, myn, from Old English mīn ‎(“my, mine”), from Proto-Germanic *mīnaz ‎(“my, mine”, pron.) (genitive of *ek ‎(“I”)), from Proto-Indo-European *méynos ‎(“my; mine”). Cognate with West Frisian myn ‎(“my”), Afrikaans my ‎(“my”), Dutch mijn ‎(“my”), German mein ‎(“my”), Swedish min ‎(“my”). More at me.

Pronunciation

(stressed) enPR: mī IPA^(key): /maɪ/
(unstressed) IPA^(key): /maɪ/, /mə/
- (unstressed, Cockney) IPA^(key): /mɪ/, /mi/
IPA^(key): /mi/ in some speakers of Hiberno-English, Scouse
Rhymes: -aɪ
Homophone: muh (some dialects)