'm

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

• ’d
• ’ll
• ’re
• ’s (third person)
• ’ve

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

• IPA^(key): /əm/

• Audio:

  (file)

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
3rd person gender-neutral8	hen	–	hen	–	hun	–	hunne	zich	hunner, huns
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.' 8) Not officially recognized in standard Dutch. It has gained popularity, especially in mainstream media and queer circles, as a respectful term for non-binary individuals.

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

• IPA^(key): /m/

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