u

See also U, ս, and Appendix:Variations of "u"

Translingual

Unicode name	LATIN SMALL LETTER U
Codepoint	U+0075
t ← Basic Latin → v

Etymology 1

Minuscule variation of U, a modern variation of classical Latin V, from seventh century Old Latin adoption of Old Italic letter 𐌖 (V).

Letter

u lower case (upper case U)

1. The twenty-first letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.

See also

• (Latin script):  Aa  Bb  Cc  Dd  Ee  Ff  Gg  Hh  Ii  Jj  Kk  Ll  Mm  Nn  Oo  Pp  Qq  Rr  Ss  Tt  Uu  Vv  Ww  Xx  Yy  Zz
• (Variations of letter U):  Úú  Ùù  Ŭŭ  Ûû  Ǔǔ  Ůů  Üü  Ǘǘ  Ǜǜ  Ǚǚ  Ǖǖ  Űű  Ũũ  Ṹṹ  Ųų  Ūū  Ṻṻ  Ủủ  Ȕȕ  Ȗȗ  Ưư  Ứứ  Ừừ  Ữữ  Ửử  Ựự  Ụụ  Ṳṳ  Ṷṷ  Ṵṵ  Ʉʉ  ᵾ  ᶙ  ᴜ  Ｕｕ  Ꜷꜷ  Ȣȣ  ᵫ
• (other scripts) Cyrillic у (u), Greek υ (y, “upsilon”), Hebrew ו (w, “vav”)
• U on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA

  (file)

Symbol

u

1. (metrology) symbol for unified atomic mass unit
2. (phonetics) Used in the International Phonetic Alphabet and in several romanization systems of non-Latin scripts to represent a close back rounded vowel (IPA: /u/).

See also

Other representations of U:

NATO phonetic: Uniform Morse code: ··– Braille: ⠥ ASL Manual: U

Signal flag:

Semaphore:

• Letter styles
• 

  Capital and lowercase versions of U, in normal and italic type

• 

  Uppercase and lowercase U in Fraktur

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English

Etymology

From Middle English lower case letter v (also written u), from Old English lower case u, from 7th century replacement by lower case u of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᚢ (u, “ur”), derived from Raetic letter u.

Before the 1700s, the pointed form v was written at the beginning of a word, while a rounded form u was used elsewhere, regardless of sound. So whereas valor and excuse appeared as in modern printing, have and upon were printed haue and vpon. Eventually, in the 1700s, to differentiate between the consonant and vowel sounds, the v form was used to represent the consonant, and u the vowel sound. v then preceded u in the alphabet, but the order has since reversed.

Pronunciation

Letter name

• IPA: /juː/, X-SAMPA: /ju:/
• Homophones: ewe, yew, you, hew (in h-dropping dialects), hue (in h-dropping dialects)

Phoneme

• (Australia) IPA: /a/, /ʉː/, /ʊ/, X-SAMPA: /a/, /}:/, /U/

• Audio (CA)

  (file)

• (RP) IPA: /ʌ/, /uː/, /ʊ/, X-SAMPA: /V/, /u:/, /U/
• (US) IPA: /ʌ/, /u/, /ʊ/, X-SAMPA: /V/, /u/, /U/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Letter

u lowercase (uppercase U)

1. The twenty-first letter of the English alphabet, called u and written in the Latin script.

   I prefer the u in Arial to the one in Times New Roman.

See also

• (Latin script letters) letter; Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Qq, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww, Xx, Yy, Zz

Noun

u (plural ues)

1. The name of the Latin script letter U/u.
2. A thing in the shape of the letter U

See also

• (Latin script letter names) letter; a, bee, cee, dee, e, ef, gee, aitch, i, jay, kay, el, em, en, o, pee, cue, ar, ess, tee, u, vee, double-u, ex, wye, zee/zed ^{(Category: en:Latin letter names)}

Translations

name of the letter U, u

• Arabic: أو (ar) ('uu) m, يو (ar) (yuu) m
• Catalan: u (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: (English letter names are called as in English, no other standard Mandarin name exists)

• Esperanto: u (eo)
• Finnish: uu (fi)
• Hawaiian: ʻū
• Hindi: यू (hi) (yū)

• Japanese: ユー (ja) (yū)
• Korean: 유 (ko) (yu)
• Latin: ū (la)
• Malay: yu (ms)
• Marathi: यू (mr) (yū)
• Portuguese: u (pt) m
• Russian: ю (ru) (ju) n (English), у (ru) (u) n
• Turkish: u (tr)
• Vietnamese: u (vi)

Derived terms

• u-turn
• u-bolt

Pronoun

u second person, singular or plural, nominative or objective

1. (abbreviation, slang, text messaging, Internet) you (in text messaging and internet conversations)

   Take me with u.

Abbreviation

u

1. Underwater.

Derived terms

• u-boat (1)

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Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch u / U.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /y/

Pronoun

u (familiar jy)

1. you (second-person singular formal subject pronoun)
2. you (second-person singular formal object pronoun)
3. your (second-person singular formal possessive pronoun)

See also

Afrikaans personal pronouns

		subjective	objective	possessive
singular	1st	ek	my
	2nd	jy	jou
	2nd, formal	u
	3rd, masc	hy	hom	sy
	3rd, fem	sy	haar
	3rd, neut	dit		sy
plural	1st	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.

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Albanian

Etymology

From Proto-Albanian *wa, from Proto-Indo-European *su̯om.

Pronoun

u

1. reflexive pronoun

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Asturian

Conjunction

u

1. or

Pronoun

u

1. where (relative pronoun)

Adverb

u

1. where

Related terms

• ú

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Azeri

Letter

u lower case (upper case U)

1. The twenty-eighth letter of the Azeri alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

• (Latin script letters) hərf; Aa, Bb, Cc, Çç, Dd, Ee, Əə, Ff, Gg, Ğğ, Hh, Xx, Iı, İi, Jj, Kk, Qq, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Öö, Pp, Rr, Ss, Şş, Tt, Uu, Üü, Vv, Yy, Zz

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Catalan

Etymology 1

Noun

u f (plural us)

1. The Latin letter U (lowercase u).

Etymology 2

Noun

u m (plural uns)

1. (cardinal) one

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Corsican

Article

u m

1. a, an

Related terms

• una

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Czech

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Preposition

u + genitive

1. at
2. by

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Dutch

Etymology

Originally the accusative/dative form of jij/gij, from Middle Dutch u, from Old Dutch iu, from West Germanic *iwwiz, variant of Proto-Germanic *izwiz, dative/accusative of *jūz, from Proto-Indo-European *yū́. Compare West Frisian jo, Low German jo, ju, English you, German euch. The use as a nominative stems from an original genitive uwe edelheid (“your gentlehood”), which was later shortened to U E. and finally to u. See also jou.

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

• IPA: /y/

Pronoun

u

1. (personal, second-person singular, subjective) you (polite).

   Bent u klaar? — “Are you ready?”

   Bent u er nog? — “Are you still there?”

2. (personal, second-person singular, objective) you (polite).

   Ik zal het aan u geven. — “I will give it to you.”

   Dit zal niet werken voor u. — “This won’t work for you.”

3. (personal, second-person singular, objective) thee (dialectal).

   Ik doe dat wel voor u. — “I’ll do it for thee.”

4. (personal, second-person plural, subjective) you (polite).

   Hebt u die oefening gemaakt? — “Have you prepared that exercise?”

5. (personal, second-person plural, objective) you (polite).

   Ze zullen dat wel voor u doen. — “They’ll do it for you.”

6. (reflexive, second-person singular) thyself (dialectal)

   Gij hebt u niet gewassen. — “Thou hast not washed thyself.”

7. (reflexive, second-person plural) yourselves (dialectal)

   Wast u eens. — “Wash yourselves.”

Usage notes

• The capitalization of u (as in U or Uw) is now considered old-fashioned, and no longer compulsory. In religious contexts, it is still often capitalized.
• See usage notes at gij.

Declension

Dutch personal pronouns

	subject		object		possessive			reflexive
singular	full	unstr.	full	unstr.	full	unstr.	pred.
1st person	ik	'k1	mij	me	mijn	m'n1	mijne	me
2nd person	jij	je	jou	je	jouw	je	jouwe	je
2nd person dialectal	gij	ge	u	–	uw	–	uwe	u
2nd person formal	u	–	u	–	uw	–	uwe	zich
3rd person masculine	hij	ie1	hem	'm1	zijn	z'n1	zijne	zich
3rd person feminine	zij	ze	haar	'r1, d'r1	haar	'r1, d'r1	hare	zich
3rd person neuter	het	't1	het	't1	zijn	z'n1	zijne	zich
plural
1st person	wij	we	ons	–	ons, onze2	–	onze	ons
2nd person	jullie	je	jullie	je	jullie	je	–	je
2nd person dialectal	gij	ge	u	–	uw	–	uwe	u
2nd person formal	u	–	u	–	uw	–	uwe	zich
3rd person	zij	ze	hen3, hun4	ze	hun	–	hunne	zich
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).

Letter

u (lower case, upper case U)

1. The twenty-first letter of the Dutch alphabet.

See also

• Previous letter: t
• Next letter: v

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Esperanto

Pronunciation

• (letter name): IPA: /u/
• (phoneme): IPA: /u/

• Audio

  (file)

Letter

u lower case (upper case U)

1. The twenty-fifth letter of the Esperanto alphabet, called u and written in the Latin script.

See also

• (Latin script letters) litero; Aa, Bb, Cc, Ĉĉ, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Ĝĝ, Hh, Ĥĥ, Ii, Jj, Ĵĵ, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Rr, Ss, Ŝŝ, Tt, Uu, Ŭŭ, Vv, Zz

Noun

u (plural u-oj, accusative singular u-on, accusative plural u-ojn)

1. The name of the Latin script letter U/u.

See also

• (Latin script letter names) litero; a, bo/‎be, co/‎ce, ĉo/‎ĉa, do/‎de, e, fo/‎ef, go/‎ge, ĝo/‎ĝe, ho/‎ha, ĥo/‎ĥi, i, jo/‎je, ĵo/‎ĵi, ko/‎ka, lo/‎el, mo/‎om, no/‎en, o, po/‎pa, ro/‎ar, so/‎es, ŝo/‎eŝ, to/‎ta, u, ŭo/‎eŭ, vo/‎vi, zo/‎ze ^{(Category: eo:Latin letter names)}

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Italian

Noun

u m, f (invariable)

1. See under U

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Japanese

Romanization

u

1. See う
2. See ウ

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Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA: /uː/, X-SAMPA: /u:/

Noun

ū (indeclinable)

1. The name of the letter V.

Coordinate terms

• (Latin’s names for the letters of its own alphabet): ā (A), bē (B), cē (C), dē (D), ē (E), ef (F), gē (G), hā (H), ī (I), kā (K), el (L), em (M), en (N), ō (O), pē (P), kū (Q), er (R), es (S), tē (T), ū (V), ix / īx / ex (X), ȳ (Y), zēta (Z)

References

• Arthur E. Gordon, The Letter Names of the Latin Alphabet (University of California Press, 1973; volume 9 of University of California Publications: Classical Studies), part III: “Summary of the Ancient Evidence”, page 32: "Clearly there is no question or doubt about the names of the vowels A, E, I, O, U. They are simply long A, long E, etc. (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū). Nor is there any uncertainty with respect to the six mutes B, C, D, G, P, T. Their names are bē, cē, dē, gē, pē, tē (each with a long E). Or about H, K, and Q: they are hā, kā, kū—each, again, with a long vowel sound."

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Latvian

Wikipedia ^lv

Etymology

Proposed in 1908 as part of the new Latvian spelling by the scientific commission headed by K. Mīlenbahs, which was accepted and began to be taught in schools in 1909. Prior to that, Latvian had been written in German Fraktur, and sporadically in Cyrillic.

Pronunciation

• IPA: [u]

Letter

U

u lower case (upper case U)

1. The twenty-ninth letter of the Latvian alphabet, called u and written in the Latin script.

See also

• Letters of the Latvian alphabet:

  burti: Aa, Āā, Bb, Cc, Čč, Dd, Ee, Ēē, Ff, Gg, Ģģ, Hh, Ii, Īī, Jj, Kk, Ķķ, Ll, Ļļ, Mm, Nn, Ņņ, Oo, Pp, Rr, Ss, Šš, Tt, Uu, Ūū, Vv, Zz, Žž

Pronunciation

• IPA: [u]

Noun

u m, invariable

1. The name of the Latin script letter U/u.

See also

• Latvian letter names:

  a (A), garais ā (Ā), bē (B), cē (C), čē (Č), dē (D), e (E), garais ē (Ē}, ef (F), gā (G), ģē (Ģ), hā (H), i (I), garais ī (Ī), jē (J), kā (K), ķē (Ķ), el (L), eļ (Ļ), em (M), en (N), eņ (Ņ), o (O), pē (P), er (R), es (S), eš (Š), tē (T), u (U), garais ū (Ū), vē (V), zē (Z), žē (Ž)

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Malay

Letter

u

1. The twenty-first letter of the Malay alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

• (Latin script letters) Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Qq, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww, Xx, Yy, Zz

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Maltese

Etymology

From Semitic. Cognate with Arabic وَ (wa), Hebrew וְ־ (v').

Conjunction

u

1. and (used to connect two similar words, phrases, etc.)

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Mauritian Creole

Pronoun

u (informal to)

1. Alternative spelling of ou.

See also

Mauritian Creole personal pronouns

			singular	plural
1st person			mo mwa (objective)	nou
2nd person			to (informal), ou (formal) twa (objective)	zot
3rd person			li	zot, bann-la

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Norman

Noun

u m (plural uûs or uur)

1. (anatomy) eye

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Norwegian

Pronunciation

• (letter name): IPA: /ʉː/
• (phoneme): IPA: /ʉː/, /ʉ/, /ʊ/

Letter

u

1. The 21st letter of the Norwegian alphabet

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Old French

Etymology

Latin ubi

Adverb

u

1. (interrogative) where

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Polish

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *u, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew.

Pronunciation

• IPA: [u]

• Audio

  (file)

Preposition

u (+ genitive)

1. at

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Portuguese

Letter

u lower case (upper case U)

1. The twenty-first letter of the Portuguese alphabet, called u and written in the Latin script.

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Pumpokol

Etymology

From Proto-Yeniseian *ʔaw (/ *ʔu) ("thou").

Pronoun

u

1. you (second-person plural subjective)

Synonyms

• úe

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Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA: /u/

Letter

u (lowercase, capital U)

1. The twenty-fifth letter of the Romanian alphabet representing the phoneme /u/. Preceded by ţ and followed by v.

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Romansch

Etymology

From Latin aut.

Conjunction

u

1. or

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Serbo-Croatian

Etymology 1

See Translingual section.

Alternative forms

• (uppercase) U

Pronunciation

• (phoneme) IPA: /u/

• audio

  (file)

Letter

u (Cyrillic spelling у)

1. The 27th letter of the Serbo-Croatian Latin alphabet (gajica), preceded by t and followed by v.

Etymology 2

From Proto-Slavic *u, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /u/

• audio

  (file)

Preposition

u (Cyrillic spelling у)

1. (with locative) in, at (without change of position, answering the question gdjȅ/gdȅ)

   biti u školi — to be in the school

   u c(ij)elom društvu — in the whole society

2. (with accusative) to, into (with change of position, answering the question kùda)

   ići u školu — to go to school

   putovati u Ameriku — to travel to America

3. (with accusative) on, in, at, during (in expressions concerning time)

   u podne — at noon

   u sr(ij)edu — on Wednesday

   u zoru — at dawn

   U koliko sati? — At what time?

4. (with locative) in, during (in expressions concerning time)

   u jednom danu — in one day

   u mladosti — during one's youth

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Somali

Preposition

u

1. to
2. for

Usage notes

• In Somali, prepositions fall before the verb and not before the noun they modify:

  u sheeg -- to tell (lit. to call to)

  u keen -- to bring to

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Spanish

Etymology 1

Letter

u (lower case, upper case U)

1. The 22nd letter of the Spanish alphabet.

Noun

u f (plural úes)

1. Name of the letter U.

Etymology 2

Conjunction

u

1. or

Usage notes

Used instead of o when the following word starts with a vowel sound which is pronounced /o/.

See also

• e

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Swahili

Prefix

u-

1. Marks noun class 11, denoting abstract nouns, singulatives, elongated objects, and countries.

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Swedish

Pronunciation

Letter name

• IPA: /ʉː/

Phoneme

• IPA: /ʉː/, /ɵ/

Letter

u lower case (upper case U)

1. The twenty-first letter of the Swedish alphabet, called u and written in the Latin script.

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Tolai

Pronoun

u

1. Second-person singular pronoun: you (singular)

Declension

Tolai personal pronouns

	singular	dual	paucal	plural
1st person exclusive	iau	amir mir	amital mital	avet ave1
1st person inclusive	-	dor	datal	dat da1
2nd person	u	amur mur	amutal mutal	avat ava1
3rd person	ia i	dir di	dital	diat dia1
1) The plural pronouns lose the final -t when preceding a verb.

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Torres Strait Creole

Noun

u

1. (eastern dialect) a mature coconut

Usage notes

U is the sixth stage of coconut growth. It is preceded by pes and followed by drai koknat.

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Turkish

Letter

u lower case (upper case U)

1. The twenty-fifth letter of the Turkish alphabet, called u and written in the Latin script.

See also

• (Latin script letters) harf; Aa, Bb, Cc, Çç, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Ğğ, Hh, Iı, İi, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Öö, Pp, Rr, Ss, Şş, Tt, Uu, Üü, Vv, Yy, Zz

Noun

u

1. The name of the Latin script letter U/u.

See also

• (Latin script letter names) harf; a, be, ce, çe, de, e, fe, ge, yumuşak ge, he, ı, i, je, ke, le, me, ne, o, ö, pe, re, se, şe, te, u, ü, ve, ye, ze ^{(Category: tr:Latin letter names)}

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Uzbek

Pronoun

u (Cyrillic у)

1. Demonstrative pronoun used to indicate a thing that is far away from the speaker. that.
   • U eshik.

     That is a door. / That door.