English edit

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /əm/, /m̩/ or, next to a vowel, sometimes /m/
  • (file)

Etymology 1 edit

Contraction of am.

Verb edit

’m (clitic)

  1. Am, used especially in I'm.
    • 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 edit

Etymology 2 edit

Pronoun edit

'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 edit

Contraction of madam/ma'am.

Noun edit

’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 edit

Etymology edit

Merged unstressed form of am and em or dem.

Article edit

'm m or n

  1. a (dative)
  2. the (dative)

See also edit

Catalan edit

Pronoun edit

'm

  1. Contraction of me.

Usage notes edit

  • 'm is the reduced (reduïda) form of the pronoun. It is used after verbs ending with a vowel.
    Truca'm.Call me.

Declension edit

Cornish edit

Determiner edit

'm

  1. my

Pronoun edit

'm

  1. me

Dutch edit

Pronunciation edit

Pronoun edit

'm

  1. Contracted form of hem
    Hij heeft 'm neergeschoten.
    He shot him.

Declension edit

Welsh edit

Pronunciation edit

Etymology 1 edit

Determiner edit

'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 edit

'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 edit
  • 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 edit

Particle edit

'm

  1. (colloquial) Contraction of ddim (not).
    Dwyt ti’m yn cofio Macsen.
    You don’t remember Macsen.

Further reading edit

  • 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