us

See also: Appendix:Variations of "us"

English

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *n̥smé

Proto-Germanic *uns

Old English ūs

Middle English us

English us

From Middle English us, from Old English ūs (“us”, dative personal pronoun), from Proto-Germanic *uns (“us”), from Proto-Indo-European *ne-, *nō-, *n-ge-, *n̥smé (“us”). The compensatory lengthening was lost in Middle English due to the word being unstressed while being used. Cognate with Saterland Frisian uus (“us”), West Frisian us, ús (“us”), Low German us (“us”), Dutch ons (“us”), German uns (“us”), Danish os (“us”), Latin nōs (“we, us”).

Pronunciation

• (stressed) enPR: ŭs, IPA^(key): /ʌs/, /ʌz/, (Local Dublin) IPA^(key): /ʊs/
• (unstressed) (US) IPA^(key): /əs/, (UK) IPA^(key): /əs/, /əz/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌs

Pronoun

us

1. (personal) Me and at least one other person; the objective case of we.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 1:1:

     Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us...

   Used where "me" would be used instead of "I", e.g. for the pronoun in isolation or as the complement of the copula:

   Who's there? —Us. (or) —It's us.

   Who's going to go? —Us. We'll go.

2. (Commonwealth, colloquial, chiefly with give) Me.

   Give us a look at your paper.

   Give us your wallet!

   She's turned the weans against us!

3. (Northern England) Our.

   We'll have to throw us food out.

4. (Northumbria) Me (in all contexts).

   Look at us while you’re speaking to us.

   Could you do that for us?

Alternative forms

• -'s (contracted form, as in let's)
• uz, is, iz (Northumbria)

Derived terms

• after us the deluge
• all your base are belong to us
• and so say all of us
• bless us
• can you tell us
• come down to us
• God preserve us
• it happens to the best of us
• let us
• let us count the ways
• let us go
• my very educated mother just served us nachos
• my very educated mother just served us nine pizzas
• my very educated mother just served us nine pumpkins
• my very educated mother just served us noodles
• my very excellent mother just served us nine pizzas
• no longer with us
• nothing about us without us
• still with us
• tell us another
• tell us another one
• them-and-us
• the poor we will always have with us
• they hate us 'cause they ain't us
• till death do us part
• till death us do part
• us-and-them
• us-and-them-ism
• us selves
• usses
• us versus them
• with us

 

Translations

objective case of "we"

• American Sign Language: 1^o-f@IpsiChest-FingerBack RoundHoriz 1^o-f@ContraChest-FingerBack
• Arabic: ـنَا (-nā), إِيَّانَا (ʔiyyānā)

  Egyptian Arabic: ـنا (-nā)

• Armenian: մեզ (hy) (mez)

  Old Armenian: մեզ (mez)

• Bengali: আমাদের (bn) (amader)
• Bislama: yumi, yumitupela (dual inclusive); yumitripela (trial inclusive); yumipela (plural inclusive); mitupela (dual exclusive); mitripela (trial exclusive); mipela (plural exclusive)
• Burmese: ကျုပ်တို့ (kyuptui.), တို့ (my) (tui.)
• Catalan: (classical) nos (ca), (colloquial) mos (ca), (contracted) ens (ca)
• Chamicuro: a'ti
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 我哋 (yue) (ngo⁵ dei⁶)

  Hokkien: 阮 (zh-min-nan) (góan, gún), 咱 (zh-min-nan) (lán), 咱人 (zh-min-nan) (lán-lâng)

  Mandarin: 我們／我们 (zh) (wǒmen)

• Czech: nás (cs), nám (cs)
• Dalmatian: noi
• Dutch: ons (nl)
• Eshtehardi: چَما (ĉamā)
• Esperanto: nin (eo)
• Ewe: míawo
• Finnish: meidät (fi), meitä (fi)
• French: nous (fr), à nous
• Georgian: ჩვენს (čvens)
• German: uns (de)
• Greek: μας (el) (mas)
• Hopi: itamuy
• Hungarian: minket (hu), bennünket (hu)
• Ido: ni (io)
• Interlingua: nos (ia)
• Irish: sinn pl

  Old Irish: n-, don-, -unn

• Italian: noi (it), a noi, ci (it)
• Japanese: 私達 (ja) (watashitachi)
• Kabuverdianu: nu
• Kazakh: бізді (bızdı)
• Kituba: beto
• Korean: 우리 (ko) (uri)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: ئێمە (ême)

• Latin: (accusative) nos (la), (dative) nobis (la), (ablative) nobis (la)
• Lingala: bísó
• Low German: uns, üsch, üsseck
• Macedonian: ни (ni), нас (nas), нам (nam)
• Malay: kami (ms) pl (exclusive), kita (ms) pl (inclusive)
• Maori: māua (exclusive referring to two people), tāua (inclusive referring to two people), mātau/mātou (exclusive referring to three or more people), tātau/tātou (inclusive referring to three or more people)
• Ngarrindjeri: ngatjagha
• Ngazidja Comorian: sisi
• Norn: vus
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: oss (no)

  Nynorsk: oss

• Old English: ūs (ang)
• Persian: ما (fa) (mâ)
• Pipil: tech-
• Polish: nas (pl), nam (pl), nami
• Portuguese: nos (pt)
• Romanian: ne (ro) (unstressed dative and accusative), nouă (ro) (stressed dative), (pe) noi (stressed accusative)
• Russian: нас (ru) pl (nas), нам (ru) pl (nam), на́ми (ru) pl (námi)
• Scottish Gaelic: sinn pl
• Serbo-Croatian: nas (sh)
• Slovene: midva (sl) (‘us two’), midve (‘us two women’), mi (sl) (three or more), me (sl) (three or more women)
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: naju du, nas pl

• Spanish: nos (es), nosotros (es), nosotras (es)
• Svan: please add this translation if you can
• Swedish: oss (sv)
• Ukrainian: нас (uk) (nas), нам (uk) (nam)
• Volapük: obis
• Welsh: ni
• West Frisian: ús (fy)
• Wolof: nu
• Zulu: thina

colloquial: me

• German: (accusative) mich (de), (dative) mir (de)

See also

• we
• our
• ours

English personal pronouns

Dialectal and obsolete or archaic forms are in italics.

			personal pronoun			possessive pronoun	possessive determiner
			subjective	objective	reflexive
first person	singular		I me (colloquial)	me	myself me mysen	mine	my mine (before vowels, archaic) me
	plural		we	us	ourselves ourself oursen	ours	our
second person	singular	standard, formal	you	you	yourself yoursen	yours yourn (obsolete outside dialects)	your
		archaic, informal	thou	thee	thyself theeself thysen	thine	thy thine (before vowels)
	plural	standard	you ye (archaic)	you	yourselves	yours yourn (obsolete outside dialects)	your
		colloquial	you all y'all you guys	you all y'all you guys	y'allselves	y'all's you guys' your guys' (proscribed)	y'all's your all's (nonstandard) you guys' your guys' (proscribed)
		informal / dialectal	(see list of dialectal forms at you and inflected forms in those entries)
third person	singular	masculine	he	him	himself hisself (archaic) hissen	his hisn (obsolete outside dialects)	his
		feminine	she	her	herself hersen	hers hern (obsolete outside dialects)	her
		neuter	it hit	it hit	itself hitself	its his (archaic)	its his (archaic) hits
		genderless	they	them	themself, themselves	theirs	their
		genderless, nonspecific (formal)	one	one	oneself	–	one's
	plural		they	them hem, 'em	themselves theirsen	theirs theirn (obsolete outside dialects)	their

Determiner

us

1. The speakers/writers, or the speaker/writer and at least one other person.

   It's not good enough for us teachers.

See also

• we

Etymology 2

Derived from the similarity between the letter u and the Greek letter µ.

Symbol

us

1. Alternative spelling of µs: microsecond
   • 2002, Peter Spasov, Microcontroller Technology, the 68HC11, page 489:

     ;wait 500 us

   • 2012, Peter Feiler, David Gluch, Model-Based Engineering with AADL:

     The standard units are ns (nanoseconds), us (microseconds), ms (milliseconds), sec (seconds), min (minutes), and hr (hours).

   • 2014, Michael Corey, Jeff Szastak, Michael Webster, Virtualizing SQL Server with VMware: Doing IT Right, page 198:

     Because the flash devices are local to the server, the latencies can be microseconds (us) instead of milliseconds (ms) and eliminate some traffic that would normally have gone over the storage network.

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

us

1. (rare) Alternative form of u's.

Anagrams

• SU, Su

Catalan

Etymology

Inherited from Latin vōs.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [us]
• Homophone: ús

Pronoun

us (proclitic and contracted enclitic, enclitic vos)

1. you (plural, direct or indirect object)
2. Contraction of vos.

Usage notes

• us is the reinforced (reforçada) form of the pronoun. It is used before verbs.

  Si us plau. ― Please.

  Si no us importa. ― If you don't mind.

• -us is the reduced (reduïda) form of the pronoun. It is used after verbs ending with a vowel.

  Volia veure-us. ― I wanted to see you.

Declension

Catalan personal pronouns and clitics

	strong/subject	weak (direct object)		weak (indirect object)		possessive
singular		proclitic	enclitic	proclitic	enclitic
1st person	jo, mi3	em, m’	-me, ’m	em, m’	-me, ’m	meu
1st person majestic1	nós	ens	-nos, ’ns	ens	-nos, ’ns	nostre
2nd person	tu	et, t’	-te, ’t	et, t’	-te, ’t	teu
2nd person formal1	vós	us	-vos, -us	us	-vos, -us	vostre
2nd person very formal2	vostè	el, l’	-lo, ’l	li	-li	seu
3rd person masculine	ell	el, l’	-lo, ’l	li	-li	seu
3rd person feminine	ella	la, l’4	-la	li	-li	seu
3rd person neuter		ho	-ho	li	-li	seu
3rd person reflexive	si	es, s’	-se, ’s	es, s’	-se, ’s	seu
plural
1st person	nosaltres	ens	-nos, ’ns	ens	-nos, ’ns	nostre
2nd person	vosaltres	us	-vos, -us	us	-vos, -us	vostre
2nd person formal2	vostès	els	-los, ’ls	els	-los, ’ls	seu
3rd person masculine	ells	els	-los, ’ls	els	-los, ’ls	seu
3rd person feminine	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-.

Further reading

• “us” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
• “us”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “us” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Central Franconian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /us/, (stressed optionally) /uːs/

Etymology 1

From Middle High German ūz, from Proto-Germanic *ūt.

Preposition

us (+ dative)

1. (Ripuarian, parts of Moselle Franconian) out of, from
   • 1936, Inscription on the Schwarze Katz well in Zell:

     He steiht ferm wie en Zeller us dem Hamm.

     He stands firm as a Zell man from the Hamm [i.e. the Moselle bow around Zell with its steeply sloped vineyards].

Usage notes

• Where it occurs in Moselle Franconian, it generally does so only in unstressed position while the stressed form is aus, ous.

Alternative forms

• uus, uss
• aus, ous (Moselle Franconian)

Etymology 2

From Middle High German uns, from Proto-Germanic *uns, *unsiz. Loss of the nasal is due to a sporadic development (analogous to the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant-law, but later and not systematic); compare Luxembourgish eis, Limburgish ós.

Pronoun

us

1. (most of Ripuarian, parts of Moselle Franconian) Dative/accusative first-person plural personal pronoun: us

Alternative forms

• uus, uss
• oos, os, oss (common variant)
• uns, ons (Kölsch, also younger byform in many other dialects)

Fala

Etymology 1

From Old Galician-Portuguese os, from Latin illōs.

Alternative forms

• os (Mañegu)

Article

us m pl (singular u, feminine a, feminine plural as)

1. (Lagarteiru, Valverdeñu) Masculine plural definite article; the

Pronoun

us

1. (Lagarteiru, Valverdeñu) Third person plural masculine accusative pronoun; them

See also

Fala personal pronouns

			nominative	dative	accusative	disjunctive
first person	singular		ei	me, -mi		mi
	plural	common	nos	musL nusLV nos, -nusM		nos
		masculine	noshotrusM			noshotrusM
		feminine	noshotrasM			noshotrasM
second person	singular		tú	te, -ti		ti
	plural	common	vos	vusLV vos, -vusM		vos
		masculine	voshotrusM			voshotrusM
		feminine	voshotrasM			voshotrasM
third person	singular	masculine	el	le, -li	uLV, oM	el
		feminine	ela		a	ela
	plural	masculine	elis		usLV, osM	elis
		feminine	elas		as	elas
	reflexive		—	se, -si		sí

Etymology 2

Alternative forms

• unhos (Mañegu)
• unhus (Valverdeñu)

Article

us m pl (singular un, feminine unha, feminine plural unhas)

1. (Lagarteiru) Masculine singular indefinite article; some

References

• Valeš, Miroslav (2021) Diccionariu de A Fala: lagarteiru, mañegu, valverdeñu (web)‎^[1], 2nd edition, Minde, Portugal: CIDLeS, published 2022, →ISBN

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French us, from Latin ūsus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ys/, (less often) /y/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ys, -y
• Homophones: eusse, eussent, eusses (with /s/), eu, eue, eues, eus, eut, eût, u (without /s/), hue, huent, hues (without /s/, aspirated)

Noun

us m pl (plural only)

1. (plural only) mores; traditional practices or manners

Usage notes

• Now almost exclusively used in us et coutumes (“mores and customs”).

Related terms

• abus
• user, usage, usuel

Further reading

• “us”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• su

Gothic

Romanization

us

1. Romanization of 𐌿𐍃

Middle English

Alternative forms

• ous, os, hus, usse, hous

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *n̥smé

Proto-Germanic *uns

Old English ūs

Middle English us

From Old English ūs (“us”, dative personal pronoun), from Proto-Germanic *uns (“us”), from Proto-Indo-European *ne-, *nō-, *n-ge-, *n-sme- (“us”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /us/, /uːs/

Pronoun

us (nominative we)

1. First-person plural accusative pronoun: us.
2. (reflexive) ourselves.
3. (reciprocal) each other.

Synonyms

• we

Descendants

• English: us
• Scots: us, hus
• Yola: ouse, ouz, uz

See also

Middle English personal pronouns

			nominative	accusative	dative	genitive	possessive
singular	1st-person		I, ich, ik	me		min mi1	min
	2nd-person		þou	þe		þin þi1	þin
	3rd-person	m	he	him hine2	him	his	his hisen
		f	sche, heo	hire heo	hire		hire hires, hiren
		n	hit		hit him2	his, hit	—
dual3	1st-person		wit	unk		unker
	2nd-person		ȝit	inc		inker
plural	1st-person		we	us, ous		oure	oure oures, ouren
	2nd-person4		ye	yow		your	your youres, youren
	3rd-person	inh.	he	hem he2	hem	here	here heres, heren
		bor.	þei	þem, þeim		þeir	þeir þeires, þeiren

¹Used preconsonantally or before h.
²Early or dialectal.
³Dual pronouns are only sporadically found in Early Middle English; after that, they are replaced by plural forms. There are no third-person dual forms in Middle English.
⁴Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.

References

• “ū̆s, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 11 May 2018.

Middle Low German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʊs/, /uːs/

Pronoun

ûs or us

1. (personal pronoun, dative, accusative) Alternative form of uns.
2. (possesive pronoun) Alternative form of uns.

Declension

Possesive pronoun:

Declension of us

	nominative	accusative	dative	genitive
	Strong declension
Masculine	ûs	ûsen	ûsem(e) (ûsennote)	ûses
Neuter		ûs
Feminine		ûse	ûser(e)
Plural	ûse		ûsen	ûser(e)
	Weak declension
Masculine	ûse	ûsen	ûsen
Neuter		ûse
Feminine		ûsen
Plural	ûsen
The longer forms become rarer in the course of the period.

Norman

Etymology

From Old French uis, from Latin ostium.

Noun

us m (plural us)

1. door

Old English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *n̥smé

Proto-Germanic *uns

Old English us

From Proto-Germanic *uns, from Proto-Indo-European *n̥s, *nes. Cognates include Old Frisian ūs (West Frisian ús), Old Saxon ūs (Low German os, ons), Dutch ons, Old High German uns (German uns), Old Norse oss (Swedish oss), Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍃 (uns). The Indo-European root is also the source of Latin nos.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /uːs/

Pronoun

ūs

1. accusative/dative of wē: (to) us

Descendants

• Middle English: us, ous, os, hus, usse, hous
  • English: us
  • Scots: us, hus
  • Yola: ouse, ouz, uz

Old French

Etymology

From Latin ūsus.

Noun

us oblique singular, m (oblique plural us, nominative singular us, nominative plural us)

1. tradition or custom

Descendants

• French: us

Old Frisian

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *uns, *unsiz. Cognates include Old English ūs, Old Saxon ūs and Old Dutch uns.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈuːs/

Pronoun

ūs

1. accusative/dative of wī

Inflection

Old Frisian personal pronoun declensions

	singular					plural
	1st	2nd	3rd m	3rd f	3rd n	1st	2nd	3rd
nominative	ik	thū	hī	hiū, hiō	hit	wī	jī	hiā
accusative	mī	thī	hine	hiā	hit	ūs	jū, jō	hiā
dative	mī	thī	him	hire, hiāre	him	ūs	jū, jō	him, hirem, hiārem
genitive	mīn	thīn	sīn	hire, hiāre	sīn	ūser	jūwer	hira, hiāra

Descendants

• North Frisian:

  Most dialects: üs

  Sylt: üüs

• Saterland Frisian: uus
• West Frisian: ús

References

• Bremmer, Rolf H. (2009) An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -us

Noun

us

1. plural of u

Scots

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English us, from Old English ūs (“us”, dative personal pronoun), from Proto-Germanic *uns (“us”), from Proto-Indo-European *ne-, *nō-, *n-ge-, *n̥smé (“us”).

Pronoun

us

1. us

See also

Scots personal pronouns

			personal pronoun			possessive pronoun	possessive determiner
			subjective	objective	reflexive
first person	singular		A, I, Ik	me	mysel	mine, mines	mine, my
	plural		we	us, we	oorsel, oorsels	oors	our
second person	singular	standard (formal)	ye you, yow	ye you, yow	yersel yoursel	yers yours	yer your
		Insular (informal)	thoo	thee	thysel, theesel	thines	thy, thee, thees
	plural		ye, yese you, youse	ye, yese you, youse theer	yesels yoursels	yers yours	yer your
third person	singular	masculine	he, e	him, im	himsel, hissel	his, is	his, is
		feminine	scho, she, shu	her, er	hersel	hers	her, er
		neuter	it hit	it hit	itsel hitsel	its hits	its hits
		genderless, nonspecific (formal)	ane	ane	–	–	ane's
	plural		thay	thaim	thaimsel, thaimsels	thairs	thair

References

• “us, pers. pron.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 7 June 2024, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
• “us, pers. pron.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 7 June 2024, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *ǫsъ.

Noun

ȕs f (Cyrillic spelling у̏с)

1. fishbone

References

• “us”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2024

Turkish

Etymology

From Ottoman Turkish اوص (us), from Proto-Turkic *us (“mind, reason”).

Noun

us (definite accusative usu, plural uslar)

1. mind
2. reason
3. intelligence

Declension

Inflection
Nominative	us
Definite accusative	usu
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	us	uslar
Definite accusative	usu	usları
Dative	usa	uslara
Locative	usta	uslarda
Ablative	ustan	uslardan
Genitive	usun	usların
Possessive forms Nominative Singular Plural 1st singular usum uslarım 2nd singular usun usların 3rd singular usu usları 1st plural usumuz uslarımız 2nd plural usunuz uslarınız 3rd plural usları usları Definite accusative Singular Plural 1st singular usumu uslarımı 2nd singular usunu uslarını 3rd singular usunu uslarını 1st plural usumuzu uslarımızı 2nd plural usunuzu uslarınızı 3rd plural uslarını uslarını Dative Singular Plural 1st singular usuma uslarıma 2nd singular usuna uslarına 3rd singular usuna uslarına 1st plural usumuza uslarımıza 2nd plural usunuza uslarınıza 3rd plural uslarına uslarına Locative Singular Plural 1st singular usumda uslarımda 2nd singular usunda uslarında 3rd singular usunda uslarında 1st plural usumuzda uslarımızda 2nd plural usunuzda uslarınızda 3rd plural uslarında uslarında Ablative Singular Plural 1st singular usumdan uslarımdan 2nd singular usundan uslarından 3rd singular usundan uslarından 1st plural usumuzdan uslarımızdan 2nd plural usunuzdan uslarınızdan 3rd plural uslarından uslarından Genitive Singular Plural 1st singular usumun uslarımın 2nd singular usunun uslarının 3rd singular usunun uslarının 1st plural usumuzun uslarımızın 2nd plural usunuzun uslarınızın 3rd plural uslarının uslarının

Synonyms

• akıl
• zihin

Derived terms

• uslu
• us dışı
• us pahası
• usa vurmak
• uslamlamak
• usuna getirmek

Tz'utujil

Noun

us

1. fly (insect)

Volapük

Adverb

us

1. there
   • 1932, Arie de Jong, Leerboek der Wereldtaal, page 19:

     Cils äbinons-li i pö zäl et? Si! elogob us tumis.

     Were there children at that party as well? Yes, I've seen hundreds of them there.

West Frisian

Pronoun

us

1. object of wy