wy

See also: Wy, WY, wy-, -wy, .wy, and ŵy

English

Alternative forms

• wye

Noun

wy (plural wies)

1. The name of the letter Y.
   • 1856, Goold Brown, The First Lines of English Grammar, page 10:

     The names of the letters, as now commonly spoken and written in English, are A, Bee, Cee, Dee, E, Eff, Gee, Aitch, I, Jay, Kay, Ell, Em, En, O, Pee, Kue, Ar, Ess, Tee, U, Vee, Double-u, Ex, Wy, Zee.

Translations

name of the letter Y, y — see wye

Anagrams

• YW, yw

Afrikaans

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vəi/

• Audio:

  (file)

Pronoun

wy

1. Obsolete form of ons.

Lower Sorbian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *vy, from Proto-Indo-European *wos.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɨ/

Pronoun

wy pl

1. you (plural and formal)

Declension

Declension of the second-person pronouns

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ty	wej	wy
Genitive	śi tebje¹	waju	was
Dative	śi tebje¹	wama	wam
Accusative	śi tebje¹	waju	was
Instrumental	tobu	wama	wami
Locative	tebje	wama	was
Possessive determiner	twój	waju	waš

¹ Both śi and tebje are used when no preposition precedes, but after a preposition only tebje is used.

Mfumte

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɥ/

Letter

wy (upper case Wy)

1. A letter of the Mfumte alphabet.

Old Polish

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *vy. First attested in the 14th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (10^th–15^th CE) /vɨ/
• IPA^(key): (15^th CE) /vɨ/

Pronoun

wy

1. plural second person pronoun; you
2. polite singular second person pronoun; you

Declension

Declension of wy

	plural	dual
nominative	wy	—
genitive	was	—
dative	wam	wama
accusative	was	—
instrumental	wami	wama
locative	was	—
vocative	wy	—

Descendants

• Polish: wy
• Silesian: wy

References

• Boryś, Wiesław (2005) “wy”, in Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego (in Polish), Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, →ISBN
• B. Sieradzka-Baziur, Ewa Deptuchowa, Joanna Duska, Mariusz Frodyma, Beata Hejmo, Dorota Janeczko, Katarzyna Jasińska, Krystyna Kajtoch, Joanna Kozioł, Marian Kucała, Dorota Mika, Gabriela Niemiec, Urszula Poprawska, Elżbieta Supranowicz, Ludwika Szelachowska-Winiarzowa, Zofia Wanicowa, Piotr Szpor, Bartłomiej Borek, editors (2011–2015), “wy”, in Słownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków: IJP PAN, →ISBN

Polish

Etymology

Inherited from Old Polish wy.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɘ/

• (Middle Polish) IPA^(key): /vɨ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɘ
• Syllabification: wy

Pronoun

wy

1. plural second person pronoun; you
2. (dated) polite singular second person pronoun; you

   Synonyms: (for men) pan, (for women) pani

Declension

Declension of wy

	plural
nominative	wy
genitive	was
dative	wam
accusative	was
instrumental	wami
locative	was
vocative	wy

Trivia

According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), wy is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 2 times in scientific texts, 3 times in news, 11 times in essays, 64 times in fiction, and 199 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 279 times, making it the 182nd most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.

See also

• Appendix:Polish pronouns

Further reading

• wy in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• wy in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• Maria Renata Mayenowa, Stanisław Rospond, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Hrabec, Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023) “wy”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]
• Renata Bronikowska (22.06.2021) “WY”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century]
• Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814) “wy”, in Słownik języka polskiego
• Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861) “wy”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861
• J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1919), “wy”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), volume 7, Warsaw, page 791

Silesian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɪ/
• Rhymes: -ɪ
• Syllabification: wy

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old Polish wy.

Pronoun

wy

1. plural second person pronoun; you

Declension

Declension of wy

	plural
nominative	wy
genitive	wŏs, was
dative	wōm, wam
accusative	wŏs, was
instrumental	wami
locative	wŏs, was

Etymology 2

Preposition

wy

1. Alternative form of w, used mostly before words that begin with consonant clusters

Further reading

• wy in silling.org

Upper Sorbian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *vy, from Proto-Indo-European *wos.

Pronoun

wy

1. you (second-person plural)

Declension

Upper Sorbian personal pronouns

First person pronouns
	Singular			Dual		Plural
Nominative	ja			mój		my
Genitive	mje (after preposition) mnje			naju		nas
Dative	mi (after preposition) mni			namaj		nam
Accusative	mje (after preposition) mnje			naju		nas
Instrumental	mnu			namaj		nami
Locative	mni					nas
Second person pronouns
	Singular			Dual		Plural
Nominative	ty			wój		wy
Genitive	će (after preposition) tebje			waju		was
Dative	ći (after preposition) tebi			wamaj		wam
Accusative	će (after preposition) tebje			waju		was
Instrumental	tobu			wamaj		wami
Locative	tebi					was
Third person pronouns
	Masculine singular	Feminine singular	Neuter singular	Dual virile	Dual nonvirile	Plural virile	Plural nonvirile
Nominative	wón	wona	wono	wonaj	wonej	woni	wone
Genitive	jeho (after preposition) njeho	jeje (after preposition) njeje	jeho (after preposition) njeho	jeju		jich (after preposition) nich
Dative	jemu (after preposition) njemu	jej (after preposition) njej	jemu (after preposition) njemu	jimaj (after preposition) nimaj		jim (after preposition) nim
Accusative	jón (after preposition) njón (animate) jeho (animate after preposition) njeho	ju (after preposition) nju	jo, je (after preposition) njo, nje	jeju (after preposition) njeju	jej (after preposition) njej	jich (after preposition) nich	je (after preposition) nje
Instrumental	nim	njej	nim	nimaj		nimi
Locative						nich

Further reading

• “wy” in Soblex

Welsh

Etymology

From Middle Welsh wy, from Old Welsh ui, from Proto-Celtic *āwyom, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm.

Pronunciation

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /uːɨ̯/
• (South Wales, standard, colloquial) IPA^(key): /ʊi̯/
  • (South Wales, colloquial) IPA^(key): /wiː/
• Rhymes: -ʊɨ̯

Noun

wy m (plural wyau)

1. egg

Derived terms

• gwyn wy
• melyn wy
• wy Pasg
• wyfa, wygell (“ovary”)

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	h-prothesis
wy	unchanged	unchanged	hwy
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “wy”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian wī, from Proto-West Germanic *wiʀ, from Proto-Germanic *wīz, from Proto-Indo-European *wéy-, plural of *éǵh₂.

Pronunciation

• (Clay) IPA^(key): /vɛi̯/
• (Wood) IPA^(key): /vi/

Pronoun

wy

1. we (first-person plural nominative pronoun)

Inflection

West Frisian personal pronouns

Number	Person		Nominative	Objective		Possessive
				Normal	Reflexive	Determiner	Pronoun
Singular	First		ik	my	mysels	myn	mines
	Second	Informal	do/dû1	dy	dysels	dyn	dines
		Formal	jo	jo	josels	jo	jowes
	Third	Masculine	hy	him	himsels	syn	sines
		Feminine	sy/hja1	har	harsels	har	harres
		Neuter	it	it	himsels	syn	sines
Plural	First		wy	ús	ússels	ús	uzes
	Second		jim(me)	jim(me)	jimsels/jinsels	jim(me)	jimmes
	Third		sy/hja1	har(ren)	harsels	har(ren)	harres
1. Now mostly archaic and unused

Further reading

• “wy”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011