ni

• IPA^(key): /ni/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

ni

1. (grammar) Initialism of noun inanimate.

• na
• nad
• nid

• -in, -in', IN, i'n, in, in-

ni

1. you (singular)

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *nəj(ʔ).

• (Myanmar) /ni˧/
• (Longchuan) [ne³¹]
• (Xiandao) [nɛ³¹]

ni

1. near, close

   ni los

   come near

• Inglis, Douglas; Sampu, Nasaw; Jaseng, Wilai; Jana, Thocha (2005), A preliminary Ngochang–Kachin–English Lexicon‎^[2], Payap University, page 93

• IPA^(key): /ˈni/ [ˈnɪ]
• Hyphenation: ni

ní

1. our
   • Saytun Qhuraan kee kay maqnah tarjamaty Qafar afal tani [The clear Qur'an and its explanation translated into the Afar language]‎^[3], Suurat Al-Faatica, verse 5:

     Diggah nanu Ni Rabbow koo inkittosnaah Qibaada dibuk koo caglisna, nanu ni-caagiidah inkih cato koo esserra.

     Our God, with strength we make you whole, only you we give [our] adoration, we as one ask you for help with our afairs.

• E. M. Parker; R. J. Hayward (1985), “ni”, in An Afar-English-French dictionary (with Grammatical Notes in English), University of London, →ISBN
• Mohamed Hassan Kamil (2015), L’afar: description grammaticale d’une langue couchitique (Djibouti, Erythrée et Ethiopie)‎^[4], Paris: Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (doctoral thesis)

From Proto-Ainu *ni. A primary root denoting both the material "wood" and the functional concept of a "thing" or "entity" in compounds.

• IPA^(key): /ní/

ni

1. A tree.
2. wood; timber.
3. A thing; an object (usually in compounds).

   Tun-ni

   leather-thing (bearded seal)

4. (archaic) A person.

• nitay (“forest”)
• nikap (“bark”)
• nip (“handle”)
• tunnin (“bearded seal”)
• nirus (“dandruff”)

• Vovin, Alexander (1993), A Reconstruction of Proto-Ainu, Leiden: Brill.
• Batchelor, John (1905), An Ainu-English-Japanese Dictionary, Tokyo: Methodist Publishing House.

• tani
• nani
• nime

From Proto-Albanian *nū, from Proto-Indo-European *nū (“now”). Cognate to Sanskrit नू (nū, “now”).^[1] Often occurs in coordination with other particles, compare tani, nani, nime.

ni

1. now

   Synonyms: tash, tani, hë, nani, nime

• nu

ni

1. (Mpakwithi) place
2. (Mpakwithi) camp

• Terry Crowley, The Mpakwithi dialect of Anguthimri (1981), page 187

• nã

From Vulgar Latin nīs, from Latin nos. Compare Romanian ne (older form nă).

ni (unstressed accusative and reflexive form of noi)

1. (direct object, first-person plural) us

• noi (stressed accusative)

ni (unstressed dative and reflexive form of noi)

1. (indirect object, first-person plural) (to) us

• nau (stressed dative)

• vi

ni f (uncountable)

1. nu (name for the letter of the Greek alphabet: Ν and ν)

From Proto-Bodo-Garo *nɯi⁴ (“two”), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kV-ni-s (“two”). Cognate with S'gaw Karen ခံ (khee), Tibetan གཉིས (gnyis), Sikkimese ཉི (nyi), Nuosu ꑍ (nyip), Burmese နှစ် (hnac).

• IPA^(key): /ni/

ni (Bengali script নি)

1. two

• rongni
• tu
• do

• van Breugel, Seino. 2015. Atong-English dictionary, second edition. Available online: https://www.academia.edu/487044/Atong_English_Dictionary.

ni

1. soul, life, spirit

ni

1. if

   Ni taara sugu la, i bɛ ne ba ye.

   If you go to the market, you will see my mother

2. when

• Richard Nci Diarra, Lexique bambara-français-anglais, December 13, 2010

From Proto-Basque *ni.

• IPA^(key): /ni/ [ni]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -i
• Hyphenation: ni

ni (emphatic forms neu, nihaur, nerau)

1. First-person singular personal pronoun; I
   • c. 1808, Juan Bautista Aguirre, Eracusaldiac [Lessons]‎^[5], Tolosa, published 1850, page 473:

     […] Jauna: ez naiz ni beñere izan zu neure viotzean artzeco diña […]

     [ […] Jauna, ez naiz ni beñere izan zu nere biotzean artzeko diña […] ]

     […] Lord, not even once have I been worth of belonging to your heart […]

   • 1989, Gorka Aulestia, Basque-English Dictionary, Douglas: William A, page 53:

     Ni errege izan nintzen.

     I was king.

   • 2013, Patricio Urquizu Sarasua, Gramática de la lengua vasca, Universidad Nacional de Educación de Distancia, page 154:

     Ni etorri naiz.

     I have come.

• “ni”, in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy] (in Basque), Euskaltzaindia [Royal Academy of the Basque Language]
• “ni”, in Orotariko Euskal Hiztegia [General Basque Dictionary], Euskaltzaindia, 1987–2005

Clipping of ani. Not attested in Ofo, which is related to this language.

ni

1. alternative form of ani (“water”)

• David Kaufman (2011), Tanêks–Tąyosą Kadakathi [Biloxi–English Dictionary]‎^[6], Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas, →ISBN, page 34
• James Owen Dorsey, John Reed Swanton (1912), “aniʼ, ni”, in A Dictionary of the Biloxi and Ofo Languages, Accompanied with Thirty-One Biloxi Texts and Numerous Biloxi Phrases (Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin; 47)‎^[7], Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 173

From Proto-Brythonic *ni, from Proto-Celtic *snīs.

ni

1. we (first-person plural personal pronoun)

From Proto-Brythonic *nei, from Proto-Celtic *neɸūss, from Proto-Indo-European *népōts.

ni m (plural nied)

1. nephew

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ni]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -i

ni

1. neither, nor

ni

1. not even, even

ni f (plural nis)

1. nu; the Greek letter Ν (lowercase ν)

• IPA^(key): /ni/ [n̪i]
• Hyphenation: ni

ni (Basahan spelling ᜈᜒ)

1. of; possessive particle, used only with personal names

   bisikleta ni Juan ― Juan's bicycle

• IPA^(key): /ni˩/, [ni˩]

ni

1. I, me (first person pronoun)

• Clark, Mary M. (1893), Ao Naga grammar with illustrative phrases and vocabulary, Molung: Assam Secretariat Printing Office, page 10
• A. R. Coupe (2007), A grammar of Mongsen Ao, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 89

• (Revived Late Cornish) nei

From Proto-Celtic *snīs. Cognate with Breton ne and Welsh ni.

ni

1. we (1st person plural subject pronoun)

   Ni a welas.

   We saw.

2. our, us (1st person plural enclitic pronoun, used to reinforce previous pronoun)

   agan lyver ni

   our book

   Ple ethen ni?

   Where did we go?

• IPA^(key): [ˈɲɪ]
• Hyphenation: ni

ni f

1. alternative form of ji (prepositional)

   Pamatujeme si na ni.

   We remember her.

Danish numbers ^(edit)

	90
←  8	9	10  →
Cardinal: ni     Ordinal: niende
Danish Wikipedia article on 9

From Old Norse níu, from Proto-Germanic *newun, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁néwn̥ (“nine”).

• IPA^(key): /niː/, [niːˀ]

ni

1. nine

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ku-ni(k).

ni

1. day

• Ross Perlin (2019), A Grammar of Trung‎^[8], Santa Barbara: University of California

• IPA^(key): /ni/

ni

1. they

• Leenhardt, M. (1946), Langues et dialectes de l'Austro-Mèlanèsie. Cited in: "ⁿDuᵐbea" in Greenhill, S.J., Blust, R., & Gray, R.D. (2008). The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 4:271–283.
• Shintani, T.L.A. & Païta, Y. (1990), Dictionnaire de la langue de Païta, Nouméa: Sociéte d'etudes historiques de Nouvelle-Calédonie. Cited in: "Drubea" in Greenhill, S.J., Blust, R., & Gray, R.D. (2008). The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 4:271–283.

ni

1. this.

ni

1. this.

From Italian noi, French nous, Spanish nos, Latin nos, plus the i of personal pronouns.

• IPA^(key): /ni/

• Audio 1:

  (file)

• Audio 2:

  (file)

• Audio 3:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -i
• Syllabification: ni

ni (first-person plural, accusative nin, possessive nia)

1. we (first-person plural personal pronoun)

   Ni batis lin.

   We hit him.

2. ourselves

   Ni diris al ni.

   We said to ourselves.

• “ni”, in Plena Ilustrita Vortaro de Esperanto [Complete Illustrated Dictionary of Esperanto], 2020, →ISBN
• “ni”, in Reta Vortaro [Online Dictionary] (in Esperanto), 1997-2026

From Middle French ny, from Old French ne, from Latin nec. Compare Italian né, Catalan and Spanish ni, Portuguese nem.

• IPA^(key): /ni/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Paris)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

ni

1. neither; nor
   • 1898, Revue du monde invisible, page 339:

     Notre imagination, si ardente qu'on la suppose, ne peut ni guérir instantanément une lésion organique, ni ressusciter un mort.

     Our imagination, so ardent as we suppose, can neither instantaneously heal an organic lesion, nor resuscitate the dead.

   • 1876, Bulletins et mémoires de la Société médicale des hôpitaux de Paris, Volume 12:

     […] les constitutions accidentelles ou intercurrentes ne sont ni moins importantes ni plus faciles à expliquer.

     […] accidental or intercurrent constitutions are neither less important nor easier to explain.

   • c. 1656–1662, Blaise Pascal, “Preuves par discours I – Papier original : RO 3-1 r° / v° et RO 7-1 r° / v°”, in Pensées [Thoughts]‎^[9]:

     Mais nous ne connaissons ni l’existence ni la nature de Dieu, parce qu’il n’a ni étendue, ni bornes.

     But we know neither the existence nor the nature of God, because He has neither extent nor limits.

• Used with the negative particle ne.
• Chiefly used at least twice in the same sentence the same way neither and nor would be used in an English sentence, such as ni riche, ni pauvre (“neither rich nor poor”).

• soit

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

ni

1. romanization of 𐌽𐌹

From Proto-Austronesian *ni (“marker of possession”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈni/ [ˈni]
• Rhymes: -i
• Syllabification: ni

ni (Hanunoo spelling ᜨᜲ)

1. of; by

   ti luka ni Bado ― lime tube of Bado

   Kinaon ni Bado ti burot.

   The wild yam was eaten by Bado.

• Conklin, Harold C. (1953), Hanunóo-English Vocabulary (University of California Publications in Linguistics), volume 9, London, England: University of California Press, →OCLC, page 198

• níi

From Proto-Chadic *ʔanī, from earlier *ʔan-yi, from Proto-Afroasiatic *yi (“me”), not from *ʔanāku (“I”). Compare Proto-Cushitic *ʔani. Cognate with Gwandara ani.

• IPA^(key): /níː/
  • (Standard Kano Hausa) IPA^(key): [níː]

nī

1. I (1st person singular pronoun)

• mínì (1st person singular indirect object enclitic pronoun)
• nì (1st person singular independent object pronoun)
• -wá (1st person singular possessive enclitic pronoun)

Native word of debated origin:^[1]

• Shortened from nézd (“look!”) ~ nízd (a dialectal variant).
• An onomatopoeia expressing astonishment.

• IPA^(key): [ˈni]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ni

ni

1. (colloquial) lo!, look!

   Itt van ni! ― Look! Here it is!

Most of the time it is used in its duplicated form: nini!

• ni in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.

ni

1. water

• Idi Organised Phonology Data

ni

1. (personal) we (first-person plural personal pronoun)

ni

1. (colloquial) apheretic form of ini

• (Ala-Laukaa) IPA^(key): /ˈni/, [ˈni]
• (Soikkola) IPA^(key): /ˈni/, [ˈni]
• Rhymes: -i
• Hyphenation: ni

ni

1. alternative form of niin
   • 1937, V. A. Tetjurev, translated by N. I. Molotsova, Loonnontiito (ensimäin osa): oppikirja alkușkoulun kolmatta klaassaa vart, Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-Pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 6:

     Jot saavva tiitä mitä ono pintamaas, ni pittää tehä mokomat oopьtat.

     In order to get to know what is in the topsoil, (that's why) it's important to perform such experiments.

• Ruben E. Nirvi (1971), Inkeroismurteiden Sanakirja, Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, page 340

• nec

From French and Spanish ni, from Latin nec (“and not”).

ni

1. and not.

   Io non sape, ni vole saper ― I don’t know, and I don’t want to know

2. Neither, nor.

   Illo ni me place ni displace ― It neither pleases me nor displeases me

3. And, or (following a "with no" or "without").

   Nos debe resister sin aqua ni alimento ― We must resist with no water or food

• IPA^(key): /ˈni/
• Rhymes: -i
• Hyphenation: nì

Blend of no +‎ sì.

ni

1. (informal) neither yes nor no

ni m or f (invariable)

1. nu (Greek letter)

• in, in-

ni

1. The hiragana syllable に (ni) or the katakana syllable ニ (ni) in Hepburn romanization.

• nina

ni

1. water

• The Papuan Languages of New Guinea (1986, →ISBN

From Proto-Siouan *wa-rį́• (“water”).

ni

1. water
2. any liquid
3. river

• Kansa dictionary
• Quapaw dictionary, in notes: "ni (ni) - water, river, liquid (Kanza)"

Borrowed from Spanish ni (“not even”), from Old Spanish nin, from Latin nec, apocopated form of neque.

ni

1. neither; nor

   Synonyms: ke, kesyo

   Niyakupin alikuman mekapangan.

   Even I did not eat anything.

   Nimangalinguwan nitabili, aliku.

   Neither moving on nor letting go, I can't.

ni

1. not even

   Synonym: agyang

   Alakung inyad ninanuman.

   I did not even ask for anything.

• IPA^(key): /ni/

ni

1. this

From Pattani Malay ni.

ni

1. this

• Mohd Nor, M. R.; Hasan, H. (2010), “Kebolehan Bahasa Masyarakat Cina Peranakan Kelantan”, in Jurnal Usuluddin‎^[10], volume 31, page 125

ni

1. water

• World Lexicon of Grammaticalization (2002, →ISBN

• IPA^(key): [niː]

ni

1. coconut

• Allahverdi Verdizade (2019), “ni”, in Lamboya word list‎^[11], Leiden: LexiRumah

From Old Latin nei, from Proto-Italic *nei, from Proto-Indo-European *néy (“not”), from *né. Cognates include Gothic 𐌽𐌴𐌹 (nei), Lithuanian nei, Old Church Slavonic ни (ni), Old Irish ní and Sanskrit न (ná). See also nē.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈniː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈniː]

nī (not comparable)

1. not, if...not, unless- an absolutely negative particle like ne so only in combinations

• quid nī? (why not?)
• nīmīrum (not wonderful)
• nisi

nī

1. not, that not, unless; like ne in imperative and intentional clauses

   Ni quid tibi hinc in spem referas. ― Take not whatsoever hope hence.

   Vinum aliudve quid ni laudato. ― I don't praise wine or anything else.

   Numa constituit, ut pisces, qui squamosi non essent, ni pollucerent ... ni qui ad polluctum emerent. ― [The Roman king] Numa ordained that scaleless fish be neither offered [to the gods] ... nor bought for offering.

From Latin nec.

• IPA^(key): /ni/

ni

1. nor
2. neither...nor
3. either...or

From Proto-Finnic *nügüt. Cognates include Finnish nyt.

• IPA^(key): /ˈni/, [ˈni]

ni

1. now

• Tiit-Rein Viitso; Valts Ernštreits (2012–2013), “ni”, in Līvõkīel-ēstikīel-lețkīel sõnārōntõz [Livonian-Estonian-Latvian Dictionary]‎^[12] (in Estonian and Latvian), Tartu, Rīga: Tartu Ülikool, Latviešu valodas aģentūra

From Proto-Loloish *(ʔ)-ne¹, from Proto-Lolo-Burmese *ʔnəj¹/³, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ku-ni(k) (“sun; day”).

• IPA^(key): [ni³³]

ni

1. (Yao'an) day

• Merrifield, Judith; Merrifield, Scott (2018), “Query for ni”, in Yao'an Loxrlavu – English Dictionary (in Chinese), SIL International

Cognate with Ahtna nii. Suppletive forms of this root appear in the paradigm for the root lok, yok.

ni

1. to say, deem

Aspect	Imperfective	Perfective	Future	Optative
Durative	ni	ni'	niɬ	ni'
Durative (d-effect)	di	di'	dì	di'
Neuter	ni	ni'	niɬ	ni'
Neuter negative	neh	—	—	—
Customary	niyh	niyh	niyh	niyh

• Kari, James et al. (2024), Kari, James, editor, Lower Tanana Dene Dictionary, Fairbanks, Alaska: Alaska Native Language Center, →ISBN, pages 315-317

Borrowed from German nie, from Middle High German nie, from Old High German nio. The expected Luxembourgish form would be *néi. Ni could only be explained as a generalized unstressed form, which is already implausible because this adverb is often stressed. The Rheinisches Wörterbuch (N = anno 1941) considers the word non-native throughout Central Franconian and says that nie was at that time still missing in a majority of dialects.

For Luxembourgish specifically, the Lexikon der Luxemburger Umgangssprache (1847) gives only kees. The Wörterbuch der Luxemburgischen Mundart (1906) gives kees, keemol, keemools and ni (but not yet nimools). The Luxemburger Wörterbuch (N = anno 1965) gives all forms and already labels kees dated or regional.

• IPA^(key): [niː]

ni

1. never

   Synonyms: nimools; keemol, keemools, (dated) kees

• IPA^(key): /ni/
• Rhymes: -ni, -i

ni (Jawi spelling ني)

1. colloquial form of ini

ni (Jawi spelling ني)

1. colloquial form of ini

ni

1. nonstandard spelling of nī
2. nonstandard spelling of ní
3. nonstandard spelling of nǐ
4. nonstandard spelling of nì

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

From Proto-Micronesian *niu, from Proto-Oceanic *niuʀ, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *niuʀ.

• (phonetics) IPA^(key): [nʲi]
• (phonemic) IPA^(key): /nʲij/
• Bender phonemes: {niy}

ni

1. coconut tree

• iu (coconut)

• Abo, Takaji; Bender Byron W.; Capelle, Alfred; DeBrum, Tony (2009–), “ni”, in Marshallese–English Online Dictionary‎^[13]

ni

1. alternative form of ne

ni

1. alternative form of ne

ni

1. alternative spelling of ní

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *nii (“sun; day”), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ku-ni(k) (“sun; day”).

ni

1. sun
2. day
3. time

ni

1. aunt

This copula is ultimately from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ni (copula). It has ceased to be used as a copula in all other Kuki-Chin languages except Koireng. It only survives repurposed in some other Kuki-Chin languages, for instance in Tedim and Monsang in suffixes that form the future tense.

ni (stem II nih)

1. to be

This is the main copular verb in Mizo, coexisting with the existential verb awm.

• Lorrain, J. Herbert (1940), “ni”, in Dictionary of the Lushai language, Calcutta: Asiatic Society

ni (first person singular)

1. singular first-person pronoun I

From Proto-Micronesian *niu, from Proto-Oceanic *niuʀ, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *niuʀ.

ni

1. coconut tree

• ni pwespwes
• ni rei
• ni roam
• ni soal
• ni wahssa

• Harrison, Sheldon P.; Albert, Salich Y. (1977), Mokilese-English Dictionary‎^[14], Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, →ISBN, page 170

• IPA^(key): /nɪ̀/

ni

1. second person singular pronoun you

   Shí dóó ni ayóo ałk’is niidlį́.

   You and I are really good friends.

2. second person singular possessive pronoun yours

   Díí naaltsoos éí ni.

   This book is yours.

The verb in Navajo incorporates information about person, and many sentences may thus not have explicit independent pronouns. For instance:

• Hooghandi naniná.
• Ni éí hooghandi naniná.

Both sentences are grammatically complete, and mean essentially the same thing: you are at home. The verb naniná is in the second-person form, so the pronoun can be safely omitted, as in the first sentence. This is similar to pronoun dropping in other languages where the verb specifies person, such as Spanish. Meanwhile, the explicit use of ni in the second sentence emphasizes that the speaker is talking about you. This can be thought of as roughly equivalent to the use of emphasis in English: while the first sentence comes across as you're at home, the second one is more like you, you're at home.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-ŋja.

ni

1. fish

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kV-ni-s.

ni

1. two

• Naxi Dictionary by T.M. Pinson, Lijiang 2012

ni

1. water

• transnewguinea.org, citing D. C. Laycock, Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea (1968), Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36-66 : /niː/
• Margaret Manning, Naomi Saggers, A Tentative Phonemic Analysis of Ningil (SIL), in Phonologies of five Austronesian languages (Richard Loving, John M. Clifton; 1975) : /ni/

Norwegian Bokmål cardinal numbers

<  8	9	10  >
Cardinal : ni     Ordinal : niende

From Old Norse níu (whence also Danish ni, Icelandic níu, Faroese níggju and Swedish nio) from Proto-Germanic *newun, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁néwn̥. Cognate with Gothic 𐌽𐌹𐌿𐌽 (niun); Old English niġon (English nine); Old Frisian nigun (West Frisian njoggen); Old High German niun (German neun).

• IPA^(key): /ni/

ni

1. nine

• førtini
• nittini

• niende

• “ni” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk cardinal numbers

<  8	9	10  >
Cardinal : ni     Ordinal : niande

• nio, nie (dialectal)

From Old Norse níu.

ni

1. nine

• førtini
• nittini

• “ni” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

ni

1. water

• Paul Rivet, Nouvelle contribution à l’étude de l’ethnologie précolombienne de Colombie, Journal de la Société des Américanistes volume 35, pages 25-39 (1943), page 26

• IPA^(key): (13^th CE) /ˈɲi/
• IPA^(key): (15^th CE) /ˈɲi/

ni

1. dual accusative of oně

• ne

From Proto-Germanic *ne.

• IPA^(key): /ni/

ni

1. not

• nein

• Middle High German: ne
  • German: nee (dialectal)

ni

1. alternative spelling of ní

From Proto-Siouan *wa-rį́• (“water”).

ni

1. water

• Alice Cunningham Fletcher, Francis La Flesche, The Omaha Tribe (1970), page 166

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /ni/

ni (demonstrative, Perso-Arabic spelling نیۡ)

1. this (agr: prox fem / prox non-nom masc)

• Henrik Liljegren; Naseem Haider (2011), “ni”, in Palula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)‎^[15], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives, →ISBN

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /ni/

ni (demonstrative, Perso-Arabic spelling نیۡ)

1. these (agr: prox)

• Henrik Liljegren; Naseem Haider (2011), “ni”, in Palula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)‎^[16], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives, →ISBN

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /ni/

ni (demonstrative, Perso-Arabic spelling نیۡ)

1. it
2. she (prox fem nom)

• Henrik Liljegren; Naseem Haider (2011), “ni”, in Palula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)‎^[17], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives, →ISBN

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /ni/

ni (demonstrative, Perso-Arabic spelling نیۡ)

1. they (prox nom)

• Henrik Liljegren; Naseem Haider (2011), “ni”, in Palula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)‎^[18], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives, →ISBN

• ning, nih

ni

1. this

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -i
• Syllabification: ni
• Homophone: -ni

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *ni.

ni

1. (archaic or dialectal, Biecz, Ropczyce) synonym of ani

See nie.

ni

1. (dialectal, Przemyśl) alternative form of nie

See ny.

ni n (indeclinable)

1. alternative form of ny

• “ni”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[19] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “ni”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[20] (in Polish)
• Aleksander Saloni (1899), “ni”, in “Lud wiejski w okolicy Przeworska”, in M. Arct, E. Lubowski, editors, Wisła : miesięcznik gieograficzno-etnograficzny‎^[21] (in Polish), volume 13, Warsaw: Artur Gruszecki, page 241
• Jan Karłowicz (1900), “ani”, in Słownik gwar polskich [Dictionary of Polish dialects] (in Polish), volume 1: A do E, Kraków: Akademia Umiejętności, page 14

Borrowed from Ancient Greek νῦ (nû).

• Hyphenation: ni

ni m (plural nis)

1. nu (the thirteenth letter of the Greek alphabet)

• “ni”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “ni”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

ni

1. romanization of ᚾᛁ

• nį, nnį

From Proto-Siouan *wa-rį́· (“water”).

ni

1. water

• Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma (2017–), English to Quapaw Dictionary‎^[22]

• Rankin, Robert L. (1982), “A Quapaw Vocabulary”, in Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics‎^[23], volume 7, The University of Kansas, page 134 of 125–152

• IPA^(key): /ni˧/

• vni

ni

1. to pour; to water.

• vni

ni

1. headhair.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ku-ni(k). Cognate with Burmese နေ (ne) and နေ့ (ne.), Old Chinese 日 (*njiɡ).

ni

1. day (24 hour).

• yáng (“daytime”)

Inherited from Latin.

ni

1. alternative form of ne (dative of noi): to us

This form is used when ne (which is dative) is combined with the following accusatives:

• îl (the accusative of el, contracted as ni-l)
• îi (the accusative of ei, contracted as ni-i)
• le (the accusative of ele)
• se (the reflexive accusative of all third-person pronouns)

• li
• vi

Borrowed from Hungarian ni.

ni

1. (Transylvania) lo!, look!, behold!

   Ni la el! ― Look at him!

ni

1. some (plural indefinite article)

From Proto-Slavic *ni (“nor, not”), from Proto-Balto-Slavic *nej, from Proto-Indo-European *ney. Compare ni-, ne.

ni (Cyrillic spelling ни)

1. (emphasizes negation) even, either

   ni ja to ne znam — even I don't know that; I don't know that either

   Nisam ni htio čuti njegov prijedlog.

   I didn't even want to hear his proposal.

ni (Cyrillic spelling ни)

1. (shortening of niti) neither, nor

   ona nije ni pametna ni(ti) marljiva — she is neither smart nor industrious

   ni traga ni glasa o .. — not a trace about ..

   ni kriv ni dužan — completely innocent (lit. neither guilty nor indebted)

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *ny.

• nam (standard)
• nas (standard)

ni ? (Cyrillic spelling ни)

1. (Torlakian) us (short dative plural of ja (“I”))

   Da ni dádeš leb. ― Give us bread.

2. (Torlakian) us (short accusative plural of ja (“I”))

   Synonym: ne

• Not all forms of Torlakian use the pronoun ni in the accusative, some instead use ne.

• Ljubisav Ćirić, Govori Ponišavlja, Institut za srpski jezik SANU, Beograd, 1999. page 127
• Momčilo Zlatanović, Rečnik govora juga Srbije (provincijalizmi, dijalektizmi, varvarizmi i. dr.), Vranje, 2011.

• nni

• IPA^(key): [ni]
• (unstressed) IPA^(key): [nɪ]

ni

1. us, accusative of nuàutri
2. us, dative of nuàutri
3. us, reflexive of nuàutri

• nuàutri
• vi

Borrowed from Hokkien ni.

ni

1. year

• Li, Jen-Kuei (2010), “ni”, in 新港文書研究 [Studies of Sinkang Manuscripts] (in Chinese), Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, →ISBN, page 29

• IPA^(key): /nìː/

ní

1. negative third-person singular present of bíti

• IPA^(key): /ˈni/ [ˈni]
• Rhymes: -i
• Syllabification: ni

From Old Spanish nin, from Latin nec, apocopated form of neque, from Proto-Indo-European *nekʷe (“and not, neither, nor”), from *né (“not”) + *-kʷe (“and”). Compare Asturian and Galician nin, Catalan and French ni, Portuguese nem, Italian né, Dalmatian ne. Indo-European cognates include Gothic 𐌽𐌹𐌷 (nih) and Irish nach.

ni

1. Used when negating two or more elements, and not, not A or B, not A nor B, neither A nor B

   No es (ni) A ni B. ― It's neither A nor B.

   No es (ni) A, ni B ni C.

   It's not A, B, or C. / It's neither A, nor B, nor C.

   Ni A ni B es. [The first ni is mandatory here because the verb es is after the objects. Es can't be preceded by no in this example for the same reason.]

   It's neither A nor B.

   Ni es A ni (es) B. [The first ni is mandatory because there isn't a verb before it.]

   It's neither A nor B.

   • 2026 May 8, Jessica Mouzo, “El hantavirus despierta viejos bulos y teorías conspiranoicas: ni es una nueva pandemia, ni un virus desconocido, ni se cura con zinc”, in El País‎^[24], Madrid: Ediciones El País, S.L., →ISSN:

     El hantavirus despierta viejos bulos y teorías conspiranoicas: ni es una nueva pandemia, ni un virus desconocido, ni se cura con zinc

     The hantavirus revives old hoaxes and conspiracy theories: it is neither a new pandemic, nor an unknown virus, nor is it cured with zinc.

   • launched 2005, u/AVIS93, r/VideojuegosMX‎^[25] (Reddit post):

     No va a haber juegos AAA hechos en México en mucho tiempo, si es que algún día ocurre. No tenemos la industria para ello, ni la competitividad, ni el atractivo de inversión para un proyecto así. Mejor échate un clavado a ver los juegos indies nacionales que ya hay, son muchos y hay cosas bastante buenas.

     There won’t be AAA games made in Mexico for a long time, if it ever happens. We don’t have the industry for it, nor the competitiveness, nor the investment appeal for such a project. Instead check out the local indie games we already have, we have a lot of them and some are pretty good.

     (Can we archive this URL?)

   • launched 2005, u/tumamitax, r/chile‎^[26] (Reddit post):

     hay una diferencia entre ser nini (parásito ql que ni estudia ni trabaja) a que el contexto socioeconómico haga imposible que aunque trabajes full-time no puedas comprar una casa en tu puta vida

     there's a difference between being a nini [= NEET] (a fucking parasite who doesn't go to school or have a job) and living in a socioeconomic context that makes it impossible to buy a house ever in your fucking life even if you work full time

     (Can we archive this URL?)

ni

1. Used in emphatic negations, not even

   Synonym: ni siquiera

   No tengo ni tiempo. ― I don't even have *time*.

   Ni tiempo tengo. [Like in the example in the conjunction sense, the verb isn't negated.]

   I don't even have *time*.

   Ni tengo tiempo. ― I don't even *have* time.

   Yo tiempo ni tengo. ― I don't even *have* time.

   • launched 2005, u/ferreyran134, r/dankgentina‎^[27] (Reddit post):

     Lo piola de conseguir laburo es que nunca me entero [de] nada de gh por qué^[sic] directamente ni tiempo tengo para verlo

     The cool thing about getting a job is that I never know what's happening on GH [Gran Hermano = Big Brother] because I straight up don't even have time to watch it [Note that here ni is emphasizing tiempo and not tengo, but that doesn't sound natural in English]

     (Can we archive this URL?)

   • launched 2005, u/Crow-Servant, r/VideojuegosMX‎^[28] (Reddit post):

     Ni así, si tú^[sic] juego físico necesita una descarga también vale madres, porque solo te vendieron la key de la licencia en formato físico

     Not even then, if your physical game needs a download it still doesn't matter, because they only sold you the license key in physical form.

     (Can we archive this URL?)

2. (with the subjunctive) Forms an emphatic negative imperative, don't even

   ¡Ni te atrevas! ― Don't you (even) dare!

   Ni lo pienses. ― Don't even think about it.

ni f (plural níes)

1. nu; the Greek letter Ν, ν

   Synonym: ny

• “ni”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Other scripts
Ajami	نِـ

The use as a focus marker is original. This then acquired a presentative meaning (“it is”), which was finally reanalyzed as a copula.^[1] Cognate with Chichewa ndi.

• Audio (Kenya):

  (file)

ni

1. focus marker
   • 2022, Muungano wa Tanganyika na Zanzibar: Chimbuko, Misingi na Maendeleo, Serikali ya Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania, →ISBN:

     Lengo la Mwalimu Nyerere kujiuzulu nafasi hiyo lilikuwa ni pamoja na kukiimarisha chama cha TANU kuweza kuyakabili vizuri majukumu ya uhuru.

     Mwalimu Nyerere's goal when he resigned from that position was nothing but to strengthen the TANU party to be able to effectively face the responsibilities of independence.

ni

1. positive degree present and gnomic (all persons, numbers, and classes) of -wa (“to be”)

Since 1661, through rebracketing of the 2nd plural verb suffix -(e)n and the older pronoun I ("ye"), e.g. vissten I > visste ni (“did you know”). Compare Icelandic þér and þið which developed similarly.

The Old Swedish ī, īr derives from Old Norse *īʀ (East Norse variant of ér) from Proto-Germanic *jīz, from Proto-Indo-European *yúHs. Compare Danish I.

• Audio:

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /niː/
• Rhymes: -iː

ni

1. you (plural subjective case)

   Du är bara en person, men ni där borta är fyra personer

   You are just one person, but you / you guys / [except not in tone] y'all over there are four people

   Ni två är här, så jag ser er

   You [subject] two are here, so I see you [object]

2. you (second-person singular subjective formal) (capitalized Ni, rare in contemporary Swedish)
   1. (historical) A title used when addressing a person, chiefly of lower social rank, or a person of the opposite sex, especially among young people.

      –Ni kan börja med att städa kontoret, fröken Andersson.
      –Javisst, Herr Direktör.

      –You can start with cleaning the office, Miss Andersson.
      –Certainly, Mr. Director.

   2. (perceived formal, derogatory to some) by some considered a respectful alternative to du (“you”), especially when addressing customers or the elderly

      Vill ni ha en påse med köpet?

      Would you like a bag with your purchase?

Both ni and er are second person plural forms, but can also be used as a formal second person singular pronoun, like German Sie and French vous. They may sometimes be capitalized as Ni and Er. The courteous ni was promoted around the year 1900 as an alternative to a complicated system of addressing people in the third person singular by their appropriate titles, which required knowledge of personal information like social status, occupation, and education, with terms like fru (“Mrs.”) or fröken (“Ms.”), greve (“count”), kamrer (“accountant”), and kandidat (“bachelor's degree holder”). However, this "ni-reform" was not well-liked, and ni mostly came to be used to address subordinates, with titles still being used to address superiors and other people "deemed worthy of a title," leading to ni acquiring a condescending tone. Interestingly enough, the older I, from which ni was originally formed, was used alongside ni all along (and is still in use in some dialects), but never acquired the condescending tone of ni. Titles and polite pronouns were gradually phased out during the 1960s and 1970s in the so-called du-reformen ("the you-reform"). In contemporary Swedish, du is used to address anyone regardless of differences in age or social status, with a few rare exceptions like royalty.

Ni is occasionally used as polite address for customers by younger speakers, but this is often considered overly formal and a bit contrived, and may also come across as condescending, especially to old speakers. Politeness in contemporary Swedish is not conveyed through polite pronouns, but through polite phrases and indirectness, for example.

Examples of the old system in vigorous use can be found in old novels and movies – for example Åsa-Nisse movies.

• I

• du (“you (singular subjective case)”)
• duskål

• “ni”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “ni”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “ni”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)

• in

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ni/ [n̪ɪ]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -i
• Syllabification: ni

From Proto-Austronesian *ni (“marker of possession”).

ni (plural nina, Baybayin spelling ᜈᜒ)

1. of; possessive particle, used only with personal names

   bisikleta ni Juan ― Juan's bicycle

2. objective marker for personal names, objective form of si; functional equivalent of ng

Borrowed from Spanish ni (“not even”), from Old Spanish nin, from Latin nec, apocopated form of neque.

ni (Baybayin spelling ᜈᜒ)

1. neither; nor

   Ni ako hindi nagsisigarilyo. ― Even I don't do cigarettes.

   Ni aso ni pusa. ― Neither dog nor cat.

ni (Baybayin spelling ᜈᜒ)

1. not even

   Synonym: ni ultimo

   Hindi ako humingi ni isang butil ng bigas. ― I didn't ask not even for a single grain of rice.

• -in, -in-, in-

• ney

Inherited from Proto-Berber *ănǝy (“to ride, mount”).^[1]

ni (Tifinagh spelling ⵏⵉ)

1. (intransitive) to mount (on an animal)
2. (intransitive) to get into, to board, to embark (a vehicle)

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

• Verbal noun: tnaya (“mounting, boarding”)
• Causative: sni (“to make board”)
  • Verbal noun: aseniy
• tnaya (“transport”)
• amnay (“rider; cavalier, knight”)

• ini

Inherited from Proto-Berber *ănǝy (“to ride, mount”).^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ni/

ni (intensive aorist ttnay, verbal noun tanaka, Tifinagh spelling ⵏⵉ, Arabic spelling ني) (intransitive)

1. to mount (on an animal)
2. to get into, to board, to embark (a vehicle)

• DBTF, vol. III, page 1802a

• IPA^(key): [ni]
• Hyphenation: ni

From Proto-Nuclear Polynesian *ni. Cognates include Tuvaluan ni and Samoan ni.

ni

1. Plural indefinite article; any

ni

1. Changes a statement into a polite question; isn't it? doesn't it?

• R. Simona, editor (1986), Tokelau Dictionary‎^[29], Auckland: Office of Tokelau Affairs, page 250

• IPA^(key): [ni]

ni

1. I

• IPA^(key): /ni/, [ni]

ni

1. tree

• Terry Crowley, Ura: A Disappearing Language of Southern Vanuatu (1999)

ni

1. accusative case marker; placed after the direct object of a transitive verb

   Men O'zbek tilini o'rganyapman.

   I am studying Uzbek.

Borrowed from Russian ни (ni).

ni

1. not, not a, no

Not inflected.

ni ... ni

1. neither ... nor

• Zajceva, N. G.; Mullonen, M. I. (2007), “ни”, in Uz’ venä-vepsläine vajehnik / Novyj russko-vepsskij slovarʹ [New Russian–Veps Dictionary]‎^[30], Petrozavodsk: Periodika

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ni˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [nɪj˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [nɪj˧˧]

See này.

This is one of many cases in which monophthongs were not diphthongized in Central Vietnamese, compare mày vs. mi, chấy vs. chí, nước vs. nác.

ni

1. (Central Vietnam) this

ni

1. (Central Vietnam) now

ni • (伲)

1. (obsolete in isolation) yardstick; point of reference

• đo ni đóng giày

• in

• IPA^(key): /niː/
• Rhymes: -iː

From Middle Welsh ni, from Proto-Brythonic *ni, from Proto-Celtic *snīs.

ni

1. us; we

From Middle Welsh ny, from Proto-Brythonic *ni, from Proto-Celtic *nīs, from Proto-Indo-European *ne h₁ésti (“is not”).

ni (triggers mixed mutation)

1. (literary) not
   • 2004, Beibl Cymraeg Newydd Diwygiedig‎^[31], Cymdeithas y Beibl, Genesis 21:26:

     Dywedodd Abimelech, “Ni wn i ddim pwy a wnaeth hyn; ni ddywedaist wrthyf, ac ni chlywais i sôn am y peth cyn heddiw.”

     Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this; you did not tell me, and I did not hear anything about it until today.”

• Triggers mixed mutation (i.e. aspirate of p, t, c and soft of remaining mutatable letters) of a following consonant.
• The form nid is used before a vowel. When the following consonant is g, which disappears under soft mutation, the form ni remains, thus ni + gwn becomes ni wn, not *nid wn.
• In literary registers, dim (“anything”) may be added (as ddim, with soft mutation) for emphasis, so ni chlywais i ddim may mean either “I did not hear anything” or simply “I did not hear”. In the colloquial language, ni is omitted but the mixed mutation remains, giving chlywais i ddim (“I didn't hear”).^[1]

• dim (“not”) (colloquial)

• IPA^(key): /n̪i/

ni (possessive prefix ni)

1. second-person singular pronoun, you

• Clemens Voorhoeve (1982), The Makian languages and their neighbours‎^[32], Pacific linguistics

From Mandarin 你 (nǐ).

• IPA^(key): [n̪i]

ni

1. you (second-person subject pronoun)

ni

1. water

• transnewguinea.org, citing D. C. Laycock, Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea (1968), Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36-66 : /niː/
• A Tentative Phonemic Statement in Yil in West Sepik Province, in Phonologies of five Austronesian languages (Richard Loving, John M. Clifton; 1975) : /ni/

IPA^(key): /nĩ́/

ní

1. The name of the Latin script letter N/n.

• (Latin-script letter names) lẹ́tà; á, bí, dí, é, ẹ́, fí, gí, gbì, hí, í, jí, kí, lí, mí, ní, ó, ọ́, pí, rí, sí, ṣí, tí, ú, wí, yí

• nẹ́ (Ondo, Ikalẹ)

IPA^(key): /nĩ́/

ní

1. (transitive) to have

IPA^(key): /nĩ́/

ní

1. at, in (used when no movement is implied)
2. preposition used for creating adverbials

• sí

IPA^(key): /nĩ́/

ní

1. (intransitive) to say

• sọ
• wí

IPA^(key): /nĩ̄/

ni

1. (transitive) to be (to have a quality or identification)

This verb cannot be used with regular subject pronouns such as mo or ó, and emphatic subject pronouns must be used in their place. This verb is also often used in a flipped structure where the quality or identification becomes the grammatical subject of the verb while an object pronoun is used for the actual subject of the sentence.

1. Òun ni ọ̀rẹ́ mi. – He is my friend. (uses the emphatic pronoun òun instead of ó)
2. Ṣé ọmọ Yorùbá ni yín? – Are you Yoruba? (Ọmọ Yorùbá becomes the subject of ni while "you" becomes the object pronoun yín)

• jẹ́
• wà

IPA^(key): /nĩ̄/

ni

1. (intransitive) to be bloated, to be tumid

• níni

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *nii, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ku-ni(k). Cognates include Northern Min 日 (nì) and Burmese နေ (ne).

• IPA^(key): /ni˧/

ni

1. sun

Zou cardinal numbers

<  1	2	3  >
Cardinal : ni

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *ni, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kV-ni-s. Cognates include Northern Min 二 (nī) and Tibetan གཉིས (gnyis).

• IPA^(key): /ni˧/

ni

1. two

• Lukram Himmat Singh (2013), A Descriptive Grammar of Zou (PhD thesis), Canchipur: Manipur University, page 40

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

-ni^?

1. what (kind of)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

-ni

1. Combining stem of nina.

• C. M. Doke; B. W. Vilakazi (1972), “-ni”, in Zulu-English Dictionary, →ISBN: “-ni”