How do you pronounce her?

The recorded pronunciation is /ˈhɜː/.

Where does her come from?

It is traced to Middle English.

her

/ˈhɜː/

Word Rarity Common

Frequency: 6.30 in modern English

Syllables: her
IPA: /ˈhɜː/

Scrabble Score

Letters

Syllables

Unique Chars

Meaning

det

Belonging to her (belonging to that female person or animal, or in poetic or old-fashioned language that ship, city, season, etc).

det

Belonging to a person of unspecified gender (to counterbalance the traditional "his" in this sense).

pron

The form of she used after a preposition, as the object of a verb, or (colloquial) as a subject with a conjunction; that woman, that ship, etc, or (dialect) as a subject without a conjunction.

noun

A female person or animal.

Informal

pron

Honorific alternative letter-case form of her, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context.

name

Abbreviation of Hercules.

Example Sentences

"This is her book"
"Prodigal in everything, summer spreads her blessings with lavish unconcern, and waving her magic wand across the landscape of the world, she bids the sons of men to enter in [...]"
"Her crew knew that deep in her heart beat engines fit and able to push her blunt old nose ahead at a sweet fourteen knots, come Hell or high water."
"On top of the circle she wrote her name, Louise, just above where the 12 on a clock would be."
"On 24 April Nelson rejoined his ship, her battle damage repaired […]"
"Begin by having students choose a short poem to memorize; they will enjoy searching the library for a poem that appeals to them. If a student wishes to memorize her poem and share it aloud with the rest of the class, suggest a buddy system."

Etymology

From Middle English here, hir, hire, from Old English hire (“her”), from Proto-Germanic *hezōi (dative singular of *hijō). Cognate with North Frisian hör, Saterland Frisian hier, hiere (“her”), West Frisian har (“her”), Dutch haar (“her”), German Low German hör (“her”), German ihr (“her”).

Origin

Source language: Middle English

Word Breakdown

Root: here, hire, *hezōi

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ˈhɜː/
British English: /ˈhɜː/

Usage

Informal

Inflected Forms

herė (alternative) hor (alternative, Northumbria) hers (plural)

Derived Forms

'er herness herselves herstorian herstory herstrionic herstrionics whatshername

Phrases

you ally'all you guys yous all yours y'all's you guys' your guys' all your y'all's your all's you guys' your guys' The following table shows a list of English personal pronoun including archaic and dialectal forms. Dialectal and obsolete archaic forms are in italics. 1 See Appendix:English third-person singular pronouns for attested neopronoun. God rest her soul Her Highness

Frequently Paired Words

Ime me myselfmemysen mine mymineme we us ourselvesourselfoursen

Synonyms

she

Homonyms

hair hare (both fair–fur merger) a (non-rhotic, unstressed form)

Rhymes With

were per sir transfer prefer occur refer der inter fur entrepreneur stir

her