y

See also: y', у, ყ, and Appendix:Variations of "y"

y	U+0079, y LATIN SMALL LETTER Y

← x
[U+0078]

Basic Latin

z →
[U+007A]

Character variations

ʸ	U+02B8, ʸ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL Y

← ʷ
[U+02B7]

Spacing Modifier Letters

ʹ →
[U+02B9]

ｙ	U+FF59, ｙ FULLWIDTH LATIN SMALL LETTER Y

← ｘ
[U+FF58]

Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms

ｚ →
[U+FF5A]

Languages (69)

Translingual • English

Aragonese • Asturian • Azerbaijani • Basque • Catalan • Chavacano • Cornish • Czech • Dutch • Estonian • Fala • Faroese • Finnish • Franco-Provençal • French • Fula • German • Haitian Creole • Hungarian • Icelandic • Ido • Indonesian • Italian • Kabuverdianu • Kamayurá • Kankanaey • Kashubian • Khumi Chin • Ladin • Latgalian • Latin • Lithuanian • Lower Sorbian • Malay • Manx • Mbya Guarani • Middle English • Middle French • Middle Welsh • Navajo • Norwegian • Norwegian Nynorsk • Nupe • Old English • Old Tupi • Papiamentu • Paraguayan Guarani • Polish • Portuguese • Quechua • Romanian • Silesian • Slovak • Spanish • Swedish • Tagalog • Tày • Tlingit • Turkish • Turkmen • Vietnamese • Võro • Wayampi • Welsh • Yele • Yoruba • Zulu

Page categories

Translingual

English Wikipedia has an article on:

y

Wikipedia

Letter

y (upper case Y)

The twenty-fifth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.

Pronunciation

Pronunciation of IPA [yː]: (file)

Symbol

English Wikipedia has an article on:

Close front rounded vowel

Wikipedia

y

(IPA) a close front compressed vowel: the German and Chinese ü-sound.
(NAPA) the English y-sound, IPA [j].
(superscript ⟨ʸ⟩, IPA) [y]-coloring, a [y] on- or off-glide (diphthong), or a weak, fleeting, epenthetic or echo [y].
(superscript ⟨ʸ⟩, NAPA) palatalization, equivalent to IPA [ʲ].
Denoting an item that is twenty-fifth in a list.

Gallery

Letter styles
Uppercase and lowercase versions of Y, in normal and italic type
Uppercase and lowercase Y in Fraktur

English

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /ˈwaɪ/
Audio (General American): (file)
(phoneme): IPA^(key): /j/, /aɪ/, /i/, /ɪ/, /ə/
(letter name): Rhymes: -aɪ
Homophones: why, Wye, wye

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y, plural ys or y's)

The twenty-fifth letter of the English alphabet, called wy or wye and written in the Latin script.

Etymology 2

Abbreviations.

Noun

y

Abbreviation of year.
Alternative forms: yr, a (“annum”)
- 2003, Howard Tanner, Sonia Jones, Becoming a Successful Teacher of Mathematics:
  Consider the following questions selected from the tests and estimate the proportion of Y8 pupils you would expect to answer correctly.
(UK, television) Abbreviation of youth, usually followed by an age appropriate for the content so marked.
Y7

Derived terms

Adverb

y (not comparable)

(slang, text messaging, Internet slang) Abbreviation of why.

Particle

y

(computing) Abbreviation of yes.

Aragonese

Etymology

From Latin et, from Proto-Indo-European *éti.

Conjunction

y

and

Asturian

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈi/ [ˈi]
Syllabification: y

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old Leonese ye, ya, y, from Latin et, from Proto-Indo-European *éti.

Alternative forms

ye (obsolete)
ya (Western)

Conjunction

y

and

Etymology 2

Inherited from Old Leonese lle, from Latin ille, from Proto-Italic *olnos.

Alternative forms

i (obsolete)
í (obsolete)
ye (Western)
ḷḷe (South-Western Asturias)

Pronoun

y (y (or -y), plural ys/yos or -ys/-yos)

Pronoun for the third-person singular indirect object.
da-y pan
give him/her bread

Usage notes

Written as -y, with a hyphen attached to the previous word (not necessarily having any syntantic relation to the pronoun)

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-sixth letter of the Asturian alphabet, called i griega and written in the Latin script.

Azerbaijani

Pronunciation

(phoneme) IPA^(key): [j]
(letter name) IPA^(key): [jeː], [jɯː]

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The thirty-first letter of the Azerbaijani alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Basque

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /i ɡreko/, [i ɣ̞re̞.ko̞]

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-sixth letter of the Basque alphabet, called i greko and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

Used chiefly in recent loanwords and foreign proper nouns.

Catalan

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [i ˈɣɾe.ɣə]
IPA^(key): (Valencia) [i ˈɣɾe.ɣa]

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-fifth letter of the Catalan alphabet, called i grega and written in the Latin script.

Etymology 2

Ultimately from Latin et.

Conjunction

y

obsolete form of i (“and”)

Chavacano

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈi/, [ˈi]

Etymology 1

Inherited from Spanish y (“and”).

Conjunction

y

and
Synonym: pati

Etymology 2

Inherited from Spanish y.

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

the twenty-eighth letter of the mixed etymological script

Cornish

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɪː/

Etymology 1

From Proto-Brythonic *eið, from Proto-Celtic *esyo m and *esyās f; compare Old Irish a (“his, her, its, their”) and Sanskrit अस्य (asyá, “his, its”) and अस्यास् (asyā́s, “her”).

Determiner

y (triggers soft mutation)

(possessive) his, its (with reference to masculine nouns)

Pronoun

y (triggers soft mutation)

his, its (with reference to masculine nouns)

Etymology 2

Pronoun

y

(Standard Cornish) alternative form of i (“they”) (third person plural pronoun)

Etymology 3

From Proto-Celtic *ide- (compare Breton e, ez, Welsh y, yth, Old Irish id), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁i-dʰei- (compare Latin ibi (“here”), Avestan 𐬌𐬛𐬁 (idā, “here, in the same way”), and Sanskrit इह (ihá, “here”)).

Particle

y (triggers mixed mutation)

Inserted before the verb when the verb precedes the subject

Czech

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The thirty-ninth letter of the Czech alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Dutch

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /ɛɪ/, /iˈɡrɛk/, /ˌɣrik.sə ˈɛɪ/
Audio: (file)

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

the twenty-fifth letter of the Dutch alphabet
1. variant of i used mainly in Greek borrowings
2. (obsolete outside proper nouns) variant of ij

Estonian

Pronunciation

(letter name, igrek): IPA^(key): /ˈiɡ.rek/
(letter name, üpsilon): IPA^(key): /ˈyp.si.lon/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The thirty-second letter of the Estonian alphabet, called igrek / üpsilon and written in the Latin script.

Fala

Conjunction

y

alternative form of i

Faroese

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /iː/
Homophone: i

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-sixth letter of the Faroese alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Finnish

Etymology

The Finnish orthography using the Latin script was based on those of Swedish, German, and Latin, and was first used in the mid-16th century. No earlier script is known. See the Wikipedia article on Finnish for more information, and y for information on the development of the glyph itself. In particular, the use of ⟨y⟩ for /y/ follows the Swedish orthography, which in turn follows Latin.

Pronunciation

(sound): IPA^(key): /y/
Audio; “yy, nyökkäys, tyttö, yy”: (file)

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-fourth letter of the Finnish alphabet, called yy and written in the Latin script.

Derived terms

compounds

Franco-Provençal

Etymology

Inherited from Latin hīc.

Pronoun

y (ORB, broad)

it (third-person singular neuter dative)

References

y in DicoFranPro: Dictionnaire Français/Francoprovençal – on dicofranpro.llm.umontreal.ca
y in Lo trèsor Arpitan – on arpitan.eu

French

Etymology 1

From i grec (“Greek i”), referring to the letter upsilon (Υ), originally borrowed from the Greek alphabet, as opposed to "Latin i" (I).

Pronunciation

(letter name) IPA^(key): /i.ɡʁɛk/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

a letter in the French alphabet, after x and before z

Etymology 2

10th century; from Old French i, from Latin hīc (“here”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰi-ḱe (“this, here”)), with meaning influenced by Old French iv (“there, thither”), itself from Latin ibī. Derivation from the latter poses difficulty from a phonetic standpoint. Compare Catalan hi.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /i/
Homophones: hie, hies, hient, i

Pronoun

y (adverbial)

there (at a place)
Il est dans la maison. Il y est.
He is in the house. He is there.
there, thither (to there)
Nous allons au Mexique. Nous y allons.
We are going to Mexico. We are going there.
Used as a pronoun to replace an adverbial phrase starting with à.
Je pense à mon pays. J'y pense.
I think about my country. I think about it.
1. With verbs: see Appendix:French verbs followed by à for verbs which use this structure.
2. (archaic) With adjectives. Only used with a handful of adjectives (the most common combination being y compris, which is a special case), mainly in legal terminology.
  personnes y nommées ― Persons named there(in)
  
  procédures y afférentes ― Related procedures
  
  documents y relatifs ― Related documents
  
  eaux y affluentes ― Tributary waters

Derived terms

Related terms

**French personal pronouns**
number	person	gender	nominative (subject)	accusative (direct complement)	dative (indirect complement)	locative (at)	genitive (of)	disjunctive (tonic)¹	emphatic reflexive
singular	first	—	je, j’	me, m’		—	—	moi	moi-même
	second	—	tu	te, t’		—	—	toi	toi-même
	third	masculine	il²	le, l’	lui	y	en	lui	lui-même
		feminine	elle	la, l’	lui	y	en	elle	elle-même
		indeterminate	on³, l’on (formal), ce⁴, c’, ça	—	—	—	—	—	—
		reflexive	—	se, s’⁵		—	—	soi	soi-même
plural	first	—	nous	nous		—	—	nous	nous-mêmes
	second⁶	—	vous	vous		—	—	vous	vous-mêmes, vous-même⁶
	third	masculine	ils⁷	les	leur	y	en	eux⁷	eux-mêmes⁷
	third	feminine	elles	les	leur	y	en	elles	elles-mêmes

¹ The disjunctive (tonic) forms are also used after an explicit preposition (de/d’, à, pour, chez, dans, vers, sur, sous, ...), instead the accusative, dative, genitive, locative, or reflexive forms, where a preposition is implied.
² Il is also used as an impersonal nominative-only pronoun.
³ On can also function as a first person plural (although agreeing with third person singular verb forms).
⁴ The nominal indeterminate form ce (demonstrative) can also be used with the auxiliary verb être as a plural, instead of the proximal or distal gendered forms.
⁵ The reflexive third person singular forms (se or s’) for accusative or dative are also used as third person plural reflexive.
⁶ Vous is also used as the polite singular form, in which case the plural disjunctive tonic vous-mêmes becomes singular vous-même.
⁷ Ils, eux and eux-mêmes are also used when a group has a mixture of masculine and feminine members.

Etymology 3

Eye dialect spelling or contraction of il and ils. The elles sense is from informal Québécois French ils, which means the same.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /i/

Pronoun

y m or m pl or f pl (Quebec, colloquial)

alternative form of il; he
alternative form of ils; they (male)
alternative form of elles; they (female)

Fula

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /j/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

A letter of the Fula alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

Common to all varieties of Fula (Fulfulde / Pulaar / Pular).

German

Pronunciation

(phoneme) IPA^(key): /yː/, /y/, /ʏ/, /i/, /ɪ/, /j/
(letter name) IPA^(key): /ˈʏpsilɔn/
Audio (Germany (Berlin)): (file)

Letter

y n (strong, genitive y, plural y)

the letter y

Haitian Creole

Etymology

Contraction of yo.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /j/

Pronoun

y

contraction of yo

References

Targète, Jean; Urciolo, Raphael (1993), Haitian Creole-English Dictionary‎^[4], Dunwoody Press, →ISBN, page 205

Hungarian

Pronunciation

(phoneme): IPA^(key): [ˈi]
(letter name): IPA^(key): [ˈipsilon]

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

A letter of the extended Hungarian alphabet, called ipszilon and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

As shown in the alphabet below, this letter normally occurs in Hungarian words only as part of four digraphs: gy, ly, ny, and ty (with their long counterparts: ggy, lly, nny, tty). Aside from them, the terms containing y defined in an extensive Hungarian monolingual dictionary^[1] are baby-doll, baby-sitter, body (“bodice”), body-building / bodyzik / bodyzó, boy, brandy, citoyen, country/countryzene, cowboy/cowboyfilm/cowboykalap, curry, disc-jockey, doyen, dry, dyn, fair play, háryjános/háryjánoskodik, intercity, joystick, play back, playboy, royalista, sherry, spray, whisky, yard, yperit, yuppie, złoty and the letter itself. Additionally, a newer and more comprehensive but as yet incomplete dictionary^[2] contains bicsérdysta, byte, copyright, and cowboycsizma. (The forms dandy, gentry, happy end (“happy ending”), jersey, maya, nylon, and yen are also mentioned as alternative forms in the former volume, but their current standard spelling is dendi, dzsentri, dzsörzé, hepiend, jen, maja, and nejlon.)

Proper names written with y include the country names Guyana, Paraguay, Seychelle-szigetek, and Uruguay and the capital names Conakry, Port Moresby, and Reykjavík. Other names deriving from Latin alphabets are also retained (such as English Calgary, Hollywood, Kentucky, Montgomery, New Jersey, New York, Sydney, Wyoming etc., German Bayreuth, Speyer, Steyr, French Lyon, Mayotte, Nancy, Vichy, and Polish Białystok, Bydgoszcz, Przemyśl). Otherwise, this letter is usually transcribed with j in geographical names not natively using the Latin script, for example Jemen (“Yemen”), Malajzia (“Malaysia”), Nepjida (“Naypyidaw”), and Rijád (“Riyadh”).

Declension

Inflection (stem in *-o-*, back harmony)
	singular	plural
nominative	y	y-ok
accusative	y-t	y-okat
dative	y-nak	y-oknak
instrumental	y-nal	y-okkal
causal-final	y-ért	y-okért
translative	y-ná	y-okká
terminative	y-ig	y-okig
essive-formal	y-ként	y-okként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	y-ban	y-okban
superessive	y-on	y-okon
adessive	y-nál	y-oknál
illative	y-ba	y-okba
sublative	y-ra	y-okra
allative	y-hoz	y-okhoz
elative	y-ból	y-okból
delative	y-ról	y-okról
ablative	y-tól	y-októl
non-attributive possessive – singular	y-é	y-oké
non-attributive possessive – plural	y-éi	y-okéi

Possessive forms of y
possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	y-om	y-aim, y-jaim
2nd person sing.	y-od	y-aid, y-jaid
3rd person sing.	y-a, y-ja	y-ai, y-jai
1st person plural	y-unk	y-aink, y-jaink
2nd person plural	y-otok	y-aitok, y-jaitok
3rd person plural	y-uk, y-juk	y-aik, y-jaik

Derived terms

References

^ 75,000 entries in Pusztai, Ferenc (ed.). Magyar értelmező kéziszótár (“A Concise Explanatory Dictionary of Hungarian”). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2003. 2nd, expanded and revised edition →ISBN. Online searchable version (under development)
^ As of 2025, completed until ELZ. Ittzés, Nóra (ed.). A magyar nyelv nagyszótára (‘A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress)

Icelandic

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-eighth letter of the Icelandic alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Ido

Pronunciation

(context pronunciation) IPA^(key): /j/
(letter name) IPA^(key): /je/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-fifth letter of the Ido alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Indonesian

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /je/
(phoneme) IPA^(key): /j/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-fifth letter of the Indonesian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Interjection

y

(text messaging) abbreviation of ya (“yes, well”)

Italian

Letter

y f or m (lower case, upper case Y, invariable)

The twenty-fifth letter of the Italian alphabet, called ipsilon, i greco or i greca and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

The letter Y is not considered part of the Italian alphabet. It is found mainly in loanwords.

Kabuverdianu

Etymology

From Portuguese e.

Conjunction

y

and

References

Gonçalves, Manuel (2015), Capeverdean Creole-English dictionary, →ISBN

Kamayurá

Noun

y

alternative form of 'ɨ

References

Languages of the Amazon (2012, →ISBN

Kankanaey

Etymology

Borrowed from Tagalog y. Letter pronunciation is influenced by English y.

Pronunciation

(letter name) IPA^(key): /waj/ [wai̯]
- Rhymes: -aj
(phoneme) IPA^(key): /i/ [i̞]
- Rhymes: -i

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-seventh letter of the Kankanaey alphabet, called way and written in the Latin script.

References

Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (2016), Ortograpiya di Kankanaëy [Kankanaey Orthography]‎^[5] (in Kankanaey and Tagalog), →ISBN, pages 10-11

Kashubian

Etymology

The Kashubian orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See the Kashubian alphabet article on Wikipedia for more, and y for development of the glyph itself.

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The thirty-first letter of the Kashubian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Khumi Chin

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʔɘ˥/

Particle

y

no

References

K. E. Herr (2011), The phonological interpretation of minor syllables, applied to Lemi Chin‎^[6], Payap University, page 47

Ladin

Etymology

Inherited from Latin et.

Conjunction

y

and

Latgalian

Pronunciation

(phoneme) IPA^(key): /ɨ/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The fourteenth letter of the Latgalian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Latin

Pronunciation

(Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈhyː]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈiː]
No word could start with y without aspiration.

Noun

ȳ f (indeclinable)

The name of the Latin script letter Y/y.

Synonyms

(name of the letter Y): ī graeca, ȳpsīlon

Coordinate terms

(Latin-script letter names) littera; ā, bē, cē, dē, ē, ef, gē, hā / *acca, ī, kā, el, em, en, ō, pē, kū, er, es, tē, ū, ix / īx / ex, ȳ / ī graeca / ȳpsīlon, zēta

References

"y", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, Latin Grammar (3rd ed., 1895), page 1
The Latin names for the letters… For Y the sound was used, for Z the Greek name (zēta).

Lithuanian

Pronunciation

(phoneme) IPA^(key): /iː/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The fifteenth letter of the Lithuanian alphabet, called i ilgoji and written in the Latin script.

Lower Sorbian

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɨ/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The thirty-first letter of the Lower Sorbian alphabet, called y and written in the Latin script.
The name of the Latin script letter y/Y.

Malay

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-fifth letter of the Malay alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Manx

Article

y

alternative form of yn

Mbya Guarani

Noun

y

water

References

Léxico Guaraní, dialeto Mbyá : versão para fins acadêmicos (1998)

Middle English

Etymology 1

Pronoun

y

alternative form of I

Etymology 2

Preposition

y

alternative form of in (“in”)

Middle French

Adverb

y

there (in a given place)
- 1488, Jean Dupré, Lancelot du Lac, page 12:
  Or me dictes fist Lancelot, des lettres qui illec sont escriptes, savez vous qui les y fist mettre
  Now tell me, said Lancelot, about these letters that are written here, do you know who put them here?

Middle Welsh

Etymology 1

From Proto-Brythonic *eið, from Proto-Celtic *esyo m, *esyās f, and *eisom pl); compare Old Irish a (“his, her, its, their”) and Sanskrit अ॒स्य (asyá, “his, its”), अ॒स्यास् (asyā́s, “her”), and ए॒षाम् (eṣā́m, “their”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /i/

Determiner

y

his, its (with reference to a masculine noun; triggers soft mutation of following consonant)
her, its (with reference to a feminine noun; triggers aspirate mutation of following consonant and h-prothesis of a following vowel)
their (triggers h-prothesis of a following vowel)

Descendants

Welsh: ei, eu

Pronoun

y

him, it (with reference to masculine nouns, as object of a verbal noun, triggers soft mutation of following consonant)
her, it (with reference to feminine nouns, as object of a verbal noun, triggers aspirate mutation of following consonant and h-prothesis of a following vowel)
them (as the direct object of a verbal noun, triggers h-prothesis of a following vowel)

Descendants

Welsh: ei, eu

Etymology 2

From Old Welsh di, from Proto-Brythonic *ðɨ, from Proto-Celtic *dū (“to”).

Alternative forms

i

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /i/

Preposition

y (triggers soft mutation)

to (indicating purpose, motion, or an indirect object)

Inflection

Inflected forms
	singular	plural
first person	y mi / im	ynni / inni
second person	it / itt / yt / y ti / i ti / itti	iwch
third person	iðau / iðaw m iði f	uðunt

Descendants

Welsh: i

Etymology 3

Contraction

y (triggers the same mutations as the corresponding possessive determiner)

contraction of y (“to”) +‎ y (possessive determiner), literally “to his/her/its/their”

Etymology 4

Particle

y

alternative form of yð used before a consonant

Conjunction

y

alternative form of yð used before a consonant

Etymology 5

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ə/

Particle

y

alternative form of yn (predicate particle)

Etymology 6

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ə/

Article

y (definite, triggers soft mutation of a feminine singular noun, except ll and r remain unmutated)

alternative form of yr (“the”) used before a consonant

Etymology 7

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ə/

Particle

y

alternative form of yr (particle used after heb (“says, said”))

Etymology 8

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ə/

Particle

y

preverbal particle used with forms of bot (“to be”), especially mae (“is”), maent (“are”), taw (“is”)

Navajo

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /j/, /ɣ/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

A letter of the Navajo alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

The letter ⟨y⟩ is used for the phoneme /j/, but also for /ɣ/ before a front vowel, where that is pronounced [ʝ].

Norwegian

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /yː/
(phoneme): IPA^(key): /yː/, /y/
Audio: (file)

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-fifth letter of the Norwegian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

Perhaps the most troublesome sound in Norwegian. Even some native speakers tend to merge it into /i(ː)/.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

From Old Norse ýr, from Proto-Germanic *īhwaz. Akin to English yew.

Noun

y m (definite singular yen, indefinite plural yar, definite plural yane)

(obsolete) yew
Synonym: barlind

Related terms

Etymology 2

From Old Norse úa, influenced by kry.

Verb

y (present tense yr, past tense ydde, past participle ytt/ydd, passive infinitive yast, present participle yande, imperative y)

to crawl (of small animals)

References

“y” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Nupe

Pronunciation

(phoneme): IPA^(key): /j/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-eighth letter of the Nupe alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Old English

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /y/
Rhymes: -yː

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

A letter of the Old English alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

This letter always represents the IPA vowel /y/, never the consonant /j/ that y sometimes represents in modern English.
Old English texts often include a tittle above the letter: ⟨ẏ⟩
Although Old English texts typically did not mark vowel length, modern editions of Old English manuscripts typically do. Some editions mark the long version of this vowel with ⟨ý⟩, but ⟨ȳ⟩ is now more common.

Old Tupi

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈɨ/
Rhymes: -ɨ
Hyphenation: y

Etymology 1

Inherited from Proto-Tupi-Guarani *tɨ (“liquid, urine”), from Proto-Tupian *tˀɨ (“liquid, urine”). Doublet of ty.^[1]^[2]

Cognate with Sateré-Mawé hɨ (“river”), Paraguayan Guarani ty (“urine”).

Noun

y (possessable, IIb class pluriform, absolute ty, R1 ry, R2 ty)

water
Synonym: 'y
liquid
Synonym: yku
humidity
Synonyms: yby'y, akymaíba

Coordinate terms: abyaru, 'a'y
juice, while it's still inside the fruit
broth
Synonym: îekysy

Derived terms

Adjective

y (IIb class pluriform, R1 ry, R2 ty, noun form y)

humid
Synonyms: yby'y, akymaíb

Etymology 2

Inherited from Proto-Tupi-Guarani *tɨ (“river”), from Proto-Tupian *it͡ʃˀɨ (“river”).^[1]^[3]

Cognate with Awetí hɨ (“river”) and Sateré-Mawé ihɨ (“river”).

Noun

y (possessable, IIb class pluriform, absolute ty, R1 ry, R2 ty)

river
Synonym: 'y

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Corrêa da Silva, Beatriz Carretta (2010), Mawé/Awetí/Tupí-Guaraní: relações linguísticas e implicações históricas [Mawé/Awetí/Tupí-Guaraní: linguistic relations and historical implications]‎^[1] (in Portuguese), Brasília: UnB, pages 403–404
^ Nikulin, Andrey (2020), Proto-Macro-Jê: um estudo reconstrutivo [Proto-Macro-Jê: a reconstructive study]‎^[2] (in Portuguese), Brasília: UnB
^ Aryon d'Alligna Rodrigues (2007), “As consoantes do proto-tupí”, in Aryon d'Alligna Rodrigues, Ana Suelly Arruda Câmara Cabral, editors, Línguas e culturas tupí‎^[3], 1 edition, volume 1, Campinas: Curt Nimuendajú, pages 167–204

Papiamentu

Alternative forms

i (alternative spelling)

Etymology

From Spanish y and Portuguese e and Kabuverdianu i.

Conjunction

y

and

Paraguayan Guarani

Alternative forms

⠽ (Guarani Braille)

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɨ/

Noun

y

water

Derived terms

ysyry (“river”)

References

Canese, Natalia Krivoshein de; Alcaraz, Feliciano Acosta (2016), “y”, in Ñe’ẽryru [Dictionary] (overall work in Spanish), Asunción: Instituto Superior de Lenguas, →ISBN, page 115, column 1

Polish

Etymology

The Polish orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See the history of Polish orthography article on Wikipedia for more, and y for development of the glyph itself.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈi.ɡrɛk/
Audio: (file)
Homophones: -y, -y-

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-ninth letter of the Polish alphabet, called y or igrek and written in the Latin script.

Portuguese

Pronunciation

Letter name: (ípsilon)

(Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈip.si.lõ/

(Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈi.psi.lɔn/, /ˈi.pslɔn/

Audio (Brazil): (file)

Letter name: (i grego)

(Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈi ˈɡɾe.ɡu/
- (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈi ˈɡɾe.ɡo/

(Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈi ˈɡɾe.ɡu/ [ˈi ˈɣɾe.ɣu]

Phoneme:

IPA^(key): /i/, /j/ (loanwords)

Letter

y m (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-fifth letter of the Portuguese alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Quechua

Adverb

y

really, truly

Romanian

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /j/, /i/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The thirtieth letter of the Romanian alphabet, called igrec or i grec and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

Used chiefly in recent loanwords and foreign proper nouns.

Silesian

Etymology

The Silesian orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See the Silesian language article on Wikipedia for more, and y for development of the glyph itself.

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The thirty-first letter of the Silesian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Slovak

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /i/, [i]
Rhymes: -i

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The forty-second letter of the Slovak alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Spanish

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): (phoneme) /ʝ/, /i/

IPA^(key): (letter name) /ˈʝe/ [ˈɟ͡ʝe] (everywhere but Argentina and Uruguay)
IPA^(key): (letter name) /ˈʃe/ [ˈʃe] (Buenos Aires and environs)
IPA^(key): (letter name) /ˈʒe/ [ˈʒe] (elsewhere in Argentina and Uruguay)

- Rhymes: -e
/i/ in the conjunction (see below) and in word-final diphthongs (e.g. hoy, rey); otherwise /ʝ/.

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-sixth letter of the Spanish alphabet, called ye or i griega and written in the Latin script.

Etymology 2

Inherited from Old Spanish é or e, from Latin et.

Alternative forms

e
i, et (obsolete)

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): (preconsonantal) /i/ [i]
- Rhymes: -i
- Syllabification: y
IPA^(key): (prevocalic) [ʝ̞]
Audio (Spain): (file)

Conjunction

y

and
- 1605, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quijote de la Mancha¹, Chapter I:
  Es, pues, de saber que este sobredicho hidalgo, los ratos que estaba ocioso —que eran los más del año—, se daba a leer libros de caballerías, con tanta afición y gusto, que olvidó casi de todo punto el ejercicio de la caza y aun la administración de su hacienda; y llegó a tanto su curiosidad y desatino en esto, que vendió muchas hanegas de tierra de sembradura para comprar libros de caballerías en que leer, y, así, llevó a su casa todos cuantos pudo haber dellos.
  You must know, then, that the above-named gentleman whenever he was at leisure (which was mostly all the year round) gave himself up to reading books of chivalry with such ardour and avidity that he almost entirely neglected the pursuit of his field-sports, and even the management of his property; and to such a pitch did his eagerness and infatuation go that he sold many an acre of tillageland to buy books of chivalry to read, and brought home as many of them as he could get.
- 2025 June 7, Jeanne Sahadi, “El DOGE acaba de recibir luz verde para acceder a tus datos del Seguro Social. ¿Qué significa?”, in CNN en Español‎^[7], archived from the original on 15 August 2025:
  Mientras que un tribunal federal inferior había bloqueado los esfuerzos del DOGE para acceder a dichos datos —que argumentó que necesita para reducir el despilfarro, el fraude y el abuso— la Corte Suprema levantó esa orden el viernes, permitiendo al DOGE acceder a los datos por ahora.
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)
(in names of number) and
setenta y seis ― seventy-six
(in arithmetic) plus, and
uno y uno son dos ― one plus one is two
(informal) well
¡Y por supuesto! ― Well, of course!
(informal) what about, how about, and, where is/are the
Pero, ¿y el concierto? ¿Ya no vamos? ― But what about the concert? Are we not going anymore?

¿Y la niña? ¿Está a salvo? ― And the girl? Is she safe?

¿Y los archivos? Debo echarles un vistazo. ― And where are the files? I should take a look at them.

Usage notes

Before words that begin with the /i/ sound, the form e is used instead (except when the meaning of the conjunction is "what about", in which case the form y is always used).

Derived terms

Swedish

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-fifth letter of the Swedish alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Tagalog

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Spanish y. Each pronunciation has a different source:

Filipino alphabet pronunciation is influenced by English y.
Abakada alphabet pronunciation is influenced by Baybayin character ᜌ (ya).
Abecedario pronunciation is from Spanish y.

Pronunciation

(Standard Tagalog)
- IPA^(key): /ˈwaj/ [ˈwaɪ̯] (letter name, Filipino alphabet)
  - Rhymes: -aj
- IPA^(key): /ˈja/ [ˈja] (letter name, Abakada alphabet)
  - Rhymes: -a
- IPA^(key): /ˈje/ [ˈjɛ] (letter name, Abecedario)
  - Rhymes: -e
- IPA^(key): /j/ [j] (phoneme)
- IPA^(key): /i/ [ɪ] (phoneme, used as a vowel)

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

the twenty-seventh letter of the Filipino alphabet, called way and written in the Latin script
the twentieth letter of the Abakada alphabet, called ya and written in the Latin script
(historical) the twenty-seventh letter of the Abecedario, called ye and written in the Latin script

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Spanish y.

Pronunciation

(Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ʔi/ [ʔɪ]
Rhymes: -i
Syllabification: y

Conjunction

y (Baybayin spelling ᜁ) (archaic)

and
Synonyms: at, saka

Tày

Pronunciation

(Thạch An – Tràng Định) IPA^(key): [ʔi˧˧]
(Trùng Khánh) IPA^(key): [ʔi˦˥]

Verb

y

to imitate, to mimic

Preposition

y

along
y te hết ― do like he/she does (literally, “do along him/her”)

Đăm nà y thỏi cáu
Follow the old customs
(literally, “plant rice like the previous rows”)
according to
y cằm po̱ me̱ ― according to the parents' words

References

Lương Bèn (2011), Từ điển Tày-Việt [Tay-Vietnamese dictionary]‎^[8][9] (in Vietnamese), Thái Nguyên: Nhà Xuất bản Đại học Thái Nguyên

Tlingit

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /j/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

A letter of the Tlingit alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Turkish

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-eighth letter of the Turkish alphabet, called ye and written in the Latin script.

Turkmen

Pronunciation

(phoneme) IPA^(key): /ɯ/, /ɯː/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-eighth letter of the Turkmen alphabet, called y and written in the Latin script.

Vietnamese

Vietnamese Wikipedia has an article on:

y học

Wikipedia ^vi

Pronunciation

(Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔi˧˧]
(Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔɪj˧˧]
(Saigon) IPA^(key): [ʔɪj˧˧]
Audio (Hà Nội): (file)

Etymology 1

Sino-Vietnamese word from 伊.

Pronoun

y

(archaic, literary) he; him; she; her
- 1958, Đổng Chi Nguyễn, “Thạch Sùng còn thiếu mẻ kho hay là Sự tích con mối”, in Kho tàng truyện cố tích Việt Nam, NXB Văn sử địa:
  Hồi đó ở kinh đô có một người em hoàng hậu họ Vương. Y cũng là tay cự phú nổi tiếng tiền rừng biển bạc và xài phí vào bậc nhất.
  At the time, there was in the capital a brother of the queen of the Wáng family. He was also a famous for being immensely rich and was an extravagant spender of first degree.
(derogatory) he, him

Etymology 2

Sino-Vietnamese word from 依.

Adverb

y

(informal) exactly; precisely (like)
y như ― exactly like/as

y như thật ― so realistic (literally, “exactly like real life”)

y chang ― very much like

Derived terms

Etymology 3

Sino-Vietnamese word from 醫.

Noun

y

(medicine) medicine; physician
Sau này tôi muốn đi học y.
I want to pursue medicine in the future.

Derived terms

Etymology 4

Romanization

y

Sino-Vietnamese reading of 衣

Derived terms

Etymology 5

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-eighth letter of the Vietnamese alphabet, written in the Latin script; preceded by x, representing /i/ or /j/.
- level tone: y
- high rising: ý
- low: ỳ
- dipping-rising: ỷ
- high rising glottalized: ỹ
- low glottalized: ỵ

Võro

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɨ/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

A letter of the Võro alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Wayampi

Noun

y

alternative form of ɨɨ (“water”)
ay'ú. ― I drink water.

References

Handbook of Amazonian Languages, volume 4 (1998), edited by Desmond C. Derbyshire, Geoffrey K. Pullum

Welsh

Etymology 1

Alternative forms

ỳ (with grave accent to indicate otherwise unpredictable short vowel /ə/)
ý (with acute accent to indicate unusually stressed short vowel)
ŷ (with circumflex to indicate otherwise unpredictable or unusually stressed long vowel)
ÿ (with diaeresis to indicate disyllabicity)

Pronunciation

(standard) IPA^(key): /ə/
- (informal) IPA^(key): /əː/
Rhymes: -ə

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-ninth letter of the Welsh alphabet, called y and written in the Latin script.

Mutation

y cannot be mutated but, being a vowel, does take h-prothesis, for example with the word ysgol (“school; ladder”):

Mutated forms of *ysgol*
radical	soft	nasal	h-prothesis
ysgol	unchanged	unchanged	hysgol

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Derived terms

Digraph sequences: yw

Noun

y f (plural yau)

The name of the Latin script letter Y/y.

Mutation

Mutated forms of y
radical	soft	nasal	h-prothesis
y	unchanged	unchanged	hy

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Etymology 2

From Middle Welsh y, yr, from Old Welsh ir, ultimately from Proto-Celtic *sindos.

Alternative forms

'r (used after vowels)
yr (used before vowels and h)

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ə/
Rhymes: -ə

Article

y (definite) (triggers soft mutation of a feminine singular noun, except ll and rh remain unmutated)

the
y bachgen m ― the boy

y ferch f ― the girl

y llong f ― the ship

y bechgyn pl ― the boys

y merched pl ― the girls

Etymology 3

Merger of two formerly distinct particles, ydd and yd.

(1) from earlier ydd, from Middle Welsh yð, from Proto-Celtic *ide- (compare Breton e, ez, Cornish y, yth, Old Irish id), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁i-dʰei- (compare Latin ibi (“here”), Avestan 𐬌𐬛𐬁 (idā, “here, in the same way”), and Sanskrit इह (ihá, “here”)).
(2) from earlier yd, from Middle Welsh yt, from Old Welsh it, from Proto-Celtic *ita- (compare Breton e, ez); akin to Latin ita (“so, thus”), dialectal Lithuanian it (“as”), and Sanskrit इति (íti, “thus, in this manner”).

Alternative forms

yr (used before vowels and h)

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ə/
Rhymes: -ə

Particle

y

(literary) that (preverbal particle used to mark a subordinate clause)
Wyt ti'n meddwl y gall hi ddod?
Do you think that she can come?

Mae hi'n gwybod y byddet ti'n gwrando arni hi.
She knows that you would listen to her.
(literary) which, whom (particle used with indirect relative clauses)
y dyn y dysgais ei fab ― the man whose son I taught

y ferch y gwrandewais arni ― the girl to whom I listened
(literary) preverbal particle used to mark an affirmative verb in a main clause
- 1620, William Morgan, Y Bibl Cyssegr-lan, Genesis 1:1:
  Yn y dechreuad y creodd Duw y nefoedd a’r ddaear.
  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Synonyms: mi, fe (colloquial)

Usage notes

y is almost always omitted in colloquial speech.
y is used to mean 'that' (i.e. mark a subordinate clause) when the subordinate clause begins with an affirmative form of bod not in the present tense, or another affirmative verb in any tense apart from the preterite.

Yele

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /j/, /◌ʲ/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

A letter of the Yele alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

After a consonant, the letter indicates palatalization, except that expected *ty and *nty are spelled ⟨ch⟩ and ⟨nj⟩.

Derived terms

The digraph ⟨yw⟩ is used after a consonant m mb p for /◌ᶣ/ in labio-palatalized ⟨myw mbyw pyw⟩.
Palatalized ⟨dny, dmy, dpy, dy, kpy, ky, ly, mby, mty, my, ndy, nmy, ny, py, tpy, vy⟩.

Yoruba

Pronunciation

(phoneme): IPA^(key): /j/
(letter name): IPA^(key): /jí/

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-fifth letter of the Yoruba alphabet, called yí and written in the Latin script.

Zulu

Letter

y (lower case, upper case Y)

The twenty-fifth letter of the Zulu alphabet, written in the Latin script.

number	person		independent (subject)	suffixed			infixed	possessive (dependent)
number	person		independent (subject)	enclitic	emphatic	reduced	infixed	possessive (dependent)
singular	first		my	vy	evy	ma, a	'm	ow^A
	second		ty	jy, sy¹	tejy	ta, a	'th^M	dha^S
	third²	m	ev	ev	eev	va, a	'n	y^S
	third²	f	hi	hi	hyhi	—	's	hy^A
plural	first		ni	ni	nyni		'gan, 'n	agan, 'gan
	second³		hwi	hwi	hwyhwi		'gas, 's	agas, 'gas
	third		i	i	ynsi		's	aga^A, 'ga^A

Franco-Provençal personal pronouns
			nominative	accusative	dative	tonic¹	possessive²
singular	1^st person		jo	mè			min
	2^nd person		te	tè			tin
	3^rd person	masculine	il	lo / le	lui		sin
		feminine	el	la	lyé
		neuter	o		y	—
		reflexive	—	sè

plural	1^st person		nos				noutro
	2^nd person		vos				voutro
	3^rd person	masculine	ils	los / les	lor		lor
		feminine	els	les	lor / lyés
		reflexive	—	sè