yours
English
Alternative forms
- your's (archaic, now mis-spelling)
Etymology
From Middle English youres, ȝoures, attested since the 1300s. Equivalent to your + -s (compare -'s); formed by analogy to his. Displaced yourn in standard speech.[1]
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /jɔː(ɹ)z/, /jʊəz/, (unstressed) /jəz/
- Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)z
- (US) enPR: yôrz, IPA(key): /jɔɹz/, /jʊɚz/, /jɝz/, (unstressed) /jɚz/
,Audio (US) (file) Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)z
- Homophone: yaws (in some non-rhotic accents)
Pronoun
yours
- That which belongs to you (singular); the possessive second-person singular pronoun used without a following noun.
- If this edit is mine, the other must be yours. Their encyclopedia is good, but yours is even better. It’s all yours.
- That which belongs to you (plural); the possessive second-person plural pronoun used without a following noun.
- 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
- “Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better. […]”
- Written at the end of a letter, before the signature.
Usage notes
- In British English the adverb almost invariably follows the word yours at the end of a letter; in most dialects of American English it usually precedes it. As a general rule, sincerely is only employed if the name of the recipient is already known to the writer; a letter begun with Dear Sir or Dear Madam finishes with faithfully. Yours on its own and yours ever are less formal than the other forms.
Synonyms
- yourn (obsolete outside Britain and US dialects, especially Appalachia)
Derived terms
Translations
possessive pronoun, singular
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possessive pronoun, plural
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sincerely
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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See also
English personal pronouns
Dialectal and obsolete or archaic forms are in italics.
References
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “yours”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Middle English
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