она

Synonyms

• таа (taa) (standard)

Declension

Usage notes

• Whenever a preposition stands immediately before any of the oblique cases of the third-person pronoun (singular or plural) and directly governs it, then an н- is prefixed to the pronoun: от неё (ot nejó, “from her”), на ней (na nej, “on her”), у неё (u nejó, “she has”), к ней (k nej, “to her”), с не́ю (s néju, “with her”).
• This comes from Proto-Slavic prepositions such as *sъ(n) (sŭ(n), "with", cf. Greek σύν, Latin cum), that originally ended in -n and governed oblique cases. Since the prepositions and the pronouns occurred together so often, it was easy to lose track of which word the final -n belonged to, and the n was reinterpreted as part of the pronouns (Old English an, in the same way, lost its -n except before vowels, and sometimes gave it to the following word, as in English adder from Old English nædre), so that Proto-Slavic *sъ(n) *jьmi became modern Russian с ни́ми (s ními), and this new rule was extended to all prepositions governing any third-person pronoun.
• Note that if the preposition does not directly govern её (jejó) (i.e., when её is a possessive pronoun), then the н- is not inserted: у её бра́та (u jejó bráta, “at her brother’s”), о её ма́тери (o jejó máteri, “about her mother”), в её ко́мнате (v jejó kómnate, “in her room”).
• When there is another word separating a preposition and any oblique case of она, the н- is not added: у само́й её (u samój jejó, “with her herself”).

Declension

Related terms

• её (jejó)
• свой (svoj)

Declension