оно

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- must be prefixed to the pronoun: от него́ (ot nevó) (from it), на нём (na njom) (on it), у него́ (u nevó) (it has), к нему́ (k nemú) (to it), с ним (s nim) (with it).
• 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 его́ (jevó) (i.e., when его́ (jevó) is a possessive pronoun), then н- is not prefixed: в его́ положе́нии (v jevó položénii) (in its position), о его́ тка́ни (o jevó tkáni) (about its fabric), с его́ ве́сом (s jevó vésom) (with its weight).
• When there is another word separating a preposition and any oblique case of оно, the н- is not added: у самого́ его́ (u samovó jevó) (with it itself).

Declension

Related terms

• его́ (jevó)
• свой (svoj)

Declension