hers
pronunciation
How to pronounce hers in British English:
UK [hɜːz]
How to pronounce hers in American English:
US [hɜːrz]
Word Origin
- hers
- c. 1300, hires, from her; a double possessive. Possessive pronouns in Modern English consist of the predicative (mine, thine, his, ours, yours, theirs) that come after the subject, and the attributive (my, thy, his, her, our, your, their) that come before it. In Old English and early Middle English, they were identical. To keep speech fluid, speakers began to affix an -n to the end of my and thy before words that began with vowels. This began late 13c. in the north of England, and by 1500 was standard. Then the predicative and attributive pronouns split, and the pronouns in that class usually took up -s, the regular affix of possession. But the non-standard speech of the Midlands and south of England extended -n throughout (hisn, hern, yourn), a habit attested from 14c. and more regular than the standard speech, which mixes -s and -n.
Example
- 1. I hoped I had stirred hers a little better .
- 2. Hers was the last generation to do so .
- 3. Now the shirt is hers !
- 4. They were hers , as was everything else on display .
- 5. I made this tiny little judgement about my life versus hers .