Old Church Slavonic

Pronoun

оно • ‎(ono)

1. it
2. nominative and accusative singular neuter of онъ ‎(onŭ)

See also

• ѥ ‎(je)

Russian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɐˈno]

Pronoun

оно́ • ‎(onó) ‎(masculine counterpart он, feminine counterpart она́)

1. third-person neuter singular pronoun: it.

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 njóm) (on it), у него́ ‎(u nevó) (it has), к нему́ ‎(k nemú) (to it), с ним ‎(s nim) (with it).
• The explanation for this н-prothesis is that, originally, some Russian prepositions ended in the letter -н: сън (sŭn, “with”...cf. Greek σύν ‎(σύν), Latin cum). Eventually, the final н of these prepositions migrated across to the pronoun, so that сън им became modern с ним ‎(s nim), and then this was generalized to include all prepositions when 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).

Related terms

• его́ ‎(jevó)
• свой ‎(svoj)

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *ona, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eno-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ǒno/
• Hyphenation: о‧но

Pronoun

о̀но ‎(Latin spelling òno)

1. it

Declension