ella

See also: Appendix:Variations of "ella"

Aragonese

Etymology

From Latin illa, feminine of ille.

Pronoun

ella

1. she

Asturian

Etymology

From Latin illa, feminine of ille.

Pronoun

ella

1. she

Catalan

Etymology

Inherited from Latin illa, feminine of ille. Compare Occitan ela (and a medieval variant elha), French elle, Spanish ella.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈe.ʎə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈe.ʎa]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

Pronoun

ella (plural elles)

1. she

Declension

Catalan personal pronouns and clitics

			strong/subject	weak (direct object)		weak (indirect object)		possessive
				proclitic	enclitic	proclitic	enclitic
singular	1st person	standard	jo, mi3	em, m’	-me, ’m	em, m’	-me, ’m	meu
		majestic1	nós	ens	-nos, ’ns	ens	-nos, ’ns	nostre
	2nd person	standard	tu	et, t’	-te, ’t	et, t’	-te, ’t	teu
		formal1	vós	us	-vos, -us	us	-vos, -us	vostre
		very formal2	vostè	el, l’	-lo, ’l	li	-li	seu
	3rd person	m	ell	el, l’	-lo, ’l	li	-li	seu
		f	ella	la, l’4	-la	li	-li	seu
		n		ho	-ho	li	-li	seu
plural
	1st person		nosaltres	ens	-nos, ’ns	ens	-nos, ’ns	nostre
	2nd person	standard	vosaltres	us	-vos, -us	us	-vos, -us	vostre
		formal2	vostès	els	-los, ’ls	els	-los, ’ls	seu
	3rd person	m	ells	els	-los, ’ls	els	-los, ’ls	seu
		f	elles	les	-les	els	-los, ’ls	seu
3rd person reflexive			si	es, s’	-se, ’s	es, s’	-se, ’s	seu
adverbial	ablative/genitive			en, n’	-ne, ’n
	locative			hi	-hi

¹ Behaves grammatically as plural.   ² Behaves grammatically as third person.
³ Only as object of a preposition.   ⁴ Not before unstressed (h)i-, (h)u-.

Corsican

Alternative forms

• edda, illa, idda

Etymology

From Latin illa, feminine form of ille (“that”), from Old Latin olle (“that”). Cognates include Italian ella and Spanish ella.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛlːa/
• Hyphenation: el‧la

Pronoun

ella f

1. she
2. her (disjunctive)

See also

Corsican personal pronouns

			nominative	dative	accusative	disjunctive
singular	1st person		eiu	mi		mè
	2nd person		tù	ti		tè
	3rd person	m	ellu	li	u, l'	ellu
		f	ella		a, l'	ella
plural	1st person		noi	ci		noi
	2nd person		voi	vi		voi
	3rd person	m	elli	li	i, l'	elli
		f	elle		e, l'	elle

References

• “ella, illa, edda, idda” in INFCOR: Banca di dati di a lingua corsa

Faroese

Etymology

From Old Norse ella.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈɛtla], [ˈɪtla]
• (Suðuroy) IPA^(key): [ˈɪlːa]

Conjunction

ella

1. or

Fula

Etymology

From Arabic عِلَّة (ʕilla).

Noun

ella o

1. (Maasina, Pulaar) flaw, blemish, vice, defect

   elle (Maasina Plural)

   ellaaji (Pulaar Plural)

   allaaru (Maasina)

References

• D. Osborn, D. Dwyer, et J. Donohoe, Lexique Fulfulde (Maasina)-Anglais-Français: Une compilation basée sur racines et tirée de sources existantes, suivie de listes en anglais-fulfulde et français-fulfulde, East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1993.
• M. Niang (1997), Pulaar–English English–Pulaar Standard Dictionary, New York: Hippocrene Books

Icelandic

Etymology

From Old Norse ella, shortened from earlier elligar. Compare ellegar. Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *aljaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛtla/
• Rhymes: -ɛtla

Adverb

ella

1. else, or else, otherwise

   Synonyms: annars, ellegar

Conjunction

ella

1. or

   Synonyms: eða, eður, ellegar

Italian

Etymology

From Latin illa, feminine of ille (“that”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛl.la/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlla

Pronoun

ella f (plural elle, archaic plural elleno)

1. (uncommon, literary, subject form, animate) she

   Synonyms: lei, (inanimate) essa

Usage notes

• The term has largely fallen out of use in the spoken language, in favor of the oblique form lei.

See also

Italian personal pronouns

		singular						plural
		first	second	second formal / polite5	third			first	second	second formal / polite5	third
				m or f	m	f				m or f	m	f
nominative		io	tu	Lei, Ella8	lui, egli8, ello8, elli3, 8, esso8	lei, ella8, essa8		noi	voi, Voi7	Loro	loro
elli3, 8, ellino4, 8, eglino4, 8, essi8	elle3, 8, elleno4, 8, esse8
atonic (clitic)11	accusative / dative-reflexive	mi, m', -mi, me9	ti, t', -ti, te9	―	si6, s', -si, se9			ci, c', -ci, ce9	vi, Vi7, v', V'7, -vi, -Vi7, ve9	―	si, s', -si, se9
	accusative			La, -La, L'	lo, l', -lo, il4	la, l', -la				Le, -Le	li, -li	le, -le
	dative			Le, -Le	glie9					Loro10	loro10, gli2, -gli2, glie9
					gli, -gli	le, -le, gli2, -gli2
	locative	―			ci, c', vi1, v'1			―			ci, c', vi1, v'1
	partitive	ne, n'		ne, n'
tonic12	prepositional-reflexive	―			sé			―			sé
	oblique	me	te	Lei	lui, esso8	lei, essa8		noi	voi, Voi7	Loro	loro,
											essi8	elle8, esse8
1	Formal.
2	Informal.
3	Archaic.
4	Obsolete.
5	Grammatically third person forms used semantically in the second person as a formal or polite way of addressing someone (with the first letter frequently capitalised as a sign of respect, and to distinguish them from third person subjects). Unlike the singular forms, the plural forms are mostly antiquated terms of formal address in the modern language, and second person plural pronouns are almost always used instead.
6	Also used as indefinite pronoun meaning “one”, and to form the passive.
7	Formal (capitalisation optional); in many regions, can refer to just one person (compare with French vous).
8	Traditional grammars still indicate the forms egli (animate), ello / ella (animate), esso / essa and their plurals as the nominative forms of the third person pronouns; outside of very formal or archaizing contexts, all such forms have been replaced by the obliques lui, lei, loro.
9	Forms used when followed by a third-person direct object proclitic (lo, la, li, le, or ne).
10	Used after verbs.
11	Unstressed forms, stand alone forms are found proclitically (except dative loro / Loro), others enclitically (-mi, -ti, etc.).
12	Disjunctive, emphatic oblique forms used as direct objects placed after verbs, in exclamations, along prepositions (prepositional) and some adverbs (come, quanto, etc.); also used with a to create alternative emphatic dative forms.

Anagrams

• alle

Old Irish

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *ɸalnati.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈe.l̪a/

Verb

·ella

1. unattested by itself; takes various preverbs to form verbs

Derived terms

It is not easy to clearly distinguish between derivatives of this root and derivatives of ·lá (from Proto-Celtic *layeti). See fo·ceird for derivatives of ·lá.

• ad·ella
• do·aidlea
• do·alla
• do·ecmalla
• do·ella
• fo·indlea
• sechmo·ella

Mutation

Mutation of ·ella

radical	lenition	nasalization
·ella (pronounced with /h/ in h-prothesis environments)	·ella	·n-ella

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in Old Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Portuguese

Pronoun

ella f

1. pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of ela

Sotho

Verb

ella

1. to move towards

Spanish

Etymology

Inherited from Latin illa, feminine of ille.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /ˈeʝa/ [ˈe.ʝa]

• IPA^(key): /ˈeʝa/ [ˈe.ʝa] (Equatorial Guinea, most of Latin America and Spain)
• IPA^(key): /ˈeʎa/ [ˈe.ʎa] (Andes Mountains, rustic northern Spain, Paraguay, Philippines)
• IPA^(key): /ˈeʃa/ [ˈe.ʃa] (Buenos Aires and environs)
• IPA^(key): /ˈeʒa/ [ˈe.ʒa] (elsewhere in Argentina and Uruguay)

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

 

• Rhymes: -eʝa

• Rhymes: -eʝa (Equatorial Guinea, most of Latin America and Spain)
• Rhymes: -eʎa (Andes Mountains, rustic northern Spain, Paraguay, Philippines)
• Rhymes: -eʃa (Buenos Aires and environs)
• Rhymes: -eʒa (elsewhere in Argentina and Uruguay)

• Syllabification: e‧lla

Pronoun

ella (plural ellas, masculine él, masculine plural ellos)

1. she, her (used subjectively and after prepositions)
2. it (used subjectively and after prepositions to refer to feminine nouns)

Related terms

• él
• ellas
• ellos

See also

Spanish personal pronouns

				Nominative	Disjunctive	Dative	Accusative	Comitative
First-person	Singular			yo	mí	me		conmigo
	Plural	Masculine1		nosotros		nos		—
		Feminine		nosotras
Second-person	Singular	Tuteo		tú	ti	te		contigo
		Voseo		vos	—
		Formal2	Masculine1	usted		le, se3	lo
			Feminine				la
	Plural	Familiar4	Masculine1	vosotros		os
			Feminine	vosotras
		Formal/general2	Masculine1	ustedes		les, se3	los
			Feminine				las
Third-person	Singular	Masculine1		él		le, se3	lo
		Feminine		ella			la
		Neuter		ello5			lo
	Plural	Masculine1		ellos		les, se3	los
		Feminine		ellas			las
	Reflexive			—	sí	se		consigo

1. Like other masculine words, masculine pronouns can be used when the gender of the subject is unknown or when the subject is plural and of mixed gender.
2. Treated as if it were third person for purposes of conjugation and reflexivity.
3. If le or les precedes lo, la, los, or las in a clause, it is replaced with se (e.g. se lo dije instead of *le lo dije).
4. Used primarily in Spain.
5. Only used in certain circumstances and rarely as a subject pronoun.

Further reading

• “él”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛɬa/

Adverb

ella

1. perhaps, maybe (colloquial form of efallai)