mai
Translingual
English
Determiner
mai
Ajië
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [mai]
References
- Leenhardt, M. (1935) Vocabulaire et grammaire de la langue Houaïlou, Paris: Institut d'ethnologie. Cited in: "Houaïlou" in Greenhill, S.J., Blust, R., & Gray, R.D. (2008). The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 4:271–283.
- Leenhardt, M. (1946) Langues et dialectes de l'Austro-Mèlanèsie. Cited in: "Ajiø" in Greenhill, S.J., Blust, R., & Gray, R.D. (2008). The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 4:271–283.
Aromanian
Alternative forms
Atong (India)
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /maj/
Etymology 1
From Proto-Bodo-Garo *mai¹ (“rice; paddy; cooked rice”), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ma-j ~ mej (“rice; paddy”).
Synonyms
References
- van Breugel, Seino. 2015. Atong-English dictionary, second edition. Available online: https://www.academia.edu/487044/Atong_English_Dictionary.
Bamwe
Catalan
Adverb
mai
Derived terms
See also
Chuukese
Dharug
Estonian
Declension
Declension of mai (ÕS type 26/koi, no gradation) | |||
---|---|---|---|
singular | plural | ||
nominative | mai | maid | |
accusative | nom. | ||
gen. | mai | ||
genitive | maide | ||
partitive | maid | maisid | |
illative | maisse | maidesse | |
inessive | mais | maides | |
elative | maist | maidest | |
allative | maile | maidele | |
adessive | maidel | ||
ablative | mailt | maidelt | |
translative | maiks | maideks | |
terminative | maini | maideni | |
essive | maina | maidena | |
abessive | maita | maideta | |
comitative | maiga | maidega |
Synonyms
- lehekuu
- lehehakkamiskuu
- õiekuu
- toomekuu
- meiukuu
- nelipühakuu
Faroese
Fijian
Etymology
From Proto-Central-Pacific *mai, from Proto-Oceanic *maʀi, *mai, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *maʀi.
French
Etymology
Inherited from Old French mai, from Latin Maius.
Pronunciation
Derived terms
Descendants
See also
Further reading
- “mai”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
Gallo
Garo
Hausa
Derived terms
Hawaiian
Etymology
From Proto-Polynesian *mai, from Proto-Oceanic, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *maʀi.
Particle
mai
Usage notes
- Commonly used after verbs that do not need a directional in English.
- Mai and aku may change the meaning of the verb:
- aʻo mai ("to learn") - aʻo aku ("to teach")
- kūʻai mai ("to buy") - kūʻai aku ("to sell")
Synonyms
Hungarian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈmɒji]
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: mai
- Rhymes: -ji
Adjective
mai (not comparable)
Declension
Inflection (stem in -a-, back harmony) | ||
---|---|---|
singular | plural | |
nominative | mai | maiak |
accusative | mait | maiakat |
dative | mainak | maiaknak |
instrumental | maival | maiakkal |
causal-final | maiért | maiakért |
translative | maivá | maiakká |
terminative | maiig | maiakig |
essive-formal | maiként | maiakként |
essive-modal | — | — |
inessive | maiban | maiakban |
superessive | main | maiakon |
adessive | mainál | maiaknál |
illative | maiba | maiakba |
sublative | maira | maiakra |
allative | maihoz | maiakhoz |
elative | maiból | maiakból |
delative | mairól | maiakról |
ablative | maitól | maiaktól |
non-attributive possessive - singular |
maié | maiaké |
non-attributive possessive - plural |
maiéi | maiakéi |
Further reading
- mai in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
Ingrian
Previous: | apreli |
---|---|
Next: | ijuuni |
Pronunciation
- (Ala-Laukaa) IPA(key): /ˈmɑi̯/, [ˈmɑi̯]
- (Soikkola) IPA(key): /ˈmɑi̯/, [ˈmɑi̯]
- Rhymes: -ɑi̯
Noun
mai
- May
- 1937, N. S. Popova, translated by A. Kolesova, Arifmetiikan oppikirja alkușkouluja vart (toin osa), Leningrad: Ucebno-Pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 25:
- Vooes ono 12 kuuta: janvari, fevrali, martti, apreli, mai, ijuuni, ijuuli, avgusta, sentjabri, oktjabri, nojabri i dekabri.
- In a year are 12 months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December.
Declension
Declension of mai (type 8/maa, no gradation) | ||
---|---|---|
singular | plural | |
nominative | mai | mait |
genitive | main | maijen |
partitive | maita | maita |
illative | maihe | maihe |
inessive | mais | mais |
elative | maist | maist |
allative | maille | maille |
adessive | ||
ablative | mailt | mailt |
translative | maiks | maiks |
essive | mainna, main | mainna, main |
exessive1) | maint | maint |
1) obsolete *) the accusative corresponds with either the genitive (sg) or nominative (pl) **) the comitative is formed by adding the suffix -ka? or -kä? to the genitive. |
Derived terms
References
- Ruben E. Nirvi (1971) Inkeroismurteiden Sanakirja, Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, page 291
Istriot
Adverb
mai
- never (not ever)
- 1877, Antonio Ive, Canti popolari istriani: raccolti a Rovigno, volume 5, Ermanno Loescher, page 40:
- Che mai pioûn biela duon i’iê veisto al mondo,
- That I haven’t ever seen a more beautiful woman in the world,
Italian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈmaj/
Audio (file) - Rhymes: -aj
- Hyphenation: mài
Adverb
mai
- never
- ever, always
- used as an intensifier
- Una risposta quanto mai ambigua.
- An ambiguous answer indeed.
- Dove mai si sarà cacciato?
- Where on earth did he end up?
Related terms
- casomai/caso mai
- come mai?
- giammai
- mai dire mai (proverb)
- mai e poi mai
- mai più
- meglio tardi che mai (proverb)
- ormai
- ora o mai più
- quasi mai
Karelian
North Karelian (Viena) |
— |
---|---|
South Karelian (Tver) |
mai |
Previous: | aprelʹa |
---|---|
Next: | ijunʹa |
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈmɑi̯/
- Hyphenation: mai
Declension
Tver Karelian declension of mai (type 6/pimie, no gradation) | |||
---|---|---|---|
singular | plural | ||
nominative | mai | mait | |
genitive | main | main | |
partitive | maida | maida | |
illative | maih | maih | |
inessive | maissa | maissa | |
elative | maista | maista | |
adessive | mailla | mailla | |
ablative | mailda | mailda | |
translative | maiksi | maiksi | |
essive | maina | maina | |
comitative | mainke | mainke | |
abessive | maitta | maitta |
Possessive forms of mai | ||
---|---|---|
1st person | maini | |
2nd person | mais | |
3rd person | maih | |
*) Possessive forms are very rare for adjectives and only used in substantivised clauses. |
Synonyms
References
- A. V. Punzhina (1994) “mai”, in Словарь карельского языка (тверские говоры) [Dictionary of the Karelian language (Tver dialects)], →ISBN
Kaurna
Kedah Malay
Etymology
From Proto-Malayic *mari, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *maʀi.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mai/
Verb
mai
- Come, present (at here), attend, be (here)
- Hang nak gebang aku eh, kata nak mai, batang hidung pun tak nampak!
- You said that you're gonna come, but I didn't see you anywhere!
- Depa mai ka dak ni; dah cemuih dah dok tang ni dok melangut ja.
- Have you seen them (present at here), cause I am bored to death here, just doing nothing.
Interjection
mai
- Come here! Here!
- Mai la sat, aku seghighau satgi depa tabuh aku pulak.
- Please come with me for a second, I'm afraid that they might hit me.
- "Mai la, hang dok takut pa, aku tak buat pa eh," kata Ali kepada kucingnya.
- "Come! What are you so afraid of? I'm not gonna do anything to you," says Ali to his cat.
Khumi Chin

Etymology
From Proto-Kuki-Chin *maj, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *mej. Cognates include Tibetan མེ (me) and S'gaw Karen မ့ၣ် (maỳ).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mai̯˥/
Kikuyu
Etymology
Hinde (1904) records mai as an equivalent of English dung (cow's) in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu, listing also Kamba maii and Swahili mavi as its equivalents.[1]
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mai/
Derived terms
(Proverbs)
- mbũri ya mai ndĩremaga
See also
References
- Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 20–21. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Muiru, David N. (2007). Wĩrute Gĩgĩkũyũ: Marĩtwa Ma Gĩgĩkũyũ Mataũrĩtwo Na Gĩthũngũ, pp. 11, 34.
Kokborok
Etymology
From Proto-Bodo-Garo *mai¹ (“rice; paddy; cooked rice”), from, Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ma-j ~ mej (“rice; paddy”). Cognate with Garo mi, Atong (India) mai.
Leonese
Etymology
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
References
Malay
Pronunciation
- (Northern Peninsular Malay) IPA(key): [ˈmai̯]
Related terms
References
- "mai" in Kamus Dewan, Fourth Edition, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, →ISBN, 2005.
- “mai” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.
Mandarin
Romanization
mai
Usage notes
- Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.
Maori
Etymology
From Proto-Polynesian *mai, Proto-Oceanic, Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *maʀi.
Mbandja
References
- William L. Gardner, Language use in the Epena district of Northern Congo, SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2006-005 (2006)
Murui Huitoto
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [mai̯]
References
- Shirley Burtch (1983) Diccionario Huitoto Murui (Tomo I) (Linguistica Peruana No. 20) (in Spanish), Yarinacocha, Peru: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, page 171
- Katarzyna Izabela Wojtylak (2017) A grammar of Murui (Bue): a Witotoan language of Northwest Amazonia., Townsville: James Cook University press (PhD thesis), page 144
Norwegian Nynorsk
References
- “mai” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
Occitan
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mai/
Audio (Béarn) (file)
Etymology 1
From Old Occitan mai, from Latin magis.
Adverb
mai
Derived terms
Pitjantjatjara
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mai̯/, [mɛɪ]
Rapa Nui
Etymology
From Proto-Polynesian *mai, from Proto-Oceanic, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *maʀi.
Romanian
Alternative forms
- май (mai) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈmaj/
Audio (male voice): (file) - Rhymes: -aj
- Hyphenation: mai
Etymology 1
Borrowed from Old Church Slavonic маи (mai), from Koine Greek Μάϊος (Máïos), from Latin (mensis) Maius. Less likely a direct derivation from Latin.
Usage notes
This word regards degree rather than number, for which a form of the word mult should be appended.
Declension
Derived terms
Noun
mai n (plural maiuri) (Moldavia (region), Transylvania, Bukovina, Maramureș)
Declension
Romansch
Tagalog
Alternative forms
- ma-y, may — obsolete, Spanish-based orthography
- ma-i
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /maˈʔi/, [mɐˈʔi]
- Hyphenation: ma‧i
Noun
maí (Baybayin spelling ᜋᜁ) (obsolete)
See also
- paramdam
- sakuna
Further reading
- “mai”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018
- Noceda, Fr. Juan José de, Sanlucar, Fr. Pedro de (1860) Vocabulario de la lengua tagala, compuesto por varios religiosos doctos y graves (in Spanish), Manila: Ramirez y Giraudier
Ternate
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈma.i]
Adverb
mai
- even
- botoboto mai ioho, lado mai ioho ― they even ate grasshoppers, they even ate eels
- ngofa-ngofa amoi ua mai kado ― not even one child came
- ngori pipi cabu mai ua ― I have no money at all (literally, “my money, even a little is not”)
References
- Rika Hayami-Allen (2001) A descriptive study of the language of Ternate, the northern Moluccas, Indonesia, University of Pittsburgh
Tocharian B
Tokelauan
Etymology
From Proto-Polynesian *mai. Cognates include Hawaiian mai and Samoan mai.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈma.i]
- Hyphenation: ma‧i
Preposition
mai
- from
- 1948, Tūlāfono fakavae a Tokelau [Constitution of Tokelau], page 1:
- Mai te kāloā, ko nā tālaaga ki nā fenua o Atafu, Nukunonu, Fakaofo, ma Olohega na fauhia kē fai ma o matou kāiga.
- From the ancient times, of the tales, the islands of Atafu, Nukunonu, Fakaofo and Olohega You created together, as our home.
Particle
mai
Antonyms
Uneapa
Etymology
From Proto-Oceanic *mai, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *maʀi, from Proto-Austronesian *um-aʀi.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mai/
Further reading
- Ross, Malcolm D. (2003) Andrew Pawley, editor, The lexicon of Proto-Oceanic: Volume 2, The Physical Environment, Canberra: Australian National University, →ISBN, →OCLC; republished as Meredith Osmond, editor, (Please provide a date or year)
Vietnamese
Pronunciation
- (Hà Nội) IPA(key): [maːj˧˧]
- (Huế) IPA(key): [maːj˧˧]
- (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA(key): [maːj˧˧]
Audio (Hà Nội) (file)
Etymology 1
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.) For the connection between "first part of the day" and "day after this one", compare Germanic equivalents such as English morn(ning) and morrow, Dutch morgen, Romance ones such as French demain and Italian domani, and Japanese 明日 and 朝 (ashita).
Noun
mai • (埋, 𣈕, 𪰹)
Etymology 2
Sino-Vietnamese word from 梅 (“Chinese plum”).
Noun
(classifier cây, bông, hoa) mai • (枚, 梅)
- Ochna integerrima, a tree species (sometimes shrub) of the family Ochnaceae, sometimes called apricot in English
- 1999, Lê Trung Vũ and Lê Hồng Lý, Lễ hội Việt Nam, Văn hoá Thông tin, page 357
- Ngày xưa kỳ thi Hội chọn lấy đỗ Tiến sĩ được tổ chức vào mùa xuân, cùng với dịp hoa mai nở.
- In times of old, the ceremony of selecting Imperial Examination laureates was organized in spring, to coincide with the blooming of the apricot trees.
- 1999, Lê Trung Vũ and Lê Hồng Lý, Lễ hội Việt Nam, Văn hoá Thông tin, page 357
Etymology 3
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Etymology 5
Non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 媒 (SV: môi).
Votic
Pronunciation
- (Luutsa, Liivtšülä) IPA(key): /ˈmɑi̯/, [ˈmɑi̯]
- Rhymes: -ɑi̯
- Hyphenation: mai
Inflection
Declension of mai (type I/maa, no gradation) | ||
---|---|---|
singular | plural | |
nominative | mai | maid |
genitive | mai | maijõ |
partitive | maitõ | maitõ |
illative | maihi, maihisõ | maisõ |
inessive | maiz | maiz |
elative | maissõ | maissõ |
allative | mailõ | mailõ |
adessive | maillõ | maillõ |
ablative | mailtõ | mailtõ |
translative | maissi | maissi |
*) the accusative corresponds with either the genitive (sg) or nominative (pl) **) the terminative is formed by adding the suffix -ssaa to the short illative (sg) or the genitive. ***) the comitative is formed by adding the suffix -ka to the genitive. |
References
- Hallap, V., Adler, E., Grünberg, S., Leppik, M. (2012) “mai”, in Vadja keele sõnaraamat [A dictionary of the Votic language], 2nd edition, Tallinn
Welsh
Etymology
From mae (“it is”).
Pronunciation
- (North Wales, standard) IPA(key): /mai̯/
- (North Wales, colloquial) IPA(key): /ma/, /mə/
- (South Wales) IPA(key): /mai̯/
- Homophone: Mai; mae (South Wales)
Conjunction
mai
- (formal and North Wales colloquial) that (introduces a noun clause, marking it for emphasis)
- Mae’n dweud mai athro yw ef. (formal)
- He says that he is a teacher.
- Mae o’n deud mai athro ’dy o. (North Wales, colloquial)
- He says that he is a teacher.
Synonyms
- (South Wales, colloquial) taw
West Makian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈma.i/
Yola
Verb
mai
- Alternative form of mye
- 1867, CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 114, lines 21-23:
- Ye pace——yea, we mai zei, ye vaste pace whilke bee ee-stent owr ye londe zince th'ast ee-cam,
- The peace——yes, we may say the profound peace—which overspreads the land since your arrival,
References
- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 114
Zou
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mai̯˧/
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mai̯˧/
References
- Lukram Himmat Singh (2013) A Descriptive Grammar of Zou, Canchipur: Manipur University, page 45