'n

Conjunction

'n

1. Nonstandard spelling of 'n'.

   fish 'n chips

   rock 'n roll

   • 1927, Arthur D[ouglas] Howden Smith, “The Ferryman”, in Commodore Vanderbilt: An Epic of American Achievement, New York, N.Y.: Robert M[edill] McBride & Company, section III, pages 50–51:

     “Might think we was brother 'n sister, to hear ye, Ma! Damn me to glory, don't ye know thar's fust cousins marryin' every week? And no harm come of it.” […] “Oh, son, not in the face of Pa 'n me that love you, whatever you think! We're only tryin' to figger for your own good.”

Conjunction

'n

1. Contraction of than.
   • 1865, Mark Twain, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County:

     The feller took the box again, and took another long, particular look, and give it back to Smiley, and says, very deliberate, "Well, I don't see no p'ints about that frog that's any better'n any other frog."

   • 1969, Anne Warner, Susan Clegg and her friend Mrs. Lathrop, page 87:

     She says you may laugh 'f you feel so inclined, but there ain't no such big difference between your leg 'n' a dead rat but what it 'll pay you to mark her words. She says 'f it don't do no more 'n eat the skin off it 'll still be pretty hard for you to lay there without no skin 'n' feel the plaster goin' in more 'n' more.

   • 2010, Arnan Heyden, Daughters of Agendale, page 228:

     What I can give ya is this bit o' knowledge: there be things in this world that no one can explain. There are things bigger 'n mountains, bigger 'n oceans, bigger 'n fields an' night skies filled with stars, bigger 'n kings, or queens…

Conjunction

'n

1. (archaic) Contraction of when. (As found in if'n.)

Noun

'n (plural 'ns)

1. (colloquial) Alternative form of 'un (“one, a thing”)
   • 2009, Mariella Glenn Hartsfield, Tall Betsy and Dunce Baby: South Georgia Folktales, page 104:

     The other said, "Alright, I'm gonna do it like this: you take this'n, I'll take that'n; you take this'n, I'll take that'n; […]

   • 2012, Liza Cody, Musclebound, page 15:

     Which really did turn into a headache when I woke up — a bad'n.

Usage notes

• This word is not capitalized at the beginning of a sentence and the following word is capitalized instead.

Usage notes

While this contraction still reflects the elision that often occurs in en when it is between a word ending in a vowel and a word beginning in a consonant, this spelling was dropped by the Academy of the Asturian Language in 1990. Thus, the normative spelling of the above example is now Toi viviendo en Cangues.

See also

• n'
• 'l

Article

'n m

1. a (accusative)
2. the (accusative)

Pronoun

'n

1. him
2. it (dative)

Usage notes

• 'n is the reduced (reduïda) form of the pronoun. It is used after verbs ending with a vowel.

Declension

Article

'n

1. (colloquial) Alternative form of ein (“a, an”)
2. (colloquial) Alternative form of einen (“a, an”)

Adverb

'n

1. (colloquial) short for denn (used for general emphasis)

   Wann wärst'n hier?

   So, when would you be here?

Preposition

'n

1. (literary) Alternative form of in
2. (colloquial) Pronunciation spelling of in.

Article

'n m

1. (colloquial) Pronunciation spelling of un.

Numeral

'n m

1. (colloquial) Pronunciation spelling of un.

Adverb

'n

1. (colloquial) Pronunciation spelling of non.

Particle

'n

1. Alternative form of yn (used after a vowel).

   Mae hi'n darllen. ― She is reading.

   Mae hi'n gysglyd. ― She is sleepy.

   Mae hi'n ferch. ― She is a girl.

Determiner

'n (triggers h-prothesis of a following vowel)

1. our (used after vowels).

   Dyna'n harian ni.

   That's our money.

Pronoun

'n (triggers h-prothesis of a following vowel)

1. us (as the direct object of a verbal noun or verb)

   Mae e yma i'n harfarnu.

   He's here to appraise us.

   Fe'n magwyd yng ngefn gwlad.

   We were brought up (lit. One brought us up) in the countryside.

Usage notes

• In formal Welsh, the contraction 'n is a valid form of ein found after mostly functional vowel-final words. In colloquial Welsh, ein is often contracted to 'n after almost any vowel-final word.
• Pronomial 'n (and ein) can occur before any verbal noun. Before verbal, pronomial 'n is found only in formal language after certain vowel-final preverbal particles, such as fe, a, ni, na, oni and pe.