wo

See also: Appendix:Variations of "wo"

English

Alternative forms

Etymology 1

Variant of who.

Interjection

wo

  1. A falconer's call to a hawk.
  2. A call to cause a horse to slow down or stop; whoa.

Etymology 2

Variant of woe.

Noun

wo (countable and uncountable, plural wos)

  1. Obsolete spelling of woe
    • 1815, Philip Freneau, A collection of poems, on American affairs and a variety of other subjects, page 82:
      Such feeble arms, to work internal wo!
    • Hannah More
      But if there was a competition between a sick family and a new broach, the broach was sure to carry the day. This would not have been the case, had they been habituated to visit themselves the abodes of penury and wo.

Anagrams

Acehnese

Verb

wo

  1. to go home

References

Dongxiang

Etymology

Compare Bonan wa, perhaps from Proto-Mongolic *bü- (“to be”), see Mongolian бий (bij).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /wo/, [wo]

Verb

wo (defective, copulative)

  1. to be
    1. existential copula
      Eqie guanjinde nie sizi wo, nie basi wo.
      Once upon a time there was a lion and a tiger.
    2. equitive copula
      Bi shi er dui nie bawan, yi dui bawan shi jiu Rejie wo, san dui bawan shi nie halao Remi wo.
      I was the bigshot of the second team, the bigshot of the first team was Rejie and the bigshot of the third team was one ugly Remi.
    3. adjectival copula
      Ene shihoude sumulase hunnerei wo dei.
      If I think [about it] now, it's funny.
  2. in possessive constructions with the possessor in dative
    Ene ghualade nie ghoni wo.
    These two had a sheep.
  3. (after -zhi) forming the progressive tense
    Bi ene agvinni nanbangiede nie jian wafande sauzhi wo.
    I live [am living] in a one bedroom house at the south of the village.

Usage notes

  • Usually combined with the Chinese copula shi which is placed between two terms while wo follows the second. Either of them or even both can be omitted but both being present is usually the most common setup.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

  • -zho - contraction of -zhi wo.

Ewe

Pronoun

wo

  1. them
  2. they

German

Etymology

With widespread dialectal -ā- → -ō- from Middle High German wā, wār, from Old High German wār, hwār, from Proto-Germanic *hwēr, *hwar. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷis, whence also wer. Cognate with English where.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /voː/
  • Audio(file)
  • Rhymes: -oː

Adverb

wo

  1. (interrogative) where
    Wo bist du?
    Where are you?
  2. (relative) where
    Ich kenne einen Laden, wo solche Sachen verkauft werden.
    I know a shop where such things are sold.
  3. (relative, somewhat informal) when
    Das war der Tag, wo wir uns kennen gelernt haben.
    That was the day when we got to know each other.
  4. (indefinite, colloquial) somewhere
    Ich wär gern wo, wo's wärmer ist.
    I'd like to be somewhere where it's warmer.

Usage notes

  • The temporal use of wo (meaning “when”) is sometimes frowned upon in formal standard German. There is a tendency to use a preposition + relative pronoun instead: Das war der Tag, an dem wir uns kennen gelernt haben. (“That was the day on which we got to know each other.”) Nevertheless, this usage is very common in spoken German and is also widely acceptable in writing, particularly after adverbs, where the only alternative would be the archaic da: Jetzt, wo ich es weiß, wird mir alles klar. (“Now that I know, it all becomes clear to me.”) Compare French où (“where”), the temporal use of which is perfectly standard.

Conjunction

wo

  1. (colloquial) when
    Wo ich mich umgedreht hab, haut der mir unvermittelt eine rein.
    When I turned around, he just abruptly punched me in the face.

Usage notes

  • This usage is exclusively colloquial and would be considered inappropriate in a formal text.

Synonyms

Pronoun

wo

  1. (relative, dialectal, nonstandard) who, whom, which, that
    Ich bin der, wo das kann.
    I'm the one who can do that.

Usage notes

  • This use is dialectal and widely restricted to Alemannic areas (Switzerland and south-western Germany). In other regions, this usage is unusual, and scorned by some.

German Low German

Etymology 1

From Middle Low German wô (“how”), from Old Saxon [Term?], from Proto-Germanic *hwō. Cognate with English how, German wie, Dutch hoe.

Alternative forms

  • (in some dialects) woans

Pronunciation

  • (in some dialects) IPA(key): /vɔu̯/
  • (traditional) IPA(key): [wɔʊ̯]

Adverb

wo

  1. how
    Wo vele Daag?
    How many days?

Etymology 2

From Old Saxon hwē, from Proto-Germanic *hwaz. Compare English who, whom, whose.

Pronoun

wo

  1. (Low Prussian, relative) who, which
    (Low Prussian)
    Dat, wo ös... ― that which is...

Usage notes

The dative form (also used for the accusative) is woom (wom); the genitive form is woos (wos).

Haitian Creole

Etymology

From French haut (“high”).

Adjective

wo

  1. high
  2. tall

Adverb

wo

  1. high

Hunsrik

Etymology

From Middle High German wā, wār, from Old High German wār, hwār, from Proto-Germanic *hwēr, *hwar.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /voː/

Adverb

wo

  1. (interrogative) where
    Wo bist-du?
    Where are you.
  2. (relative) where
    Ich waarte dich, wo mein Fatter wohnd.
    I will wait for you where my father lives.
  3. (relative) when
    In denne Zeid, wo alles deirer waar.
    In those times when everything was more expensive.

Pronoun

wo

  1. (relative) who
    De Mann, wost-du sihst, is mein Fatter.
    The man you see is my father.
    Die Fraa, wo uns gerufd hod, siehd aarich bees aus.
    The woman who called us seems pretty angry.

Further reading

Japanese

Romanization

wo

  1. Rōmaji transcription of を
  2. Rōmaji transcription of ヲ
  3. Rōmaji transcription of うぉ
  4. Rōmaji transcription of ウォ

Lower Sorbian

Preposition

wo

  1. superseded spelling of wó.

Luxembourgish

Verb

wo

  1. second-person singular imperative of woen

Mandarin

Romanization

wo (Zhuyin ˙ㄨㄛ)

  1. Nonstandard spelling of wō.
  2. Nonstandard spelling of wǒ.
  3. Nonstandard spelling of wò.

Usage notes

  • English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

Middle English

Noun

wo (plural wos)

  1. Alternative form of woo

Saterland Frisian

Adverb

wo

  1. how, to what degree

Zulu

Pronoun

-wo

  1. Combining stem of wona.
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