What does her mean?
Her is a third-person singular personal pronoun used for a female person or, in traditional and some specialized contexts, a personified thing. As an object pronoun, it follows a verb or preposition: “I spoke to her.” As a possessive determiner, it precedes a noun and indicates association or ownership: “her book.” The form does not itself mean “she”; it points back to an antecedent, and “her” is not a standard noun. Related forms divide the work: “hers” is the standalone possessive pronoun, as in “This bag is hers,” while “herself” is reflexive or emphatic, as in “She built the chair herself.” Though commonly associated with women, her can also refer to girls and to entities with feminine grammatical gender. It remains standard in both formal and informal English, although singular “they” and “them” are often preferred when gender does not need to be specified. Its modern form reflects the development of an older grammatical-gender system and the influence of the corresponding form “his.”
An object-form third-person singular personal pronoun referring to a female person or a feminine-gender entity.
"Please give the book to her."
Her is normally used after a verb or preposition; it is not the nominative form “she.”
A possessive word placed before a noun to indicate association with or possession by a female person or feminine-gender entity.
"Her luggage was delivered to the hotel."
The corresponding standalone possessive pronoun is “hers,” as in “The luggage is hers.”
Short and familiar, “her” preserves a trace of Old English grammatical gender in one of the language's most frequently used pronouns.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does her come from?
Her descends from Old English hēo, the feminine singular personal pronoun, whose inflected forms included hīre. Middle English forms such as hir and hire eventually developed into modern her, partly through analogy with the possessive form his. Related forms appear in other Germanic languages, including German ihr and Dutch haar, while Swedish and Norwegian have the cognate henne.
Related word forms
How her is actually used
Her is neutral in register and can follow verbs and prepositions, as in “I saw her,” or precede nouns, as in “her phone.” The stand-alone possessive form is “hers,” while “herself” is used reflexively or emphatically. Singular “they” and “them” are commonly preferred when a speaker does not wish to specify gender.
Easily confused with her
His is the possessive form used for a male or masculine-gender antecedent, whereas her is the possessive form associated with a female or feminine-gender antecedent.