Meaning
In Irish English, your man is an informal way to refer to a male person being talked about when his name is unknown, unnecessary, temporarily forgotten, or already recoverable from the conversation. It often corresponds to that man, that guy, or the man in question rather than literally meaning a man belonging to the listener.
How it is used
Foras na Gaeilge lists your man as an informal phrase and gives Irish equivalents referring to that man or the person in question. Corpus-pragmatic research on Irish English likewise describes your man as a typically Irish device for referring to an unnamed male individual and illustrates it in natural ICE-Ireland conversation.
Examples
- “Who's your man standing beside the door?”
- “I met your man from the repair shop again this morning.”
- “Your man on the radio was talking about the match.”
Pronunciation
/jər ˈmæn/ · yer MAN
Tone and register
Usually neutral, familiar, and context-dependent rather than possessive. Depending on intonation and surrounding language, it can also sound amused, dismissive, mildly critical, or simply efficient when a speaker does not need to supply a name.
Visitor guidance
Visitors should not interpret your man literally as the listener's boyfriend, husband, employee, or friend unless the wider context supports that ordinary possessive meaning. In the Irish-English regional use, the phrase often works more like that man or that guy. The common pronunciation and spelling yer man is especially likely in informal writing and representations of speech.
Cultural context
Your man is useful because its words are completely ordinary while its reference pattern can puzzle outsiders. It belongs to a wider Irish-English conversational system that also includes expressions such as your one and your woman for referring to a female person, but Maperla keeps those related forms distinct rather than treating them as one interchangeable entry.
Places represented
Open the reviewed place guide for each regional sense carried by this canonical entry.