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-b in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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Hungarian
Etymology
From Proto-Finno-Ugric *-mp. In the Proto-Hungarian period it became -b due to regular phonetic change, then later lengthened to -bb. Cognates include Finnish -mpi.
Suffix
-b
- (comparative suffix, somewhat archaic) -er, more (still used in compound verb-forming suffixes)
- idős (“old”) + -b → idősb (“older, senior”)
- külön (“separate”) + -b → különb (“superior”, split from the original)
- súlyos (“serious, grave”) + -b → súlyosbodik (“to become graver”)
- súlyos (“serious, grave”) + -b → súlyosbít (“to make graver, aggravate”)
- öreg (“old (archaic: grand, great)”) + -b → öregbít (“to enhance, bolster , literally “to make greater””)
- helyes (“correct, right”) + -b → helyesbít (“to rectify”)
- kevés (“few, little ”) + -b → kevésbé (“less ”), kevesbít (“to lessen”)
- utol (“at the end”, obsolete) + -b → utóbb (“later”, originally utolb)
Usage notes
- (comparative suffix) Variants:
- -b is added to some words ending in a consonant; an archaic variant
- idős (“elderly”) + -b → idősb (“senior”) (the modern comparative is idősebb)
- -bb is added to words ending in a vowel. Final -a changes to -á-. Final -e changes to -é-.
- drága (“expensive”) + -bb → drágább (“more expensive”)
- fekete (“black”) + -bb → feketébb (“blacker”)
- -abb is added to most back-vowel words ending in a consonant
- fiatal (“young”) + -abb → fiatalabb (“younger”)
- -obb is added to some back-vowel words ending in a consonant
- nagy (“big”) + -obb → nagyobb (“bigger”)
- -ebb is added to front-vowel words ending in a consonant
- öreg (“old”) + -ebb → öregebb (“older”)
- Aside from the literal, relative sense, the comparative in Hungarian can also have an absolute sense, e.g. nagyobb is not necessarily “larger” but also “somewhat large”, “fairly large”, “largish”, “a little on the large side” (but not truly large). This sense is already lexicalized in the case of több, which doesn’t only mean “more” but also “several, multiple” (though not “many”).
Derived terms
See also
References
Lushootseed
Suffix
-b
- Suffix involved in formation of agent-oriented intransitive verb stems
Veps
Etymology 1
From Proto-Finnic *-pi.
Suffix
-b
- Suffix of the third-person singular.
Etymology 2
From Proto-Finnic *-pa.
Suffix
-b
- (no longer productive) -ing; forms a secondary present active participle of a few verbs.
Inflection
Derived terms