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-ens. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
-ens, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
-ens in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
-ens you have here. The definition of the word
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-ens, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Catalan
Suffix
-ens
- masculine plural of -è
- masculine plural of -é
German
Etymology 1
Suffix
-ens
- plural suffix for family names that end in a sibilant consonant
- Schmitz → (die) Schmitzens (“the Schmitzes, “the Schmitz family”)
- Pütz → (die) Pützens (“the Pützes, “the Pütz family”)
Etymology 2
Suffix
-ens
- (dated) genitive suffix for personal names that end in a sibilant consonant
- Max → Maxens Vater (“Max’s father”)
- Klaus → Klausens Mutter (“Klaus’s mother”)
- (dated) genitive suffix for personal names that end in -ia
- Claudia → Claudiens Tochter (“Claudia’s daughter”)
- Maria → Mariens Sohn (“Mary’s son”)
Usage notes
- In contemporary usage the genitive is usually left unchanged after sibilants, and indicated with an apostrophe in writing: Max’ Vater. Such unchanged genitives, in turn, are often avoided and paraphrased: der Vater von Max (colloquially: vom Max).
- The genitive is formed with -s after -ia: Claudias, Marias. Only the form Mariens remains current, but it is restricted to the Virgin Mary.
Etymology 3
Suffix
-ens
- forms adverbs from superlatives and ordinal numbers
- der erste (“the first”) → erstens (“firstly”)
- am meisten (“most”) → meistens (“mostly”)
- am besten (“best”) → bestens (“very well; best”)
- am frühesten (“earliest”) → frühestens (“at the earliest”)
Usage notes
- Adverbs in -ens often have an absolute superlative sense, meaning “at most, maximally” or “very much, exceedingly”. These forms are widely lexicalized, however. That is to say that they cannot be formed freely, except in poetic or humorous language.
References
Hungarian
Pronunciation
Suffix
-ens
- A distinguishable foreign word ending in nouns and adjectives. It is not an independent Hungarian suffix.
- ágens (“agent”)
- dekadens (“decadent”)
Usage notes
- Variants:
- -áns is added to back-vowel words
- -ens is added to front-vowel words
Derived terms
See also
References
Latin
Etymology
Rebracketing of forms such as monēns (stem monē- + suffix -ns) or legēns (stem leg- + thematic vowel -e- + -ns).
Suffix
-ēns
- ending of the present active participle of second and third conjugation verbs; see -ns
Declension
Third-declension participle.
1When used purely as an adjective.
Descendants
Latvian
Suffix
-ens
- added to nouns to form new nouns; possibly simply a variant of -enis
Derived terms
Malay
Etymology
From English -ence, from Middle English -ence, from Old French -ence, from Latin -entia.
Pronunciation
Suffix
-ens (Jawi spelling -نس)
- (unproductive) -ence.
- valens ― valence
Derived terms