-en

See also: Appendix:Variations of "en"

English

Pronunciation

• (usually) IPA^(key): /ən/
• (after /t, d/ also) IPA^(key): /n̩/
• In many accents, -en routinely gives up its vowel syllable when given additional suffixes. For example, fatten /ˈfæt.n̩/ + -ing /-ɪŋ/ can be /ˈfæt.n̩.ɪŋ/ or /ˈfæt.nɪŋ/.
  • Even in many accents where this habitual syllable deletion is less usual, the syllable loss may still predominate for certain inflections that have become common words in their own right, such as gardener /ɡɑː(r)d.nə(r)/.
  • Syllable loss may be habitually prevented to avoid merging with more deeply entrenched inflections, such as for keeping the generic inflection lightening /ˈlaɪt.n̩.ɪŋ/ from being pronounced identically to the established term lightning /ˈlaɪt.nɪŋ/ (notice the e is no longer written), even if they both independently derived from a combination of lighten + -ing.
    • But syllable loss may resume with inflections that are not in danger of merging with an established word, such as enlightening, which can be pronounced /ɛnˈlaɪt.n̩.ɪŋ/ or /ɛnˈlaɪt.nɪŋ/ because enlightning is not a common word outside of slang.

Etymology 1

From Middle English -n, -en, past participle ending of strong verbs (compare Middle English take(n), took, taken: "take, took, taken"), from Old Norse -inn, past participle ending of strong verbs (compare Old Norse taka, tōk, takinn: "take, took, taken"). From Proto-Norse *-īna- (*-īna-), from Proto-Germanic *-īnaz (cf. Etymology 4, below). Replaced the native past participle ending of strong verbs (from Old English -en) in some words, which had weakened to -e or disappeared (compare Southern Middle English do(n), dud(e), ydo : "do, did, done"), but not in others (compare cume(n), com, ycume: "come, came, come").

Suffix

-en

1. Denotes the past participle form when attached to a verb.

   As in take, taken; forgive, forgiven; prove, proven

   The -en suffix is also used formally to denote any English past participle, even if it does not use the suffix.

   Such a use may be described formally as cook + -en → cooked

2. Denotes a quasi-past participle or participle-like adjective when attached to a noun or verb.

   As in forken ("forked")

Derived terms

past participle

awoken been boughten broken chosen fallen

forgiven forgotten forsaken given gotten mistaken

rotten seen shaken stolen taken woken up

Etymology 2

From Proto-Germanic.

From Middle English -n (in words ending in a vowel: flee: fleen "flea: fleas") and -en. Noun plural marker (predominantly in Southern dialects of Middle English), from Old English Nominative-Accusative plural ending of Weak nouns (n-stem declension); compare nama: naman (masc.) "name: names"; hlǣfdige: hlǣfdigan (fem.) "lady: ladies"; ēare: ēaran (neut.) "ear: ears". Assisted by M.E. dative plural ending -n, -en from late O.E. -un, -on, weakened form of earlier -um. Akin to Old High German n-stem (compare namo: namon "name: names"), Latin n-stem (compare homo: homin-)

Suffix

-en

1. Can be used to denote the plural form of a small number of English words, the majority of whose etymology goes back to the N-stem (i.e. Weak noun) declension of Germanic languages.

   Examples: aurochs, aurochsen; bee, been; brother, brethren; child, children; cow, kine; knee, kneen; eye, eyen; hose, hosen; house, housen; ox, oxen; shoe, shoon; sister, sistren; tree, treen

Usage notes

No longer productive, outside of occasional humorous use, particularly in computer hacker subculture. Notable examples are boxen, Unixen, VAXen.

Derived terms

• See also: Category:English plurals ending in "-en"

plural

aurochsen brethren children eyen

oxen shoon sistren kine

Etymology 3

from Middle English -(e)nen, -(e)nien, from Old English -nian, from Proto-Germanic *-inōną. Cognate with Danish -ne, Swedish -na, Icelandic -na.

Suffix

-en

1. When attached to certain adjectives, it formed a transitive verb whose meaning is, to make (adjective). Usually, the verb is ergative, sometimes not. The same construction could also be done to certain (fewer) nouns, as, strengthen, in which case the verb means roughly, to give (noun) to.

Usage notes

• Currently not very productive; recent coinages such as embiggen are often humorous or nonce words.

Derived terms

attached to certain adjectives

awaken blacken bolden brighten broaden dampen darken deaden deafen deepen fasten fatten flatten freshen gladden harden

lessen lighten liven loosen madden moisten quicken quieten redden ripen sadden sharpen shorten sicken soften stiffen

stouten straighten sweeten thicken tighten toughen weaken whiten widen worsen

suffix to nouns

christen hasten hearten

heighten lengthen strengthen

Etymology 4

From Middle English -en, from Old English -en, from Proto-Germanic *-īnaz; suffix meaning "made of, consisting of, having the qualities of" applied to nouns to form adjectives. Akin to Dutch -en, German -en, Icelandic -inn, Latin -īnus. See -ine.

Alternative forms

• -in

Suffix

-en

1. Suffix meaning "pertaining to", "having the qualities of", "resembling", "like".

   elfin, wolven, peachen

2. When attached to certain nouns that are the names of a material, it forms an adjective whose meaning is, made of (noun). This is a formative pattern with many obsolescent remnants. Changes in the form of the root noun, and the dropping of the "e" in the suffix occur. There are also orphan formations whose root has been lost to the current language.

   Current examples: wood, wooden; gold, golden; brass, brazen

   Obsolete examples: bronze, bronzen; silver, silvern

   Orphan examples: linen (flax was called lin).

Derived terms

attached to certain nouns

ashen (referring to the wood of the tree) brazen bronzen golden leaden leathern linen oaken silken silvern slaten strawen wooden woolen or woollen

Etymology 5

From Middle English, from Old English -en, from the neuter form of -en₄.

Suffix

-en

1. Used to form the diminutives of certain nouns

   chicken

   maiden

   kitten

See also

• -ock
• -ling

Etymology 6

From Middle English -en, a blending of Old English infintives -an and -n, from Proto-Germanic *-aną.

Suffix

-en

1. (obsolete) Used to form the infinitive of verbs.
   • 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III:

     The Sonne compell'd, beene Butcher to the Sire...

   • 1599, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene:

     As gentle Shepheard in sweete euen-tide, When ruddy Phoebus gins to welke in west, High on an hill, his flocke to vewen wide […]

   • 1844, William Barnes, “Bringen Wonne Gwäin O' Zundays”, in Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect.
2. (obsolete) Used to form the third person plural present tense of verbs.

Usage notes

• Began to fade towards the 15th Century, used primarily in Early Modern English to show archaic or dialectal speech.
• The weakening and loss of the marker caused some verbs to blend with verbs marked by Etymology 3; for example Middle English 'learen' (to teach) blended with 'learnen' (to learn), resulting in learn having a (dialectal) double meaning.

See also

► English words suffixed with -en

---

Danish

Suffix

-en

1. used to make the singular definite form of nouns in the common gender
2. appended to a verb to make a noun that describes an action or a process c
3. -ene (alkene) n, c

Derived terms

► Danish words suffixed with -en

---

Dutch

Etymology 1

A merger of various infinitive suffixes:

• The strong infinitive Old Dutch -an, from Proto-Germanic *-aną.
• The weak class 1 infinitive Old Dutch -en, -ien, from Proto-Germanic *-janą, *-ijaną.
• The weak class 2 infinitive Old Dutch -on, from Proto-Germanic *-ōną.

Suffix

-en

1. Ending of the infinitive form of verbs.
2. (by extension) An ending added other words to form a verb, in its infinitive form. The stem of the word itself does not change.

Conjugation

For verb stems ending in a voiced consonant:

Conjugation of -en (weak)

infinitive	-en
	present tense	past tense
1st person singular	-	-de
2nd person singular	-t	-de
3rd person singular	-t	-de
plural	-en	-den
subjunctive sing.1	-e	-de
subjunctive plur.1	-en	-den
imperative sing.	-
imperative plur.1	-t
participles	-end	(hebben) ge-d
1) Archaic.

For verb stems ending in a voiceless consonant:

Conjugation of -en (weak)

infinitive	-en
	present tense	past tense
1st person singular	-	-te
2nd person singular	-t	-te
3rd person singular	-t	-te
plural	-en	-ten
subjunctive sing.1	-e	-te
subjunctive plur.1	-en	-ten
imperative sing.	-
imperative plur.1	-t
participles	-end	(hebben) ge-t
1) Archaic.

For strong verbs (1=present stem, 2=past stem, 3=past participle stem):

Conjugation of (1)-en (strong, irregular)

infinitive	(1)-en
	present tense	past tense
1st person singular	(1)-	(2)-
2nd person singular	(1)-t	(2)-
2nd person sing. (gij)	(1)-t	(2)-t
3rd person singular	(1)-t	(2)-
plural	(1)-en	(2)-en
subjunctive sing.1	(1)-e	(2)-e
subjunctive plur.1	(1)-en	(2)-en
imperative sing.	(1)-
imperative plur.1	(1)-t
participles	(1)-end	(hebben) ge-(3)-en
1) Archaic.

Etymology 2

From the Old Dutch strong past participle ending -an, from Proto-Germanic *-anaz.

Suffix

-en

1. The ending of the past participle of strong verbs. This can also function as an adjective.

Declension

Declension of -en

		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		-en	-ener	het -enst het -enste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	-en	-ener	-enste
	n. sing.	-en	-ener	-enste
	plural	-en	-ener	-enste
definite		-en	-ener	-enste
partitive		-ens	-eners	—

Etymology 3

From Middle Dutch -ijn, -in, -en, from Old Dutch *-īn, from Proto-Germanic *-īnaz.

Suffix

-en

1. Forms adjectives that indicate the material from which something is made.

Declension

Declension of -en

		positive
predicative/adverbial		—
indefinite	m./f. sing.	-en
	n. sing.	-en
	plural	-en
definite		-en
partitive		—

Derived terms

► Dutch words suffixed with -en

Etymology 4

From various case forms of the Germanic weak nominal inflection.

Suffix

-en

1. The ending of the plural form of many nouns.
2. Taken by adjectives used as nouns, to form the plural form of such nouns.

   groot — de groten (the great ones)

3. (archaic, not productive) The ending of a number of weak case endings of the adjective or the article.

   een — ten enen male

4. (archaic, not productive) The ending of the genitive case of certain nouns.

   de hertog — des hertogen, a genitive preserved in 's-Hertogenbosch

Etymology 5

From various first- and third-person plural forms of Germanic verbs.

Suffix

-en

1. The ending of the plural forms of verbs, in both present and past tense.

Etymology 6

From Old Dutch -ana, from Proto-Germanic *-anē.

Suffix

-en

1. A suffix present on certain adverbs.

   voor — van voren (from the front)

---

Finnish

Suffix

-en

1. Suffix variant for the illative singular, see -Vn.
2. Suffix for the genitive plural. Usually preceded by the plural marker -i- or -j-, but may also have a consonant separator d after the plural marker if the words would otherwise have 3 consecutive vowels.
3. (personal) Forms the impersonal potential present forms of verbs, appended to the infinitive, followed by the potential mood marker -ne-.

   No changes in infinitives of verbs that end in one a/ä, except for consonant gradation in verbs ending with -da/-dä and the doubled t in verbs ending with a vowel and -ta/-tä. This -en is preceded by the mood marker -ne-.

   juosta + -ne- + -en → juostaneen

   nähdä + -ne- + -en → nähtäneen

   haluta + -ne- + -en → haluttaneen

   In verbs ending in -oa/-öä or -ua/-yä, the beginning stem is followed by -tta-/-ttä, the mood marker -ne- and then by this — consonant gradation occurs.

   sanoa, stem sano- + -tta- + -ne- + -en → sanottaneen

   kertoa, stem ker- + -to- → -ro- + -tta + -en → kerrottaneen

   huolestua, stem huolestu- + -tta- + -ne- + -en → huolestuttaneen

   saapua, stem saa- + -pu- → -vu- + -tta- + -ne- + -en → saavuttaneen

   säilöä, stem säilö- + -ttä- + -ne- + -en → säilöttäneen

   säilyä, stem säily- + -ttä- + -ne- + -en → säilyttäneen

   häipyä, stem häi- + -py- → -vy- + -ttä- + -ne- + -en → häivyttäneen

   In verbs ending in -aa/-ää or -ea/-eä, the beginning stem is followed by -etta-, the mood marker -ne- and then by this — consonant gradation occurs.

   paistaa, stem paist- + -etta- + -ne- + -en → paistettaneen

   laskea, stem lask- + -etta- + -ne- + -en → laskettaneen

   iskeä, stem isk- + -että- + -ne- + -en → iskettäneen

   laittaa, stem lait- (another t disappears) + -etta- + -ne- + -en → laitettaneen

   vaihtaa, stem vaih- + -t- → -d- + -etta- + -en- → vaihdettaneen

4. (possessive) A variant for the third-person possessive suffixes -nsa and -nsä, see the usage notes below.

Usage notes

• (third-person possessive suffix variant) When the third-person possessive suffix -nsa/-nsä is appended to nouns that are in singular and plural allative and translative and plural comitative, the S and A/Ä are very often omitted from the suffix and the last E of the case suffix preceding the remaining N is doubled — resulting in this -en. In standard Finnish, both the "full" form and the shortened form are acceptable. This same omission takes very often place also in the long first infinitives, used in a shortened sentence expressing "(in order) to do" (see the meanings of -nsa and -nsä):

Singular

(allat.) kirjallensa → kirjalleen

(trans.) kirjaksensa → kirjakseen

Plural

(allat.) kirjoillensa → kirjoilleen

(trans.) kirjoiksensa → kirjoikseen

(comit.) kirjoinensa → kirjoineen

---

German

Etymology

Middle High German -en, a merger of various terminations in Old High German reflecting different conjugational patterns, namely -an, -ien, -on, -en, and -non, respectively from Proto-Germanic *-aną, *-janą, *-ōną, *-āną, and *-naną.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ən/

Suffix

-en

1. A suffix of verbs in their infinitive form.
2. A suffix which is appended to some nouns to make them plural.
3. A suffix (in fact, the most common declensional ending) which is appended to many nouns and adjectives, for multiple grammatical cases, both singular and plural; a declensional suffix for present participles (e.g. Auszubildender m (male) "apprentice", Auszubildende f, (female) "apprentice" or past participles (e.g. Verbündeter m, (male) "ally", Verbündete f, (female) "ally").
4. A suffix which is used to create adjectives that refer to materials (e.g. golden, gülden "gold, golden", made of Gold.
5. (chemistry) -ene (alkene suffix)

Derived terms

► German words suffixed with -en

---

Hungarian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛn/

Suffix

-en

1. Added to an adjective or numeral to create an adverb.

   szép (“beautiful”) → szépen (“beautifully”)

   hét (“seven”) → Heten mentünk moziba. - Seven of us went to the cinema.

   kettő (“two”) → Ketten vannak a szobában. - There are two people in the room.

2. on (superessive case ending)

   szék (“chair”) → széken (“on the chair”)

3. Added to a stem - often an onomatopoeias - to form a verb expressing an instantaneous action.

   reccsen (“to crackle, to make one cracking sound”)

   retten (“to recoil, to get afraid instantly”)

Usage notes

• (adverbial suffix): See under -n
• (superessive case): See under -n
• (verb suffix): See under -an

Derived terms

► Hungarian adverbs suffixed with -en

► Hungarian verbs suffixed with -en

• Hungarian noun forms - superessive

See also

• Appendix:Hungarian suffixes

---

Japanese

Romanization

-en

1. rōmaji reading of えん

---

Middle Dutch

Etymology 1

A merger of various infinitive suffixes:

• The strong infinitive Old Dutch -an, from Proto-Germanic *-aną.
• The weak class 1 infinitive Old Dutch -en, -ien, from Proto-Germanic *-janą, *-ijaną.
• The weak class 2 infinitive Old Dutch -on, from Proto-Germanic *-ōną.

Suffix

-en

1. The ending of the infinitive form of verbs, used as a suffix to form new verbs as well.

Etymology 2

From the Old Dutch strong past participle ending -an, from Proto-Germanic *-anaz.

Suffix

-en

1. The ending of the past participle of strong verbs.

Etymology 3

From various first- and third-person plural forms of Germanic verbs.

Suffix

-en

1. The ending of the first- and third-person plural forms of verbs.

Etymology 4

From Old Dutch *-īn, from Proto-Germanic *-īnaz.

Suffix

-en

1. Alternative form of -in.

---

Old English

Etymology 1

Proto-Germanic *-īną

Suffix

-en n

1. (causes i-mutation) used to create diminutive neuter nouns

   mæġden (“little girl”), from mæġþ (“girl, woman”)

   cycen, cicen (“chick”), from cocc (“cock, fowl”)

Declension

Neuter

Declension of -en

	Singular	Plural
nominative	-en	-ennu
accusative	-en	-ennu
genitive	-ennes/-enu	-enna
dative	-enne	-ennum

Etymology 2

From Proto-Germanic *-njō, *-injō, *-unjō

Alternative forms

• -in

Suffix

-en f

1. (often causes i-mutation) used to create feminine nouns from other nouns

   gyden "goddess", from god "(male) god" (with i-muation)

   þēowen (“female servant”), from þēow (“(male) servant”) (without i-mutation)

Declension

Feminine

Declension of -en (strong ō-stem)

	Singular	Plural
nominative	-en	-enna, -enne
accusative	-enne	-enna, -enne
genitive	-enne	-enna
dative	-enne	-ennum

Etymology 3

Proto-Germanic *-īnaz

Suffix

-en

1. (causes i-mutation) adjectival suffix meaning "material made of, consisting of"

   gylden (“golden”), from gold "gold"

   ǣtren (“venomous, poisonous”), from ātor (“poison”)

Etymology 4

Proto-Germanic *-anaz

Suffix

-en

1. (verbal suffix) past participle ending of strong verbs

   ġecumen "come"

   ġecorfen "carved"

Etymology 5

Proto-Germanic *-an-

Suffix

-en

1. (adjective suffix) meaning belonging to or characterized by

   tunglen "of the stars, sidereal, starry", from tungol "star"

   fæderen "paternal, of a father", from fæder "father"

   hunden "canine", from hund "dog, hound"

---

Spanish

Suffix

-en

1. Suffix indicating the third-person plural present indicative of -er and -ir verbs.
2. Suffix indicating the third-person plural present subjunctive of -ar verbs.
3. Suffix indicating the third-person plural imperative of -ar verbs

See also

• -an

---

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse suffixes -inn and -in.

Suffix

-en

1. Suffix for definite form singular of many common gender nouns, in particular those which end in a consonant or a stressed -i; see also -n.
2. Suffix for definite form plural of neuter nouns ending with consonant.
3. Suffix for the past participle of verbs belonging to the fourth (strong) declension, e.g. stjäla – stulen.
4. Suffix which converts a few adjectives into adverbs

   möjlig (possible) → möjligen (possibly)

---

Welsh

Etymology

Alteration of un (“one”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /en/

Suffix

-en f (masculine -yn)

1. Used to form feminine singulative forms of certain words; for the sake of example: cylion → cylionen.