wees

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English

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Noun

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wees

  1. plural of wee

Verb

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wees

  1. third-person singular simple present indicative of wee

Anagrams

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Afrikaans

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Alternative forms

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  • wies (Cape Afrikaans)

Etymology

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From Dutch wezen, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną. See Dutch zijn.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /viəs/
  • Audio:(file)

Verb

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wees (present is, present participle synde, past was, past participle gewees)

  1. To be.
    Ek was gister dronk gewees.
    I was drunk yesterday.
    Hy kon al 'n dokter gewees het.
    He could have been a doctor by now.

Usage notes

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  • Unlike other Afrikaans verbs, the past participle of wees (gewees) does not usually take the auxiliary verb het to form the perfect tense unless a modal verb is being used: Ek sou baie kwaad gewees het as jy dit gedoen het. (“I would have been very angry if you had done this.”) Outside of this construction, het gewees is rarely encountered and is considered nonstandard. The actual perfect tense of wees is is gewees, but this form is also very rare, being usually replaced with either was or was gewees. (The latter is formally a pluperfect, but is generally used without any semantic distinction.)

Conjugation

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Anagrams

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Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle Dutch wêse, from Old Dutch wēso, from Proto-West Germanic *waiso, of uncertain origin, with no solid cognates outside of Germanic; possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂ (widow).[1]

Cognate with German Waise, Middle Low German wêse, probably Old English *wāsa (in wuduwāsa).

Noun

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wees m or f (plural wezen, diminutive weesje n)

  1. an orphan, person or animal having survived both parents
  2. an orphaned one, left out of a sequence
Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • Afrikaans: wees

Etymology 2

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See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

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wees

  1. imperative of zijn
  2. imperative of wezen
Derived terms
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Verb

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wees

  1. singular past indicative of wijzen

References

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  1. ^ van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “wees1”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute

North Frisian

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Old Frisian wesa, from Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną.

Verb

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wees

  1. (Föhr-Amrum, Heligoland) to be

Usage notes

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  • The present conjugation of wees is highly irregular. Compare further kem, skel, wed, wel.

Conjugation

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Spanish

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Noun

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wees m pl or f pl

  1. plural of we