-a
See also Appendix:Variations of "a"
English
Etymology 1
From the homographic case endings of the nominative, accusative, and vocative forms of numerous Latin neuter second declension nouns.
Pronunciation
Suffix
-a (plural)
Usage Notes
- Because the regular pluralization in English involves adding -s or -es, English words derived from a Latin where the Latin would pluralize from -on or -um to -a do not always do so in English. Usage of -a instead of -s differs between words: sometimes the two are interchangeable (e.g. memorandums/memoranda, polyhedrons/polyhedra), sometimes one is far more common than the other (e.g. neurons over neura, automata over automatons), and sometimes one is completely absent from usage (e.g. bacteria over bacteriums, dendrons over dendra)
Derived terms
Terms which feature the -a suffix
|
From -um: See also: -um |
From -on: |
- This list is very much incomplete; please help its completion by adding terms.
See also
Translations
Latinate plural grammatical number suffix
Etymology 2
Possibly due to the propensity in some non-rhotic dialects to pronounce words ending in -er as if they ended in an -a.
Pronunciation
Suffix
-a
- (Geordie) Same as -er in Standard English.
- me fatha was a corka burna doon the shipyard — “My father was a corker burner at the shipyard.”
- (slang) Used to replace -er in nouns.
- gangsta — “gangster”
- brotha — “brother”
See also
Etymology 3
Representing the nominative singular case ending of Latin first-declension feminine nouns.
Pronunciation
Suffix
- (Should we delete(+) this sense?) Marks singular nouns, with a foundation in Greek or Latin, often implying femininity, especially when contrasted with words terminating in -us.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Etymology 4
From Latin -a.
Pronunciation
Suffix
-a
Etymology 5
Shortened version of verb have.
Pronunciation
Suffix
-a
Etymology 6
Representing Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish feminine nouns.
Pronunciation
Suffix
-a
- (Should we delete(+) this sense?) Marks nouns, with a foundation in Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese, implying femininity.
Etymology 7
Added to lines of poetry and verse to maintain metrics.
Pronunciation
Suffix
-a
- Added for metrical reasons to poetry and verse
Etymology 8
Shortened version of preposition of.
Pronunciation
Suffix
-a
Etymology 9
Shortened version of verb to.
Pronunciation
Suffix
-a
- (informal) To.
- oughta
References
- 2003 [1933], Brown, Lesley editor, The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, edition 5th, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-860575-7, page 1:
- 2007 [2002], Lindberg, Christine A. editor, The Oxford College Dictionary, edition 2nd, New York, NY: Spark Publishing., ISBN 978-1-4114-0500-4, page 1:
Esperanto
Etymology
From feminine singular adjectives (and nouns) of the Romance languages, such as French ma, Italian mia, Spanish mía, fría.
Suffix
-a
- Related to, in the manner of, of. (Ending for all adjectives in Esperanto.)
- belo; bela — “beauty; beautiful”
- dekstro; dekstra — “the right direction (as opposed to left); to the right”
- vero; vera — “truth; true”
- Belonging to, of. (Ending for all possessive pronouns in Esperanto.)
- mia — “of me, my”
- via — “of you, your”
- ilia — “of them, their”
- -kind of. (Ending of all correlatives of kind in Esperanto.)
- kia — “what kind of”
- tia — “that kind of”
- nenia — “no kind of”
Derived terms
Finnish
Alternative forms
- (in words with front vowel harmony) -ä
Etymology 1
Originally the so-called weak suffixal gradation form of the partitive suffix -ta (/ða/ or /ðæ/).
Suffix
-a (in words with back vowel harmony)
- (case suffix) Forms the partitive case of nouns, adjectives, numbers and some pronouns.
Usage notes
- This suffix is used after a short vowel or the plural marker -j-.
Etymology 2
Historically, a form of a lative suffix, -ta (/ðak/ or /ðæk/).
Suffix
-a (in words with back vowel harmony)
- (case suffix) Forms the short form of the first infinitive of verbs.
Usage notes
- The first infinitive, short form, is the citation form of verbs.
See also
French
↑Jump back a sectionHungarian
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ɒ/
Suffix
-a
Usage notes
- (possessive suffix): Member of the following suffix cluster:
See also
Icelandic
Suffix
-a
- Used to form verbs from nouns.
- Used to form adverbs from adjectives.
Derived terms
Derived terms
See also
- -ingi
- -ari
Italian
Suffix
-a
- Used, with a stem, to form the third-person singular present tense of -are verbs.
- Used, with a stem, to form the second-person singular imperative of -are verbs.
- Used, with a stem, to form the first-person singular, second-person singular and third-person singular present subjunctive of -ere verbs, and of those -ire verbs that do not insert "isc".
- Used, with a stem, to form the third-person singular imperative of -ere verbs, and of those -ire verbs that do not insert "isc".
Latvian
Suffix
-a
- Used to derive feminine nouns from masculine nouns (like English -ess).
Synonyms
Related terms
Femine suffixes that include -a:
Derived terms
Old English
Alternative forms
Etymology 1
From Proto-Germanic *-ō.
Suffix
-a
- Ending forming adverbs
- hwāra (“where”); ġilīco (“similarly”)
- singala (“continually, constantly”), from singal (“continuous”)
Etymology 2
Cognate to Old High German -o.
Suffix
-a m
- nominative masculine n-stem ending
- used to form masculine agents from verbs
- hunta (“hunter”)
- ǣta (“eater”)
Declension
Declension of -a (weak)
Descendants
- English -er
Portuguese
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Old Portuguese -a, from Latin -a.
Suffix
-a f (plural -as)
- forms feminine nouns and adjectives
- Uruguai (“Uruguay”) → uruguaia (“woman from Uruguay”).
Etymology 2
From Old Portuguese -a, from Latin -at.
Suffix
-a
- forms the third-person singular present indicative of verbs ending in -ar
- João fala português.
- John speaks Portuguese.
- João fala português.
Etymology 3
From Old Portuguese -a, from Latin -ā.
Suffix
-a
- forms the second-person singular affirmative imperative of verbs ending in -ar
- João, conta-nos o seu apelido.
- John, tell us your last name.
- João, conta-nos o seu apelido.
Etymology 4
Suffix
-a
- forms the first-person singular present subjunctive of verbs ending in -er and -ir
- É importante que eu coma carne.
- It is important that I eat meat.
- É importante que eu coma carne.
- forms the third-person singular present subjunctive of verbs ending in -er and -ir
- É importante que ele coma carne.
- It is important that he eat meat.
- É importante que ele coma carne.
- forms the third-person singular affirmative imperative of verbs ending in -er and -ir
- Ei você aí, coma carne.
- Hey you there, eat meat.
- Ei você aí, coma carne.
- forms the third-person singular negative imperative of verbs ending in -er and -ir
- Ei você aí, não coma carne.
- Hey you there, don’t eat meat.
- Ei você aí, não coma carne.
Usage notes
The third-person imperative isn’t used with third person pronouns, it’s used with você, which is a second-person pronoun but always takes third-person conjugation.
Romanian
Alternative forms
- -ua (used for feminine nouns ending in a stressed vowel or diphthong)
Etymology 1
From Latin illa, nominative feminine singular of ille.
Suffix
-a f
- (definite article) the (feminine singular, nominative and accusative)
Usage notes
This form of the definite article is used for feminine nouns in the nominative and accusative cases which end in -ă or in an unstressed vowel:
The suffix is also used with feminine adjectives in the nominative and accusative cases to make the articulated definite form, often for emphasis, and it is used before the noun it modifies:
- buna fată, from fata bună (both meaning "the good girl")
- întinsa câmpie, from câmpia întinsă (both meaning "the wide/extensive plain")
Related terms
Etymology 2
From Latin -āre, the ending of the present active infinitive form of first conjugation verbs. Cognate with Spanish -ar, French -er, Italian -are, etc.
Suffix
-a
- A suffix forming infinitives of many verbs.
Related terms
See also
Serbo-Croatian
Suffix
-a (Cyrillic spelling -а)
- Suffix appended to words (usually verbal stems) to create a feminine noun, usually denoting a relation or to form a proper noun.
Spanish
Suffix
-a
- -ess. (Used to form feminine singular nouns.)
- señor; señora — “gentleman; lady”
- camarero; camarera — “waitor; waitress”
- (Used to form the feminine singular adjectives.)
- frío; fría — “cold; cold”
- -s. (Used to form the third-person singular (also used with usted) present indicative mood of regular -ar verbs.)
- hablar; habla — “to talk; talks”
- (Used to form the first and third-person singular (also used with usted) singular subjunctive mood of -er and -ir verbs, also used for the imperative mood of usted.)
- comer; aunque yo coma — “to eat; even if I ate” ; salir; por favor, salga Ud. — “to leave; please leave (formal)”
- (Used to form the second-person singular imperative mood of -ar verbs.)
- hablar; ¡Habla! — “to talk; Talk!”
Derived terms
Used to form the feminine singular adjectives
“-s”. Used to form the third-person singular present indicative mood of regular -ar verbs
Used to form the first and third-person singular subjunctive mood of -er and -ir verbs
Used to form the second-person singular imperative mood of -ar verbs
Swahili
Particle
-a
- The genitive particle; adjectival particle
Usage notes
- This particle agrees in class/gender with the noun preceding it;
- When used as an adjectival particle, the particle itself is untranslated:
- When used as a genitive particle, the particle is sometimes untranslated:
-
- Bahari ya Hindi -- Indian Ocean
Derived terms
Preposition
-a
- See Usage notes above.
Swedish
Suffix
-a
- (on an positive adjective) Suffix to mark that the corresponding noun is either in plural or in definite singular form
- Marker of definiteness for noun plurals ending in -n (fourth declension).
- läten; lätena; "sounds; the sounds"
- Create a verb (in the infinitive) from a noun or adjective, e.g. disk (“dishes”) → diska (“do the dishes”); lås (“a lock”) → låsa (“to lock”); ren (“clean”) → rena (“to clean, to purify”)
- Create a noun from a numeral, e.g. tre (“three”) → trea (“the digit three; a bronze medalist; a three-room apartment”)
Usage notes
- On adjectives
- Traditionally, if the noun is in definite singular form it should not refer to a male human, if it uses the suffix -a. If it refers to such a person, the suffix should instead be -e, but one should note that this rule is not universally adhered to - in particular dialects of northern Sweden does not recognize the -e suffix at all, but use -a in all instances.
Derived terms
Turkish
Alternative forms
- (after a vowel) -ya, -ye
- (after a possessive, dative only) -na, -ne
- (in words with front vowel harmony) -e
Suffix
-a (in words with back vowel harmony)
- Used to form the dative case.
- İstanbul’a — “to Istanbul”
- Ankara’ya — “to Ankara”
- İzmir’e — “to Izmir”
- babasına — “to his father”
- Used to form gerunds.
- yürüye — “by walking”
Volapük
Suffix
-a
- A morpheme used to mark the genitive singular of a word (such as a noun, adjective or pronoun). It is also the most common morpheme used in creating innumerable compound words, some of which can be very long (e.g., pledadinaselidöp "toy store, toy shop", tanoganilamedin "antibiotic", taglumaladälamedin "anti-depressant", natrinakarbatazüd telik "bicarbonate of soda").
- Elaf Tyrannosaurus rex älifon in taledadil, kel nu binon dil Nolüda-Meropa.
- Tyrannosaurus rex lived in an area of the earth, which is now a part of North America.
- Buks binons stumem lärnazilana (/ lärnazilanastumem / stumem lärnazilanik).
- Books are a scholar's tools.
- Elaf Tyrannosaurus rex älifon in taledadil, kel nu binon dil Nolüda-Meropa.