Wiktionary

'n

See also: Appendix:Variations of "n"

EnglishEdit

PronunciationEdit

Etymology 1Edit

Contraction of and.

ConjunctionEdit

’n

  1. Nonstandard spelling of ’n’.
    fish 'n chips
    rock 'n roll

Etymology 2Edit

Contraction of than.

ConjunctionEdit

’n

  1. Nonstandard form of than.
    • 1865, Mark Twain, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County:
      The feller took the box again, and took another long, particular look, and give it back to Smiley, and says, very deliberate, "Well, I don’t see no p’ints about that frog that's any better’n any other frog."
    • 1969, Anne Warner, Susan Clegg and her friend Mrs. Lathrop (page 87)
      She says you may laugh ’f you feel so inclined, but there ain’t no such big difference between your leg ’n’ a dead rat but what it ’ll pay you to mark her words. She says ’f it don’t do no more ’n eat the skin off it ’ll still be pretty hard for you to lay there without no skin ’n’ feel the plaster goin’ in more ’n’ more.
    • 2010, Arnan Heyden, Daughters of Agendale (page 228)
      What I can give ya is this bit o’ knowledge: there be things in this world that no one can explain. There are things bigger ’n mountains, bigger ’n oceans, bigger ’n fields an’ night skies filled with stars, bigger ’n kings, or queens…

Etymology 3Edit

Contraction of when.

ConjunctionEdit

’n

  1. (archaic) Nonstandard form of when. (As found in if'n.)

Etymology 4Edit

NounEdit

'n (plural 'ns)

  1. (colloquial) Alternative form of 'un (“one, a thing”)
    • 2009, Mariella Glenn Hartsfield, Tall Betsy and Dunce Baby: South Georgia Folktales (page 104)
      The other said, "Alright, I'm gonna do it like this: you take this'n, I'll take that'n; you take this'n, I'll take that'n; […]
    • 2012, Liza Cody, Musclebound (page 15)
      Which really did turn into a headache when I woke up — a bad'n.

AfrikaansEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Dutch een, 'n.

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /ə/
  • Audio(file)

ArticleEdit

ʼn (indefinite)

  1. (indefinite article) a, an

Usage notesEdit

  • This word is not capitalized at the beginning of a sentence and the following word is capitalized instead.

AsturianEdit

PrepositionEdit

’n

  1. (obsolete) Contraction of en.
    Toi viviendo’n Cangues
    I’m living in Cangues

Usage notesEdit

While this contraction still reflects the elision that often occurs in en when it is between a word ending in a vowel and a word beginning in a consonant, this spelling was dropped by the Academy of the Asturian Language in 1990. Thus, the normative spelling of the above example is now Toi viviendo en Cangues.

See alsoEdit

BavarianEdit

Etymology 1Edit

Merged unstressed form of an and en or den.

ArticleEdit

'n m

  1. a (accusative)
  2. the (accusative)
See alsoEdit
Bavarian articles
m n f pl
stressed unstressed stressed unstressed stressed unstressed stressed unstressed
definite nominative der, da — das, es, des 's de d' de d'
accusative en, den 'n
dative em, dem 'm em, dem 'm der, da —
genitive1 des des der, da der, da
indefinite nominative a — a — a —
accusative an 'n
dative am 'm am 'm a, ana 'na
1) higher, formal register

Etymology 2Edit

Unstressed form of eam.

PronounEdit

'n

  1. him
  2. it (dative)
See alsoEdit
Bavarian personal pronouns
nominative accusative dative
stressed unstressed stressed unstressed stressed unstressed
1st person singular i — mi — mia (mir) ma
2nd person singular
(informal) 		du — di — dia (dir) da
2nd person singular
(formal) 		Sie — Eahna — Eahna —
3rd person singular m er a eahm 'n eahm 'n
n es, des 's des 's
f se, de 's se 's ihr —
1st person plural mia (mir) ma uns — uns —
2nd person plural eß, ihr — enk, eich — enk, eich —
3rd person plural se 's eahna — eahna —

CatalanEdit

PronounEdit

’n

  1. Contraction of ne.

Usage notesEdit

'n is the reduced (reduïda) form of the pronoun. It is used after verbs ending with a vowel.

DeclensionEdit

Catalan personal pronouns and clitics
strong/subject weak (direct object) weak (indirect object) possessive
singular proclitic enclitic proclitic enclitic
1st person jo, mi3 em, m’ -me, ’m em, m’ -me, ’m meu
1st person majestic1 nós ens -nos, ’ns ens -nos, ’ns nostre
2nd person tu et, t’ -te, ’t et, t’ -te, ’t teu
2nd person formal1 vós us -vos, -us us -vos, -us vostre
2nd person very formal2 vostè el, l’ -lo, ’l li -li seu
3rd person masculine ell el, l’ -lo, ’l li -li seu
3rd person feminine ella la, l’4 -la li -li seu
3rd person neuter ho -ho li -li seu
3rd person reflexive si es, s’ -se, ’s es, s’ -se, ’s seu
plural
1st person nosaltres ens -nos, ’ns ens -nos, ’ns nostre
2nd person vosaltres us -vos, -us us -vos, -us vostre
2nd person formal2 vostès els -los, ’ls els -los, ’ls seu
3rd person masculine ells els -los, ’ls els -los, ’ls seu
3rd person feminine elles les -les els -los, ’ls seu
3rd person reflexive si es, s’ -se, ’s es, s’ -se, ’s seu
adverbial
ablative/genitive en, n’ -ne, ’n
locative hi -hi
1) Behaves grammatically as plural.
2) Behaves grammatically as third person. 		3) Only as object of a preposition.
4) Not before unstressed (h)i-, (h)u-.

DutchEdit

PronunciationEdit

ArticleEdit

’n

  1. Contraction of een.

NotesEdit

If 'n begins a sentence, the first letter of the following word is capitalised instead.

GermanEdit

Alternative formsEdit

  • n (non-standard)

PronunciationEdit

Etymology 1Edit

Contraction of ein. Like virtually all traditional German dialects, colloquial standard German distinguishes the indefinite article from the numeral for “one”. The specific form ’n has spread from the North southward and is thus of chiefly Low German origin. Most High German dialects use forms without the final -n, such as [ə] or [a], at least for the basic form (i.e. the masculine and neuter nominative). These pronunciations are sometimes heard in colloquial standard German as well, but ’n is clearly the commonest form.

ArticleEdit

’n

  1. (colloquial) Alternative form of ein (“a, an”)
  2. (colloquial) Alternative form of einen (“a, an”)
DeclensionEdit
Derived termsEdit

Etymology 2Edit

Contraction of denn.

AdverbEdit

’n

  1. (colloquial) short for denn (used for general emphasis)
    Wann wärst’n hier?
    So, when would you be here?

ItalianEdit

Etymology 1Edit

PrepositionEdit

'n

  1. (literary) Alternative form of in
  2. (colloquial) Pronunciation spelling of in.

Etymology 2Edit

ArticleEdit

'n m

  1. (colloquial) Pronunciation spelling of un.

NumeralEdit

'n m

  1. (colloquial) Pronunciation spelling of un.

Etymology 3Edit

AdverbEdit

'n

  1. (colloquial) Pronunciation spelling of non.

LigurianEdit

EtymologyEdit

Apheresis of un (“a, an”, article).

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /ŋ/ (when followed by a consonant)
  • IPA(key): /n/ (when followed by a vowel)

ArticleEdit

'n m (feminine 'na, 'n')

  1. a, an (male)

Low GermanEdit

ArticleEdit

’n

  1. Contraction of den.

PronounEdit

’n

  1. Contraction of en.

SicilianEdit

EtymologyEdit

Apheresis of in, from Latin in.

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /ŋ/ (when followed by a consonant)
  • IPA(key): /n/ (when followed by a vowel)

PrepositionEdit

'n

  1. in

WelshEdit

PronunciationEdit

Etymology 1Edit

ParticleEdit

’n

  1. Alternative form of yn (used after a vowel).
    Mae hi’n darllen. ― She is reading.
    Mae hi’n gysglyd. ― She is sleepy.
    Mae hi’n ferch. ― She is a girl.

Etymology 2Edit

Contraction of ein (“our”).

DeterminerEdit

'n (triggers h-prothesis of a following vowel)

  1. our (used after vowels).
    Dyna’n harian ni.
    That's our money.

PronounEdit

'n (triggers h-prothesis of a following vowel)

  1. us (as the direct object of a verbal noun or verb)
    Mae e yma i’n harfarnu.
    He's here to appraise us.
    Fe’n magwyd yng ngefn gwlad.
    We were brought up (lit. One brought us up) in the countryside.

Usage notesEdit

  • In formal Welsh, the contraction 'n is a valid form of ein found after mostly functional vowel-final words. In colloquial Welsh, ein is often contracted to 'n after almost any vowel-final word.
  • Pronomial 'n (and ein) can occur before any verbal noun. Before verbal, pronomial 'n is found only in formal language after certain vowel-final preverbal particles, such as fe, a, ni, na, oni and pe.

Further readingEdit

  • R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “'n”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

ZealandicEdit

EtymologyEdit

An unstressed variety of eên.

DeterminerEdit

'n

  1. a (indefinite article)
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