'n
EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
Etymology 1Edit
Contraction of and.
ConjunctionEdit
’n
- Nonstandard spelling of ’n’.
- fish 'n chips
- rock 'n roll
Etymology 2Edit
Contraction of than.
ConjunctionEdit
’n
- 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
Etymology 4Edit
NounEdit
'n (plural 'ns)
- (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.
- 2009, Mariella Glenn Hartsfield, Tall Betsy and Dunce Baby: South Georgia Folktales (page 104)
AfrikaansEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
ArticleEdit
ʼn (indefinite)
Usage notesEdit
- This word is not capitalized at the beginning of a sentence and the following word is capitalized instead.
AsturianEdit
PrepositionEdit
’n
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
See alsoEdit
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 |
Etymology 2Edit
Unstressed form of eam.
PronounEdit
'n
See alsoEdit
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
- Contraction of ne.
Usage notesEdit
'n is the reduced (reduïda) form of the pronoun. It is used after verbs ending with a vowel.
DeclensionEdit
DutchEdit
PronunciationEdit
ArticleEdit
’n
- 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
- (colloquial) Alternative form of ein (“a, an”)
- (colloquial) Alternative form of einen (“a, an”)
DeclensionEdit
Derived termsEdit
Etymology 2Edit
Contraction of denn.
AdverbEdit
’n
- (colloquial) short for denn (used for general emphasis)
- Wann wärst’n hier?
- So, when would you be here?
ItalianEdit
Etymology 1Edit
PrepositionEdit
'n
- (literary) Alternative form of in
- (colloquial) Pronunciation spelling of in.
Etymology 2Edit
ArticleEdit
'n m
NumeralEdit
'n m
Etymology 3Edit
AdverbEdit
'n
LigurianEdit
EtymologyEdit
Apheresis of un (“a, an”, article).
PronunciationEdit
ArticleEdit
Low GermanEdit
ArticleEdit
’n
- Contraction of den.
PronounEdit
’n
- Contraction of en.
SicilianEdit
EtymologyEdit
Apheresis of in, from Latin in.
PronunciationEdit
PrepositionEdit
'n
WelshEdit
PronunciationEdit
Etymology 1Edit
ParticleEdit
’n
- 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
DeterminerEdit
'n (triggers h-prothesis of a following vowel)
- our (used after vowels).
- Dyna’n harian ni.
- That's our money.
PronounEdit
'n (triggers h-prothesis of a following vowel)
- 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
- a (indefinite article)