selten
German edit
Etymology edit
From Middle High German selten, selden, from Old High German seltan, from Proto-Germanic *seldanē. Cognate with English seldom, Saterland Frisian säilden (“seldom”), West Frisian selden, komselden (“rare, seldom”), Dutch zelden, Danish sjælden, Norwegian sjelden, Swedish sällan, Faroese sjáldan, Icelandic sjaldan.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
selten (strong nominative masculine singular seltener or (uncommon) seltner, not comparable)
- rare, infrequent, uncommon, scarce
- unusual, curious
- 1924, Friedrich Bernhard Störzner, Das weiße Männchen auf dem Kirchberge, in: Reinhardtswalder Sagenbüchlein, Buchhandlung Otto Schmidt, page 11:
- Droben am Himmel funkelten die Sterne in seltener Pracht.
- Up in the sky the stars sparkled in unusual magnificence.
- 1924, Friedrich Bernhard Störzner, Das weiße Männchen auf dem Kirchberge, in: Reinhardtswalder Sagenbüchlein, Buchhandlung Otto Schmidt, page 11:
Usage notes edit
- The contracted comparative seltner is per se rare, but is occasionally used in attributive position: ein noch seltneres Phänomen − "an ever rarer phenomenon". This is done to avoid the three consecutive reduced syllables in selteneres etc.
Declension edit
Positive forms of selten (uncomparable)
1Uncommon.
Derived terms edit
Adverb edit
selten
- seldom; rarely
- Er ist selten unfreundlich.
- He’s rarely ever unfriendly.
- (chiefly informal, with adjective) unusually; extremely [from 18th c. or older]
- Der Typ war ja selten unfreundlich!
- That guy was extremely unfriendly!
- Das ist selten dämlich.
- That’s peculiarly stupid.
Usage notes edit
- The two senses are distinguishable by context and intonation.
Synonyms edit
- (extremely): See Thesaurus:sehr
See also edit
probability | 100 % | ~90 % | ~50 % | ~10 % | 0 % | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adverb | immer | fast immer, meistens | sehr häufig, sehr oft | öfters, des öfteren, häufig, oft | gelegentlich, manchmal, zuweilen | nicht häufig, nicht oft | selten | sehr selten, fast nie | nie |
Further reading edit
Luxembourgish edit
Adjective edit
selten (masculine seltenen, neuter seltent, comparative méi selten, superlative am seltensten)
(variant of seelen)
Declension edit
declension of selten
number and gender | singular | plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
masculine | feminine | neuter | all genders | ||
predicative | hien ass selten | si ass selten | et ass selten | si si(nn) selten | |
nominative / accusative |
attributive and/or after determiner | seltenen | selten | seltent | selten |
independent without determiner | seltenes | seltener | |||
dative | after any declined word | seltenen | seltener | seltenen | seltenen |
as first declined word | seltenem | seltenem |
Adverb edit
selten
Synonyms edit
Categories:
- German terms inherited from Middle High German
- German terms derived from Middle High German
- German terms inherited from Old High German
- German terms derived from Old High German
- German terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- German terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- German 2-syllable words
- German terms with IPA pronunciation
- German terms with audio links
- German lemmas
- German adjectives
- German uncomparable adjectives
- German terms with quotations
- German adverbs
- German terms with usage examples
- German informal terms
- Luxembourgish lemmas
- Luxembourgish adjectives
- Luxembourgish adverbs