-s

Etymology 1
,, from , nominative-accusative plural ending of masculine a-stem (i.e. strong) declension nouns, from , from , , from ,. The spread of this ending in later Middle English was once argued to have been the result of 🇨🇬 influence; however, -as was already the most common Old English plural marker (used in approximately 40% of Old English nouns), and was initially more common in the North of England where French influence was weakest, only later gradually spreading south. Cognate with 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬,, , 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. Not directly related to 🇨🇬 which has a different origin.

Usage notes

 * In semi-formal or formal contexts, where the plurality of a noun depends on some unknown aspect of the sentence, the s may be parenthesised: "The winner(s) will be invited to a prize ceremony."
 * Decades formed with -s are usually pronounced as if they were written as two separate numbers. For example, 1970s is read as nineteen-seventies, as if it were written as 19 70s, not as *nineteen-hundred seventies or *one thousand nine hundred and seventies.
 * When the number before the -s ends in more than one zero, there is ambiguity about the range of numbers that is meant. For example, 1800s could mean "the years from 1800 to 1899; the entire 19th century" or "the years from 1800 to 1809; the first decade of the 19th century". The intended meaning can usually be derived from context.

Etymology 2
From, from Northumbrian. Gradually replaced the older, from 🇨🇬, , during the Middle English and Early Modern English periods.

It is predominantly believed that is identical to the Old English second-person singular ending,  (cf. archaic Modern English , as in ). The use for the third-person singular would have been caused by speakers of who switched to speaking English and confounded the endings due to analogy with their native tongue. In Old Norse, the second and third person singular indicative forms were identical (e.g. ; ; etc.).

An alternative theory sees the shift from in  to  (later ) in  as a mere phonetic simplification due to the frequency of the ending, but the objection to this is that no such development can be observed anywhere else in English. Nevertheless the relative similarity in sound between both forms may have facilitated the spread of.

Suffix

 * 1) Used to form the third-person singular indicative present tense of verbs.
 * to eat → he eats

Usage notes

 * In Standard English, the -s suffix is only used to mark the third person singular present of verbs; however, in some varieties of English, particularly northern English, Scottish, US Southern and AAVE, the -s can be extended to other persons/numbers as well, as in: I eats me spinach; I hates the Yankees; they likes it here; etc.
 * As in modern nonstandard varieties, the -s suffix can be used to mark the third-person plural in . However, it is less common than the modern standard, and is frequently only found in restricted contexts; for instance, only uses it where a plural subject has "singular" semantics.

Etymology 3
From, from , the masculine and neuter genitive singular ending of strong nouns. More at.

Etymology 4
A variant spelling of, partly an archaism, partly by dropping the apostrophe.

Usage notes

 * In most cases where is found nowadays as a possessive case marker, it is a simple misspelling of . However, possessive determiners derived from personal pronouns use -s (e.g.,, not ). The same is true of pronouns derived from possessive determiners (e.g., , not ). The possessive form of  takes -se (, not ).
 * Bare -s is used in some business names that derive from possessive family names, e.g., and, but compare Sainsbury’s; compare Wikipedia's article on possessives in business names. In speech, /z/ (or /s/) is sometimes added to business names which have neither -s nor -'s in writing, resulting in s, which see.
 * Sometimes used in place names; e.g., Harpers Ferry (formerly spelled “Harper’s Ferry”), (note that the former name of  was officially “Queen’s County”, however, the apostrophe-less spelling is well-attested).

Etymology 5
Modern sense in slang. According to, a colloquial clipping of the hypocoristic diminutive suffix. As writes, -sy itself usually being informal, ironic and/or jocular, and possibly a combination of  and conflation of  as adjectival with its sense as a diminutive suffix (e.g.,, ), the latter notion probably from.

Derived terms
Unsorted:

Etymology 1
.

Etymology 2
(a suffix for forming plurals).

Etymology 3
, from the genitive case of Dutch masculine and neuter nouns and adjectives,, , from , , from ,.

Suffix

 * &rarr; iets nuuts
 * &rarr; niks groots nie
 * &rarr; niks groots nie

Etymology 4
, from earlier, from , from , from , from , from.

Etymology
Possibly akin to 🇨🇬, both reconstructible to a tentative, from , whence also 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬.

Usage notes

 * Becomes after consonants.
 * When attached to - or -stem verbs the stem and the suffix merge into in the modern standard, following Gheg practice, while traditionally made  following Tosk practice.
 * Similarly, when attached to - or -stem verbs they give rise to in Gheg and the modern standard, while  in Tosk and the old standard.

Etymology
.

Usage notes
May be repeated to further emphasise the number of instances of the noun.

Etymology
, originally the genitive singular ending of a-stem nouns. Cognate with 🇨🇬.

Etymology 1
. Not present in, which used from 🇨🇬 as the plural ending. Possibly spread from, , from , , from. Further etymology is unknown, but cognate with 🇨🇬 (🇨🇬).

Usage notes

 * Nouns ending in unstressed -e generally have a plural in -s and one in ( >, ). Individual words, however, allow just one of the two ways.
 * Most words of Latin origin ending in are pluralized with the suffix -s ( > ) or by replacing -um with  (> ). The latter tends to be preferred in formal style.

Etymology 2
From the genitive case of masculine and neuter nouns and adjectives,, , from , , from ,.

Suffix

 * → de tand des tijds
 * → Pieters jas
 * → iemands jas
 * → iets liefs
 * stad →
 * → iets liefs
 * stad →
 * stad →
 * stad →

Derived terms
The adverbial/adjectival -s combines with other suffixes like:
 * &rarr;
 * &rarr;
 * &rarr;

Etymology 3
From earlier, from , from , from , from (from which also  via German), from.

Etymology 4
From earlier forms such as, , ; all ultimately from the patronymic use of with a connecting genitival interfix. Bare -s as a patronymic may also represent an underlying patronymic use of, as in the name Neeltje Jansdochter, which could reduce to Neeltje Jans by simple elision of -dochter.

Derived terms
More at the pages of the various alternative forms listed above, such as .

Etymology 1
. Related to 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬.

Etymology 2
From.

Etymology 1
Contracted from the second-person singular pronoun, ( in modern standard language), but no longer tied to being used in second-person.

Usage notes

 * When attached to imperative forms, the gemination is ignored, unless another enclitic is also used before, like with . Thus , but.
 * When directly attached to forms ending in (e.g. passive forms), the  is often dropped (e.g.  → ).

Etymology 2
, from (compare 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬).

Usage notes

 * Usually used when the numerator is one (one third, one fourth, etc.) See the usage notes under for more.

Declension
Back vowel harmony:

Front vowel harmony:

Etymology 3
, from.

Usage notes
Added to the genitive singular (weak grade) stem.

Declension
Back vowel harmony:

Front vowel harmony:

Etymology 4
, from (compare 🇨🇬 in ). Sometimes considered a reduction of (translative ending): *-kse > *-ks > *-s.

Etymology 5
From apocope of the final vowel of,.

Etymology 1
, from, from.

Pronunciation

 * Silent, except in liaison environments, when it may be pronounced . This liaison is usual in adjectives, but fairly rare in nouns.
 * Irregularly pronounced in  when used as a pronoun.

Etymology 2
, from, from.

The spread of this suffix to the first-person singular started out from Old French verbs whose stems happened to end in a sibilant, most notably the regular conjugation in, e.g., (from ). In later Old French, final was only pronounced in liaison and in pausa. This weakened the distinction in those verbs which had originally had -s in the second-person only, but by analogy now began to take it in the first-person as well. The grammarians later on standardised the usage, prescribing -s in some cases and rejecting it in others.

Pronunciation

 * Silent, except in liaison environments, when it may be pronounced . This liaison is optional after full vowels (as in ). After silent -e- (as in ) it is rare and often discouraged.

Etymology 1
, from.

Usage notes
The formation of the strong genitive singular (in -s, -es, or no ending) may be of some difficulty both for learners and native speakers.

Only one form is possible in some nouns:
 * Nouns in unstressed -as, -es,- is, -os, -us remain unchanged (except those in, which make -nisses).
 * Other nouns in -s, -ß, -x, -z take -es.
 * Nouns ending in a vowel or in unstressed -el, -em, -en, -er, -or, -um take -s. (Only those in a diphthong or in -h allow -es, alternatively.)
 * Nouns forming their plural in -s take the same ending also in the genitive singular. (Apparent exceptions will generally have an alternative plural in -e.)

Otherwise, both forms are usually correct, but certain tendencies can be observed:
 * The es-form is strongly preferred in a number of frequently used monosyllables, to the degree that the s-form may even sound odd. No hard rule can be given to identify these nouns; they include e.g., , , etc.
 * The es-form is also preferred, for euphonic reasons, in words ending in certain clusters like -pf, -sch, -st.
 * Most other monosyllables have no clear preference.
 * The s-form is usually preferred in polysyllables, regardless of their being simple or compound and regardless also of stress patterns.

Note, finally, that there is a fairly strong tendency for proper nouns (used with the article) and for newer or less common loanwords to remain unchanged in the genitive singular.

Etymology 2
Probably derived from the genitive -s (etymology 1), but developed into a noun-forming suffix in and Central German dialects.

Etymology 3
. Reinforced by the fact that and  also use -s as a plural suffix.

Usage notes

 * The plural ending -s is most typical of loanwords (as in, , ), though there is a tendency for naturalised loanwords to switch to or  (compare , ,  with older , , ). Conversely, -s is also used in a certain number of native words (as in , , ). Moreover, it is the most productive plural marker in contemporary German, typically used to pluralise initialisms , neologisms , and words that do not otherwise have a common plural form.

Etymology
Presumably can be traced back to a suffix.

Etymology 1
. Cognates include 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬.

Suffix

 * 1) ; in, inside

Usage notes

 * May trigger vowel elongation of the preceding vowel.

Etymology 2
, from. Cognates include 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬.

Suffix

 * 1) ; -th

Etymology 3
, from. Cognates include 🇨🇬.

Suffix

 * 1)  ; thy, your

Usage notes

 * May trigger vowel elongation of the preceding vowel.

Etymology 4
. Cognates include 🇨🇬.

Etymology
, from. Cognates include 🇨🇬.

Suffix

 * 1) ; thy, your

Etymology
. Cognates include 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬.

Etymology
. Cognate with 🇨🇬.

Usage notes
Second declension non-neuter nominative singular forms originally ended in this suffix preceded by the Indo-European thematic vowel *-o-. Proto-Italic became Classical Latin  by vowel reduction; this ending is often interpreted as a nominative suffix of its own (an example of rebracketing) rather than a sequence of stem-final vowel +.

Likewise, in the fourth declension and fifth declension, -s is always preceded by the characteristic vowels of these declensions (-u- and -ē- respectively), with the result that and  are frequently regarded as nominative singular suffixes for these declensions.

The suffix appears most clearly in the third declension, as in. Stem-final consonants are often modified or deleted before the suffix: for example, and. Etymologically, the Latin third declension includes both original consonant-stem nouns and i-stem nouns: however, these two classes are not consistently distinguished in the nominative singular due to frequent syncope of nominative forms that originally ended in *-is (such as > ), as well as some analogical interchange of endings between these two classes (as in  and  being replaced with  and  respectively). Non-neuter n-stem nouns, such as  or, normally replace -n- with -ō̆ in the nominative singular rather than showing the ending -s; a smaller set of non-neuter n-stem nouns end in -n in the nominative singular, such as. R-stem and l-stem nouns (such as, ) normally end in -r or -l respectively (which developed by regular sound change from word-final *-rs and *-ls).

The use of the suffix -s is generally restricted to non-neuter nominative forms, but it is found in the neuter nominative and accusative singular of third declension adjectives "of one termination". From an etymological perspective, third-declension neuter nouns such as that end in -s in the nominative singular alternating with -r- in oblique forms do not end in this suffix: rather, they are derived from stems that originally ended in the consonant *s (which was changed to -r- by rhotacism when followed by a suffix starting with a vowel).

Etymology
, from, the masculine and neuter genitive singular ending of strong nouns.

Suffix

 * → wat groots
 * Nacht →
 * → wat groots
 * Nacht →
 * Nacht →
 * Nacht →

Suffix

 * 1) his, hers, theirs

Suffix

 * 1) -self

Usage notes

 * Added to prepositional pronouns (ending in a broad consonant) to add emphasis:
 * Used in first-person singular: (e.g., ).
 * Used in second-person singular: (e.g., ).

Etymology 1
.

Etymology 3
. Cognate with the Finnish translative ending.

Etymology 4
From a merger of two older case endings:
 * Inessive, . Cognate with 🇨🇬.
 * Elative, . Cognate with 🇨🇬.

Usage notes
When possessive suffixes are attached, the suffix reverts to its earlier form (for even-syllable stems) or  (for odd-syllable stems).

Etymology 1
From, from , a grammaticalisation of.

Etymology 2
From, from , originally the genitive singular ending of a-stem nouns.

Usage notes
If the last word already ends with a sibilant, only an apostrophe (-') is added. It is incorrect to use an apostrophe before the s.

Etymology
From,.

Suffix

 * 1)  Feminine noun suffix forming nouns from adjectives and verbs

Usage notes
-s vs. vs. non-use:
 * After l, -s is used and the l is replaced with i : → ,  → ,
 * A scattering of exceptions have or allow -es after l, the most common being →
 * After stressed il, -s is used and the l is dropped: →,  →
 * After unstressed il, the ending becomes -eis: →,  →
 * In sporadic and strongly proscribed Brazilian usage, the same rules are applied to words that end in a vowel + u or o : → *,  → *
 * After s:
 * -es if the word is stressed in the last syllable: →,  →
 * not used otherwise: →,  →
 * after m, -s is used and the m becomes n; this is an orthographic process, since in both cases the final consonant marks vowel nasalisation: →
 * after n, either, but -es is more common in dialects where it is produced as rather than vowel nasalisation:  →  or
 * after r and z, -es is used
 * after vowels and semivowels, -s is used
 * the plural of words ending in -ão can be -ões (by far the most common), -ãos (usually masculines with a feminine in -ã) or -ães (only a handful of words)
 * loanwords usually follow the same rules: →,  →
 * in recent English loanwords ending in r, and occasionally in loans from other languages, -s is used: →
 * unadapted loanwords ending in unusual consonants usually take -s or no morpheme: →,  → ,  →  or
 * rarely, and often alongside a regular form, the plural from the original language is used: →  (also ),  →  (more commonly ),  →  (very rarely  or )
 * after x, Hellenisms and Latinisms are usually unchanged (following the rule for words ending in s), but sometimes have -es and the x becomes c, especially in Brazilian Portuguese: → ,  →  or
 * more often than not, surnames do not take an extra morpheme in the plural; when they do, they are usually Portuguese surnames with recognisable Portuguese morphemes: →  or
 * names of peoples that do not contain Portuguese endings usually do not take the plural morpheme: → ;  →  or  (less common)

In informal varieties of Brazilian Portuguese, a noun phrase may take a single plural marker, usually in the article. For example, “the big houses” may be where standard Portuguese requires. This usage is very widespread, however, it is proscribed and generally regarded as unacceptable in formal contexts and in serious writing.

In some words that end in O and have a stressed in the penult, the stressed vowel becomes  in the plural. See Category:Portuguese nouns with metaphonic plurals.

Colloquial Brazilian Portuguese allows to be added before  in words stressed in their final syllables. This is blocked by morpheme boundaries, such that may be pronounced, but  can only be pronounced as. and colloquial forms and  are an exception to this rule, and can be pronounced. Note that this process is usually avoided in formal speech.

Etymology
Derived from the Latin accusative plural endings.

Etymology 1
, from, originally the genitive singular ending of a-stem nouns. Cognate with 🇨🇬. The frequent use of the suffix in written and modern colloquial Swedish is possibly the result of foreign influence, either Latin or Middle Low German.

Etymology 2
, a grammaticalisation of.

Usage notes

 * Until the middle of the 20th century, the variant suffix was used to mark the present passive of all  verbs of the second and fourth conjugations. This usage is mostly considered archaic today, but  is still used for  verbs whose stems end in s.
 * See also, which forms a passive voice for states or completed actions.
 * Verbs with the suffix that are not passive (including those in 2 and 3 above) are called deponent verbs. In such cases, the passive reading is often also possible. For example,  might also mean “we were hit” and  might mean “the dog is bitten”. However, such readings would be unintuitive unless suggested by the context.

Etymology 3
Mostly from.

Etymology 4
Originally from, a genitive suffix. Many of the examples are later analogically derived from each other.

Etymology
Possibly from.

Etymology 1
.

Etymology 2
Ultimately from.

Pronoun

 * 1)  him, her, it, them
 * 2) * 1588,, 1 Corinthians 2:7,8:
 * 1) * 1588,, 1 Corinthians 2:7,8:
 * 1) * 1588,, 1 Corinthians 2:7,8:
 * 1) * 1588,, 1 Corinthians 2:7,8:

Usage notes

 * Found only in formal language after certain vowel-final preverbal particles, such as, , and . After other vowel-final preverbal particles, such as ,  and , singular  and plural  are used instead.