Talk:-en

Etymology
This may help for the etymology requests, Dictionary.com on -en. ---96.229.184.69 02:16, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * You may also wish to compare to the Dutch suffixes. All three English examples have cognates in Dutch that are in far more regular use.

Jcwf 22:34, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

Why Capitalized?
Why in the first etymology section is "strong" capitalized? Is it supposed to be a proper noun? I have never heard of a a Strong verb and cannot otherwise think of a reason this should not be "strong verb." Rchandra 13:48, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Probably because contributor wanted to emphasize it and wasn't sure strong verb merited an entry. (I'm not sure either, but let's see.) Or maybe contributor thought it was an eponym! Thanks for asking. DCDuring TALK 14:02, 26 September 2010 (UTC)

Tea Room discussion
Tea Room discussion of the suffix used to form verbs from adjectives, with the meaning "make [adjective]": Tea_room/2017/December. - -sche (discuss) 16:29, 22 April 2018 (UTC)

All verbs?
/A suffix of all verbs in their infinitive form./ There are verbs with different suffixes as lächeln, bedauern ect.
 * Amin Negm-Awad (talk) 16:34, 23 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Fair point. I dropped "all". - -sche (discuss) 20:09, 21 June 2020 (UTC)

As an ending on English words borrowed from German or Dutch
I removed the sense "Used to form the plural of some nouns of Dutch or German origin: klompen, lagerstätten, lederhosen." In all those cases, the plural was borrowed wholesale from Dutch or German, not formed in English by adding -en. I don't think this exists as an English suffix separate from the other two senses on either side of it (namely -en as used in oxen and -en as used in Unixen). It would be like saying -̈e (umlaut + -e) is an English plural suffix because English borrowed fackeltänze wholesale as a plural of fackeltanz, or saying -̈en is an English plural suffix because English borrowed kindergärten wholesale as a plural of kindergarten. I was unsure whether to RFV or RFD this, because — and compare Talk:-x — even examples of someone adding -en to a German word that isn't pluralized by adding -en in German might or might not just be someone speaking bad German, or using sense 3 (the "nonstandard: a plural suffix" sense)... and decided to just boldly remove it. It can go to RFV / RFD if anyone objects... - -sche (discuss) 20:08, 21 June 2020 (UTC)