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Whereas the regular pluralization in English involves adding -s or -es, English words derived from a Latin/Greek etymon where the Latin/Greek would pluralize from -on (Greek) or -um (Latin) to -a do not always do so. Usage of -a instead of -s differs between words: sometimes the two are interchangeable (e.g. memorandums/memoranda, polyhedrons/polyhedra), sometimes one is far more common than the other (e.g. neurons over neura, automata over automatons), and sometimes one is completely absent from usage (e.g. bacteria over bacteriums, dendrons over dendra)
From the *s third-person personal pronoun of the ancestor language after it was appended to the word of possession. According to some linguists this attachment happened in the Proto-Uralic era, while others think it happened much later when the Hungarian language became independent.[1]
Suffix
-a
(possessive suffix)[1055]
(after a single possessor)his, her, its, -'s, of(third-person singular, single possession)
jó / jav- ("the greater/better part") -> a java még hátravan ("the best/bulk is yet to come", literally "its best/bulk is...")
legnagyobbik ("the biggest one") -> a bikák legnagyobbika ("the biggest [one] of the bulls"; the same meaning as a legnagyobb bika)
(personal suffix)[end of the 12th century] Third-person singular personal suffix in back-vowel verbs. Today it can be found in the third-person singular definite forms (indicative past and imperative conjugations) as part of the suffix -ja, -ta.
(personal suffix)[end of the 12th century] Third-person singular personal suffix in back-vowel conjugated infinitives and in the declined and postposition forms of the third-person personal pronoun ?("he/she/it").
-a is added to back-vowel words ending in a consonant
-e is added to front-vowel words ending in a consonant
-ja is added to back-vowel words ending in a consonant or a vowel. Final -a changes to -á-; final -o changes to -ó-.
-je is added to front-vowel words ending in a consonant or a vowel. Final -e changes to -é-; final -ö changes to -?-.
This suffix (in all forms) is normally used for the third-person singular possessive (single possession) but, after an explicit plural possessor, it also expresses the third-person plural possessive (single possession), e.g. "the children's ball" (a gyerekek labdája). If the possessor is implicit (not named, only marked by a suffix), the plural possessive suffix must be used, e.g. "their ball" (a labdájuk, see -juk and its variants).
Declension
Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, back harmony)
[1055] It can be traced back to Proto-Uralic *-i? which with the word-final vowel created the diphthong -ai?/-ei?. This had simplified to -á/-é, finally in the Old Hungarian era it had shortened to -a/-e. It was a productive suffix at that time, the back-vowel variant was used even in front-vowel words such as the Old Hungarian female given names Fehéra and Szépa, derived from fehér("light in color") and szép("beautiful"), respectively.[1]
Suffix
-a
(diminutive suffix) The back-vowel variant of the -a/-e diminutive suffix pair. In the past it could be found in common nouns, as well, but today it is used mostly in given names.
cic("the sound for calling a cat") -> cica("kitten")
(personal suffix,archaic)Used to form the third-person singular indicative past indefinite, for back-vowel verbs. The front-vowel version is -e. The suffix currently used in this place is -t, -tt, or -ott. For the full paradigm, see the usage template.
Etymology 4
Along with its front-vowel counterpart -e, from the diphthongs -ai?/-ei?, developing to -á/-é, then shortened to this form by the end of the early Old Hungarian period. After the participle suffix became fixed as -ó/-?, the remaining words suffixed with -a/-e underwent conversion; some became adjectives, others, nouns.[1]
Suffix
-a
(obsolete participle suffix)Synonym of -ó(present-participle suffix)From a synchronic perspective, it can be viewed as a nominal-forming suffix, preserved in some adjectives and nouns (see below). No longer productive. Its front-vowel version is -e.
One may elide the final a of the adjectives, but with the condition not to produce accumulation from the consonants. One advise to use the elision mainly with the derivatived adjectives and particularly when they finish with -al-(a).[1]
References
^ "KGD", in Kompleta gramatiko detaloza[1] (in Ido), accessed 2015-12-23, archived from the original on 27 January 2012
Irish
Suffix
-a
plural ending of certain nouns
plural ending of adjectives in the nominative, vocative, dative, and strong genitive cases
genitive singular ending of third-declension nouns
Homophone: -ha(distinct after -h, -?, -g?; may also trigger different stem alternations)
Suffix
-a
Used to form the feminine forms of most nouns and adjectives.
Used to form the plurals of some nouns and adjectives.
Used to form singulatives from collective nouns. (For simplicity, singulatives may be treated as the bases whence the collectives are formed by deleting -a.)
Liljegren, Henrik; Haider, Naseem (2011) Palula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)[2], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives, ->ISBN
Liljegren, Henrik; Haider, Naseem (2011) Palula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)[3], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives, ->ISBN
Liljegren, Henrik; Haider, Naseem (2011) Palula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)[4], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives, ->ISBN
Liljegren, Henrik; Haider, Naseem (2011) Palula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)[5], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives, ->ISBN
Masculine non-nominative and non-singular agreement suffix
References
Liljegren, Henrik; Haider, Naseem (2011) Palula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)[6], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives, ->ISBN
Ei você aí, não coma carne. - Hey you there, don't eat meat.
Usage notes
The third-person imperative isn't used with third person pronouns, it's used with você, which is a second-person pronoun but always takes third-person conjugation.
The suffix is also used with feminine adjectives in the nominative and accusative cases to make the articulated definite form, often for emphasis, and it is used before the noun it modifies:
From Latin-eam, Latin-am, and Latin-iam the first-person singular present active subjunctive endings of second, third, and fourth conjugation verbs, respectively; and from Latin-eat, Latin-at, and Latin-iat, the third-person singular present active subjunctive ending of second, third, and fourth conjugation verbs, respectively.
Suffix
-a
used to form the first and third-person singular (also used with usted) singular present subjunctive mood of -er and -ir verbs, also used for the imperative mood of usted
comer("to eat") + -a -> aunque yo coma("even if I ate")
tre("three") + -a -> trea("a bronze medalist; a three-room apartment", literally "a three")
Transform an adjective describing a people speaking a language into the noun for that language.
engelsk("English") + -a -> engelska("the English language")
Usage notes
On adjectives
Traditionally, if the noun is in the definite singular form it should not refer to a male human if it uses the suffix -a. If it refers to such a person, the suffix should instead be -e, but one should note that this rule is not universally adhered to – in particular dialects of northern Sweden do not recognize the -e suffix at all, but use -a in all instances.
A morpheme used to mark the genitivesingular of a word (such as a noun, adjective or pronoun). It is also the most common morpheme used in creating innumerable compound words, some of which can be very long