-te

See also: Appendix:Variations of "te"

Ainu

Alternative forms

• -re (used after vowels)
• -e (used after r)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /te/

Suffix

-te

1. (causative) used after consonants other than r form of -re (“to make happen”)

   ‎ek (“to come”) + ‎-te → ‎ekte (“to make come; to send (a person)”)

   ‎oman (“to go”) + ‎-te → ‎omante (“to make go; to send (something)”)

   ‎cis (“to cry”) + ‎-te → ‎ciste (“to make cry”)

See also

• -yar (indefinite causative)

Chuukese

Suffix

-te

1. (auxiliary) Used to express negative tense in the determinate; never

Dutch

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂der.

Proto-Germanic *-iþō

Proto-West Germanic *-iþu

Old Dutch -itha

Middle Dutch -ede

Dutch -te

Inherited from Middle Dutch -ede, from Old Dutch -itha, from Proto-West Germanic *-iþu, from Proto-Germanic *-iþō, from Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂.

Middle Dutch -ede was shortened to -de in late Middle Dutch, and the suffix was devoiced to -te according to the 't kofschip rule. This voiceless variety was then taken to be the suffix proper and the voiced variety gradually fell out of use.

Suffix

-te f (plural -ten or -tes)

1. appended to an adjective, making a feminine noun which refers to the size or quality referred to by the adjective, cognate to -th.

   ‎hoog + ‎-te → ‎hoogte

   ‎ruim + ‎-te → ‎ruimte

   ‎breed + ‎-te → ‎breedte

   ‎lang + ‎-te → ‎lengte

   ‎gewoon + ‎-te → ‎gewoonte

2. appended to the stem of a verb, yields a feminine noun which refers to the object of such a verb.

   ‎behoeven + ‎-te → ‎behoefte

   ‎beloven + ‎-te → ‎belofte

Etymology 2

Suffix

-te

1. See ge- -te.

Etymology 3

Suffix

-te

1. (after voiceless consonants) alternative form of -de (forms the singular of the past tense of weak verbs)

   ‎maken + ‎-te → ‎maakte

French

Etymology

Attested since the 11th century, from Old French -te, from Latin -ita, the feminine of the past participle ending -itus.

Suffix

-te f (noun-forming suffix, plural -tes)

1. (not productive) forms result nouns from -dre and a few other third-group verbs

   ‎vendre (“sell”) + ‎-te → ‎vente (“sale”)

   ‎perdre (“lose”) + ‎-te → ‎perte (“loss”)

   ‎attendre (“wait, expect”) + ‎-te → ‎attente (“expectation”)

   ‎fuir (“flee, (of liquids) leak”) + ‎-te → ‎fuite (“flight (act of fleeing), leak”)

Derived terms

French terms suffixed with -te

crainte

fente

fonte

tonte

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tə/

Etymology 1

From Middle High German -te, -ete, from a merger of several Old High German conjugations.

Alternative forms

• -ete (used with most stems in -d, -t, and consonant + -n, -m)

Suffix

-te

1. forms the first-person and third-person singular of the past tense and past subjunctive of weak verbs and some irregular verbs

   ‎reisen (“to travel”) + ‎-te → ‎reiste (“[I] travelled; [he] travelled”)

Etymology 2

From Middle Low German and Middle Dutch -te, from Proto-Germanic *-iþō, whence also inherited but equally rare German -de.

Suffix

-te f (plural -ten)

1. (rare, not productive, only as synchronic surface analysis) forms nouns from adjectives

   ‎flau (“slack, windless”) + ‎-te → ‎Flaute (“slackness, stagnation”)

   ‎halb (“half”) + ‎-te → ‎Hälfte (“half, fifty percent”)

   ‎raum (“wide, open”) + ‎-te → ‎Räumte (“cargo capacity of a ship”)

Hungarian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [tɛ]

Suffix

-te

2. 2. (past-tense suffix) Forms the third-person singular indicative past definite form of verbs.

      ‎keres (“to search”) + ‎-te → ‎kereste (“he/she (has/had) searched”)

   4. (verbal-participle suffix) Forms the verbal participle of verbs, always following the agent noun.

      ‎nevel (“to bring up, to raise”) + ‎-te → ‎[az anyja] nevelte [gyermek] (“[the child] raised by [his/her mother]”, literally “his/her-mother-raised child”)

4. (noun-forming suffix) Forms nouns from certain verbs (cf. -és), incorporating the third-person singular possessive suffix (-e), which can be replaced by other personal possessive suffixes.

   ‎érkezik (“to arrive”) + ‎-te → ‎érkezte (“his/her/its arrival”)

Usage notes

• (past-tense and verbal-participle suffix) Variants:

  -ta is added to most back-vowel verbs

  -te is added to most front-vowel verbs

  -tta is added to back-vowel verbs ending in a vowel (hí, rí, szí; ó, ró; fú)

  -tte is added to front-vowel verbs ending in a vowel (lő, nő, sző; nyű)

  -otta is added to back-vowel verbs ending in two consonants or a long vowel + t, or to monosyllables ending in -t (fut, nyit, except lát)

  -ette is added to unrounded front-vowel verbs ending in two consonants or a long vowel + t, or to monosyllables ending in -t (vet)

  -ötte is added to rounded front-vowel verbs ending in two consonants or a long vowel + t, or to monosyllables ending in -t (köt, süt, üt)

• (noun-forming suffix) Variants:

  -ta is added to most back-vowel verbs

  -te is added to most front-vowel verbs

  -tte is added to front-vowel verbs that originally ended in a vowel (like jön, originally jő)

  -ata is added to back-vowel verbs that form the infinitive with a linking vowel (like hall)

  -ete is added to front-vowel verbs that form the infinitive with a linking vowel (like kell)

Derived terms

Hungarian nouns suffixed with -te

elkészülte

eltelte

este

élte

érkezte

fekte

főztje

kelte

közeledte

letelte

lépte

létrejötte

megszűnte

megtelte

mente

napfelkelte

naplemente

repte

röpte

szerette

telte

tölte

ülte

veszte

végezte

See also

• Category:Hungarian verbal participles
• Category:Hungarian verb forms
• Appendix:Hungarian suffixes

Further reading

• Károly, Sándor. Az istenadta-féle szerkezetek személyragos tagjának szófaji jellegéről (“On the part of speech of the personal-suffixed elements of istenadta [‘God-given’]-like structures”). In: Nyelvtudományi Közlemények (“Linguistic Publications”), vol. 59 (1957), pp. 130–150.
• Simonyi, Zsigmond. Isten-adta (“God-given”). In: Magyar Nyelvőr (“Hungarian Language Guardian”), vol. XXXVI (1907), pp. 16–35 in the offprint (issue 5, May 15 in the original, pp. 193–205, 264–271).

Irish

Suffix

-te

1. slender form of -ta (plural suffix)
2. slender form of -ta (past participle suffix)

Japanese

Romanization

-te

1. Rōmaji transcription of て

Latin

Suffix

-te

1. masculine vocative singular of -tus

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old French -te, -tet, from Latin -tās, -tātem; compare -ite.

Alternative forms

• -tee, -tei, -tey, -tie, -ty, -tye
• (from early Old French -tet) -tet, -teth, -tethe, -teþ, -tith, -tithe

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /-ˈteː/, /-teː/

Suffix

-te

1. Forms abstract nouns from adjectives.

   Synonym: -ite

Usage notes

• Syncope sometimes results in the replacement of -ite with -te. For instance, trinte is sometimes found for trinite (“Trinity”).
• Conversely, learned influence may sometimes result in -te with -ite, especially when the word goes back to a Latin original with -itās. This is exemplified by the replacement of personalte (“personality”) with personalite in later Middle English (compare Latin persōnālitās).
• As in modern English, -ite tends to attract stress to the antepenultimate syllable, while -te leaves stress where it was on the root.

Derived terms

Middle English terms suffixed with -te

bareynte

beaute

comunalte

counte

Cristiente

cruelte

duete

enemyte

febilte

frelete

hevyte

honeste

jelouste

rebelte

royalte

savete

sodeynte

sotilte

sovereynte

surete

sympilte

venymouste

Descendants

• English: -ty
• Scots: -ty

References

• “-tẹ̄, suf.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Suffix

-te

1. (following fricatives) alternative form of -th (abstract nominal suffix)

Etymology 3

Suffix

-te

1. (following fricatives) alternative form of -the (abstract nominal suffix)

Etymology 4

Suffix

-te

1. (following fricatives) alternative form of -the (ordinal suffix)

Etymology 5

Suffix

-te

1. alternative form of -ty

Etymology 6

From Old English -te, the first‐ and third‐person singular past tense ending of certain class 1 weak verbs (typically those with stems ending in a voiceless consonant). It also frequently arises from the devoicing of the past tense ending -de (syncopated from -ede, typically following sonorant consonants).

Alternative forms

• -t

Suffix

-te

1. Forms the past tense of certain weak verbs.

Descendants

• English: -t
• Scots: -t

Mizo

Suffix

-te

1. Pluralizes nouns.

   ‎naupang (“child”) + ‎-te → ‎naupangte (“children”)

Usage notes

This plural suffix is completely optional in Mizo.

Norwegian Bokmål

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tə/
• Rhymes: -tə
• Hyphenation: -te

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old Norse -ti (“weak-verb simple-past ending”), the voiceless allomorph of -ði (“weak-verb simple-past ending”), containing the Germanic dental preterite marker.

Compare Norwegian Nynorsk -te, Danish -te and Swedish -te (“weak-verb simple-past ending”).

Suffix

-te

1. An inflectional suffix forming the simple past of certain weak verbs and a small number of irregular verbs.

   kjøpe (“to buy”) → kjøpte (“bought”)

   lese (“to read”) → leste (“read”)

   sende (“to send”) → sendte (“sent”)

   tenke (“to think”) → tenkte (“thought”)

   Hun kjøpte ei ny bok. ― She bought a new book.

Usage notes

• With infinitives ending in unstressed ⟨e⟩, that vowel is removed before -te:
  • kjøpe → kjøpte
  • lese → leste
  • høre (“to hear”) → hørte (“heard”)
• A simple-past form in -te normally corresponds to a supine and basic past participle in -t:
  • kjøpte (“bought”) — kjøpt (“bought”)
  • leste (“read”) — lest (“read”)
  • sendte (“sent”) — sendt (“sent”)
  • tenkte (“thought”) — tenkt (“thought”)
• The distribution of -te is lexical and cannot be predicted solely from the final sound or spelling of the infinitive. Compare kjøpe → kjøpte, but håpe (“to hope”) → håpet (“hoped”) or håpa (“hoped”).
• The suffix frequently follows a voiceless consonant, as in kjøpte, leste and tenkte, but it also occurs after sonorants and other consonants, as in mente (“meant, thought”), kjente (“knew, felt”) and hørte (“heard”).
• Its addition may be accompanied by changes in the stem or spelling:
  • kjenne (“to know, feel”) → kjente (“knew, felt”)
  • velge (“to choose”) → valgte (“chose”)
  • selge (“to sell”) → solgte (“sold”)
• Certain irregular verbs also have a simple past ending in this sequence, including måtte (“had to; must, simple past”) from må (“must, have to”) and visste (“knew”) from vite (“to know”).
• A written form in -te may be ambiguous between a finite simple-past verb and an inflected past participle:

  De kjøpte klær. — “They bought clothes.”

  De kjøpte klærne. — “The bought clothes.”

• In the participial use, the ending is synchronically analysed as the basic participle in -t followed by the definite and plural adjective ending -e:

  kjøpt + -e → kjøpte

  sendt + -e → sendte

• Not every word form ending in ⟨te⟩ contains this simple-past suffix. For example, adjectival svarte (“black; definite singular and plural”) is svart (“black”) followed by -e, whereas verbal svarte (“answered”) contains the simple-past suffix.

Derived terms

• brente (“burned”)
• førte (“led, carried”)
• glemte (“forgot”)
• hørte (“heard”)
• kalte (“called”)
• kjente (“knew, felt”)
• kjøpte (“bought”)
• leste (“read”)
• lærte (“learned, taught”)
• mente (“meant, thought”)
• reiste (“travelled; raised”)
• sendte (“sent”)
• spilte (“played”)
• svarte (“answered”)
• tenkte (“thought”)
• valgte (“chose”)
• viste (“showed”)

See also

• -t (“supine and past-participle ending”)
• -e (“definite singular and plural adjective ending”)
• -de (“weak-verb simple-past ending”)
• -dde (“weak-verb simple-past ending”)
• -et (“weak-verb simple-past, supine and past-participle ending”)
• -a (“weak-verb simple-past, supine and past-participle ending”)

Etymology 2

Inherited from Old Norse -ti (“ordinal-forming suffix”), occurring in inherited ordinal forms such as fimti (“fifth”), sétti (“sixth”), ellifti (“eleventh”) and tolfti (“twelfth”), ultimately reflecting a Proto-Germanic ordinal suffix *-tô.

Compare Norwegian Nynorsk -te, Danish -te and Swedish -te (“ordinal-forming suffix”).

Suffix

-te

1. Forming certain indeclinable ordinal adjectives from cardinal numerals or symbols.

   fem (“five”) +‎ -te (“ordinal-forming suffix”) → femte (“fifth”)

   seks (“six”) → sjette (“sixth”)

   tolv (“twelve”) +‎ -te (“ordinal-forming suffix”) → tolvte (“twelfth”)

   n (“the variable n”) +‎ -te (“ordinal-forming suffix”) → n-te (“nth”)

Usage notes

• The ordinary inherited ordinal forms containing this suffix are:
  • femte (“fifth”)
  • sjette (“sixth”)
  • ellevte (“eleventh”)
  • tolvte (“twelfth”)
• The suffix also occurs when these ordinals form the final element of a compound numeral: tjuefemte (“twenty-fifth”) and tjuesjette (“twenty-sixth”).
• sjette shows substantial historical alteration of the cardinal stem seks (“six”) and is not formed by simply attaching the spelling -te to the modern cardinal.
• The mathematical form n-te (“nth”) is written with a hyphen and can also be used figuratively of an unspecified high number: for n-te gang (“for the umpteenth time”).
• Ordinal adjectives are indeclinable:

  den femte dagen

  det femte året

  de femte plassene

• Most other regular Bokmål ordinals use -ende, including sjuende (“seventh”), åttende (“eighth”), trettende (“thirteenth”) and tjuende (“twentieth”).
• The ending in første (“first”), tredje (“third”) and fjerde (“fourth”) belongs to inherited lexical forms and is not an application of productive -te to the modern cardinal stems.

Derived terms

• femte (“fifth”)
• sjette (“sixth”)
• ellevte (“eleventh”)
• tolvte (“twelfth”)
• n-te (“nth”)

See also

• -ende (“ordinal-forming suffix”)

References

• “Adjektiver og partisipper”, Språkrådet.

Old English

Suffix

-te

1. Alternative form of -de used to form the first and third person singular preterite indicative of certain class I weak verbs

   ‎reċċan (“to explain, argue”) + ‎-te → ‎rehte (“I/he/she/it explained, argued”)

Saterland Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian -te, -ithe, from Proto-Germanic *-iþō. More at -th.

Suffix

-te f

1. Forms abstract nouns from verbs, adjectives, or other nouns; -th

Derived terms

Saterland Frisian terms suffixed with -te

Hatte

Ljoote

Ruumte

Skoomte

Swäkte

Scottish Gaelic

Alternative forms

• -da, -de, -ta

Etymology

From Old Irish -de.

Suffix

-te

1. Used to form adjectives from nouns, in the sense of having the object represented by the noun.

   'S crìochnaichte an sgeul. ― The story is finished.

   ‎beum (“stress”) + ‎-te → ‎beumte (“stressed”)

   ‎blas (“taste”) + ‎-te → ‎blasta (“tasty”)

   ‎drabas (“filthiness of speech, smut”) + ‎-te → ‎drabasda (“obscene, ribald, smutty, dirty, indelicate”)

Derived terms

Scottish Gaelic terms suffixed with -te

aonaichte

aosta

baoghalta

beumte

blasta

boireannta

caillte

caithte

ceangailte

ceannsaichte

ciùrrte

claoidhte

cleachdte

coisrigte

còmhdaichte

companta

deimhinnte

domhanta

drabasda

fasanta

fireannta

reusanta

rùisgte

toinnte

Swedish

Alternative forms

• -de

Suffix

-te

1. alternative form of -de; suffix to create preterite tense of verbs if the stem ends in an unvoiced consonant (this form of the suffix is only applicable to verbs which end in -er in the present tense)

Anagrams

• -et

Turkish

Suffix

-te

1. alternative form of -da (locative suffix) (after a front vowel followed by an unvoiced consonant)