Talk:-er

Definition 2, 4 and 5 all deal with forming agent nouns, 2 from verb, and 4 & 5 from various types of nouns. Is not the agentive suffix productive enough to in fact be simply specified as 'forming agent nouns from verbs and nouns'? And if so, these three definitions could be merged. Even if not so, at least 4 & 5 could be merged as noun + er == player of noun or some such. But f ex executioner or electrocutioner would hardly fall into any of the specified definitions.--sanna 08:15, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, I'd say that 3 (resident of a place) is also an agent noun. I think 2, 3, 4 and 5 should become just #2. --Connel MacKenzie T C 08:24, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Rearranged and somewhat expanded. I would say the translations don't really work on a page like this; things like forming the comparative are really aspects of a language's grammar and as such are probably best left to Wikibooks etc. Widsith 08:39, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Definition 2

I am not sure if this is the place to put this, but I have a question about "er". In the definition it says that "er" can be added to the end of any verb to form a noun. Are there any exceptions to this rule? Does the word Dier exist? Or even Denoter? What determines what words "er" can be added to? --2:34, 19 February 2007 — This unsigned comment was added by Kennyr35 (talk • contribs) at 20:32, 19 February 2007 (UTC).

sense 2 (inhabitant of)

Perhaps this should be moved to its own Etymology, as the -er of New Yorker and Londoner do not descend from Old English -ere, but from another OE suffix -ware. Leasnam 23:40, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

Etymology_2

Is this even a suffix in English? It may have been in OFr, but one cannot sever danger into dang(e) + -er--the OFr word seems to have been borrowed as a unit, not as a stem + suffix. The only word I can think of where it actually can be separated is stranger, but this still probably represents a borrowing as a unit and it's merely coincidental that strange is its own word. Leasnam 15:16, 12 May 2010 (UTC)

German

Isn't this also a plural? Lysdexia 21:14, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Yes it is (e.g. Kind -> Kinder). Longtrend 23:42, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

er, not the previous incorrect, but this correct

"Er" is used to correct a previous mistatement. It goes something like this:

"Today is my 114th birthday. Er, my 115th birthday."

Badon 20:02, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

That's er, not -er. Equinox ◑ 13:41, 18 July 2015 (UTC)

German suffix added to verbs

1. What kind of substantives are formed with -er? "Arbeiter" [= person who works] is different from "Bohrer" [tool to drill] -- though "Bohrer" might also mean "person who drills" ...
2. To what form is -er added? Here it is said, it is added to "the first-person singular indicative present form from which the E is dropped".
   • Usually that's shortly "stem" (= "infinitive from which the en is dropped").
     • In case of verbs like "schütteln", 1.ps.sg. ind.pres. "(ich) schüttel[e]" or "(ich) schütt[e]le", it would be *Schütt[e]ler. So one can still say -er is added to the stem schüttel-, but the e can be dropped.
   • What's with verbs whichs 1.ps.sg. ind.pres. form doesn't end with -e or doesn't always end with -e? E.g. it's "(ich) schüttel" (besides "(ich) schüttele" and "(ich) schüttle"), "ich weiß", "(ich) darf" and "(ich) geh" (besides "(ich) gehe" and "(ich) geh'").
     • Regarding "weiß": There's Mitwisser, so it should be *Wisser and thus -er is added to the stem and not to the 1.ps.sg. ind.pres. from which the -e is dropped (well, this would also give Wisser, but in another way which shouldn't always work: weiß -> wiß -> *Wisser).
     • In case of "gehen" there's "Gänger" (as in "Doppelgänger"). So it be like this: -er is added to the past participle without prefixes (like ge-) and suffixes (-en or -t), sometimes together with umlauting:
       infinitive: gehen -> past participle: gegangen -> past participle without pre- and suffixes: gang -> Gänger.
       But this should make more sense: it's (der) Gang + -er (& umlaut) = Gänger. So -er isn't only added to verbs, but also to other parts of speech.

-84.161.51.120 11:26, 18 July 2015 (UTC)

German suffix from Latin -ari

For some discussion, see WT:TR#Müller. - -sche (discuss) 08:12, 29 November 2016 (UTC)

German plural ending

Which or what etymology for -er as a plural ending, for example in words such as Kinder, Männer, Bücher?

Also, isn't there an etymology for German plurals with zero ending? As in Jäger, Messer, Mütter, Töchter, Gebäude, Fräulein, Mäntel, Klöster, Wässer? —Stephen ^(Talk) 19:08, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

instanter

What's the etymology of instanter? --Backinstadiums (talk) 12:20, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

Etymology 6: added to certain adverbs to form the comparative

Why is this one a different etymology? can somebody elaborate or at least add an example? --Backinstadiums (talk) 18:24, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

contrastive stress

According to Longman Pronunciation Dict:

-er: ə ǁ ər . Dirtier: ˈdɝːt̬ i‿ər. 
—On rare occasions this suffix receives contrastive stress, and is then pronounced ˈɝː, thus not early, but earliER  ˌɝːliˈɝː, interviewEE and interviewER ˌɪnt̬ərvjuːˈɝː

--Backinstadiums (talk) 15:04, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

-ier

Is -ier a variant? LPD reads:

-ier suffix forming nouns ˈɪər, brigadier

--Backinstadiums (talk) 09:59, 14 July 2020 (UTC)

RFV discussion: September 2023–April 2024

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-er

Requesting examples of "(Chinese fiction) Junior, child, younger person. (Attached to a name, usually a portion of the given name.)" - -sche (discuss) 19:42, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

Cited, it's a thing (though someone might want to cross-reference these with the original Chinese). There are tons of recent self-published translations where this appears on Google Books but durably archived sources are pretty difficult to search for, hence the Women of China quotation of obscure provenance. I'm not sure the comparison to -chan etc. is precise, since if someone is referred to as "Ying'er" just calling them "Ying" seems a lot stranger than calling a "Mari-chan" "Mari". The "er" is generally displacing part of their name and not just suffixed. —Al-Muqanna المقنع (talk) 01:08, 16 September 2023 (UTC)

We should probably indicate that the apostrophe is part of the spelling. Could this be moved to 'er or -'er with this as an alternate spelling? —Soap— 07:38, 16 September 2023 (UTC)

The apostrophe marks a syllable boundary in pinyin, generally where it might seem ambiguous otherwise (so Ying'er just helps distinguish Ying-er from *Yin-ger). IME this can also be written "-er" (with a hyphen), "er" (as a separate word), or simply at the end without the apostrophe, but the last one especially is hard to search for. In practice, for English, it might be better to treat those as separate alternative forms with the canonical lemma at -'er, as you say, though I'm not 100% sure. —Al-Muqanna المقنع (talk) 11:56, 16 September 2023 (UTC)

Great job finding cites. For now I have taken the path of less resistance and left the entry where it is with a pointer added at -'er, but feel free to swap these around. - -sche (discuss) 07:57, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

RFV-passed, great work here! This, that and the other (talk) 00:49, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

Usage note: motlier

How best to account for the comparative motlier and superlative motliest from motley? JMGN (talk) 11:30, 12 August 2024 (UTC)