Dongxiang

Suffix

-chen

1. progressive participle suffix

Usage notes

• As with the agentive particles in other Mongolic languages, forms built using this suffix can also be used to derive names of occupations.
• The primary usage is to form relative clauses which denote an ongoing event relative to the rest of the sentence.

See also

• -san ‎(“perfective suffix”)
• -ku ‎(“imperfective suffix”)

German

Alternative forms

• -ken (colloquial in northern Germany and Westphalia)
• -gen

Etymology

Native to the Central German dialects, -chen has widely replaced the southern-based -lein in standard usage. Cognate with German Low German -ken, -ke as well as Dutch -tje and -ken. More at -kin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /çən/, [çən], [çn̩]

Suffix

-chen n ‎(genitive -chens, plural -chen)

1. nowadays the most common German suffix to create a diminutive form

   Hund ‎(“dog”) + ‎-chen → ‎Hündchen ‎(“little dog”)

   Backe ‎(“cheek”) + ‎-chen → ‎Bäckchen ‎(“little cheek”)

Usage notes

• Words ending in the suffix -chen are always neuter, whatever gender the basic word.
• Generally, with few exceptions, diminutives with -chen have an umlauted stem vowel. Double vowels must be singled as the combinations ää and öö are not permitted in modern German orthography (e.g. Härchen from Haar, Bötchen from Boot).
• Words ending in -ch (and some others) use the double suffix -elchen, e.g. Strichelchen from Strich. However, the suffix -lein is quite common for these words in writing (Strichlein).
• Some words also have a (dated or colloquial) plural in -erchen, e.g. Häuschen, Hühnchen, Kindchen, Lämmchen, Liedchen, Männchen.

Derived terms

• Lämpchen, Säckchen

See also

• -lein
• -erl
• -i

Luxembourgish

Suffix

-chen

1. the most common suffix to create the diminutive form in Luxembourgish

   Kaz + ‎-chen → ‎Kätzchen

Derived terms