English

Suffix

-ers

1. (informal) Used to form adjectives used informally

Derived terms

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch -ers, a chiefly dialectal plural morpheme equivalent to standard Dutch -eren (whence Afrikaans -ere).

Suffix

-ers

1. forms the plural of three nouns, all of which denote young creatures

   kind ‎(“child”) — kinders (“children”)

   kalf ‎(“calf”) — kalwers (“calves”)

   lam ‎(“lamb”) — lammers (“lambs”)

Usage notes

• The colloquial plurale tantum goeters ‎(“things, stuff”) is only etymologically an inflection of goed ‎(“a good”), whose true plural is goedere.
• Two other Afrikaans nouns are backformations from plurals originally using the suffix -ers: eier (“egg”, from Dutch ei) and hoender (“chicken”, from Dutch hoen).