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Complete Definition of "an"

see|Appendix:Variations of "an"
wikipedia
English

Pronunciation
qualifier|stressed

  • IPA|/æn/, SAMPA|/{n/
  • audio|en-us-an.ogg|Audio (US)

*:rhymes|æn
qualifier|unstressed

  • IPA|/Én/, SAMPA|/@n/
  • audio|en-us-an-unstressed.ogg|Audio (US), unstressed in the phrase "an egg"

Etymology 1
OE. term|an|Än|lang=ang.

Article
infl|en|article

  1. Indefinite article; used when the noun may refer to one of several possibilities. An egg could be any of several eggs, while the egg refers to a specific egg (already mentioned or known).

Usage notes
sense|indefinite article|preposition The word term|an is used before vowel sounds, and term|a before consonant sounds:

There is one occasional exception. The form an is sometimes used before h even when the h is pronounced. The usual example is an historic occasion. Though current in some dialects that pronounce the h, this is considered by many to be affected, pedantic or obsolete. One good test as to whether a speaker's dialect truly supports an before pronounced h as opposed to just being the typical an historic occasion affectation is whether such person would say I'm going to go on an hike right now. There would appear to be no linguistic or phonological reason to distinguish historical and hike in this manner.

See also the w:article (grammar)|Wikipedia article about articles.

Translations
trans-top|indefinite article
Afrikaans: 'n
Arabic: not used
Aragonese: un m, una f
Breton: un (before the letters n, d, t and h); ul (before the letter l); ur (before other letters)
Catalan: un m, una f
Chinese: ä¸ (yÄ«), ä¸ä¸ª (yÄ«ge)
Cornish: not used
Czech: not used
Danish: t+|da|en|c, t-|da|et|n
Dutch: t+|nl|een
Esperanto: not translated
Fijian: e dua na
Finnish: not used
French: t+|fr|un|m, t+|fr|une|f
Frisian: in#Frisian|in
Galician: um#Galician|um m, umha f
Georgian: not used
German: t+|de|ein|m, t+|de|eine|f, t+|de|ein|n
Greek, Modern: Î­Î½Î±Ï m nominative (follow the link for table of inflections)
Hebrew: not used
Hindi: t+|hi|à¤à¤|scDeva|xsHindi
Huave: nop
Hungarian: t+|hu|egy
trans-mid
Interlingua: un
Irish: not used
Italian: un#Italian|un m, uno#Italian|uno m, una#Italian|una f, un' f before a vowel
Japanese: not used
Korean: not used
Kurdish: t+|ku|yek, t-|ku|-ek, t+|ku|-yek
Latin: not used
Lithuanian: not used
Manx: not used
Norwegian: t+|no|en|m, t+|no|ei|f, t+|no|et|n
Novial: usually not used, otherwise un
Polish: not used
Portuguese: t+|pt|um|m, t+|pt|uma|f
Romanian: t-|ro|un|m, t-|ro|o|f
Russian: not used
Scottish Gaelic: not used
Slovak: not used
Spanish: t+|es|un|m, t-|es|una|f
Swedish: t+|sv|en|c, t+|sv|ett|n
Telugu: à°à°
Thai: THchar|หà¸à¸¶à¹à¸ (nèùng)
Turkish: bir
Tz'utujil: jun
Vietnamese: cái (for inanimate objects), con (for animals, people, etc.), cuá»n (for books, etc.), ngưá»i (for people), quả (for fruit')
Võro:
not used
Yiddish: t-|yi|×Ö·|scHebr|xsYiddish, t-|yi|×Ö·×|scHebr|xsYiddish
trans-bottom

Etymology 2
ME.
#Middle English|an''

Conjunction
en-conj

  1. archaic If, so long as.

#: An it please you, my lord.

Translations
trans-top|if; so long as
Esperanto: t-|eo|se|xs=Esperanto
Fijian: e dua na
German: t+|de|so
trans-mid
Novial: si
trans-bottom

Etymology 3
From Georgian.

Noun
en-noun|-

  1. The first letter of the Georgian alphabet.

Etymology 4
From the OE. preposition an#Old English|an/on#Old English|on.

Preposition
en-prep

  1. In each; to or for each; per.

#:I was only going twenty miles an hour.

Usage notes
This is the same as the word a in such contexts, modified because of preceding an unpronounced h. The train was speeding along at a mile a minute.

Synonyms
per

Translations
trans-top|in each; to or for each; per
Danish: pr., om
German: t+|de|pro, t+|de|den|m, t+|de|das|n, t+|de|die|f
trans-mid
Novial: po
trans-bottom

rank|one|so|me|41|an|we|who|said

References
R:1913

Category:English two-letter words
Category:English words with multiple etymologies
Category:Georgian derivations


Crimean Tatar

Noun
infl|crh|noun

  1. time, moment

Declension
crh-latin-noun|niñ|ga|nı|da|dan

References
R:Useinov-Mireev 2002


French

Pronunciation
IPA|[ÉÌ]

Noun
fr-noun|m

  1. A year.

Synonyms
année

Category:fr:Time


German

Etymology
OHG.|de ana.

Preposition
infl|de|preposition (+ accusative/dative)

  1. on
  2. by
  3. at

#: Ich hänge das Bild an die Wand : I hang the picture on the wall.
#: Das Bild hängt an der Wand : The picture hangs on the wall.
#: Schauen Sie an die Tafel : Look at the blackboard.

Usage notes
The preposition "an" is used with accusative case if the verb shows movement from one place to another, whereas it is used with dative case if the verb shows location.

Category:2000 German basic words


Irish

Pronunciation
IPA|[Én]; between consonants IPA|[É]

Article
infl|ga|article

  1. Form of the definite article.

Usage notes
Used in the following situations:
:nominative singular masculine (attaches t- to a vowel, e.g. an t-uisce 'the water')
:nominative singular feminine (triggers lenition, e.g. an bean#Irish|bhean 'the woman')
:genitive singular masculine (triggers lenition, e.g. an páiste|pháiste 'of the child')
:dative singular masculine and feminine (triggers eclipsis, e.g. ag an cailín|gcailín 'at the girl')

Particle
infl|ga|particle|interrogative|

  1. Used to form direct and indirect questions; triggers eclipsis; takes the dependent form (when available) of irregular verbs.

#:An bhfuil tú ag éisteacht? — Are you listening?
#:Níl a fhios agam an bhfuil sé anseo — I don't know if/whether he is here


Japanese
ja-attention|Romaji header should be replaced with POS header|key=p

Romaji
romaji|ãã

  1. ja-def|æ¡ plan, scheme
  2. ja-def|餡 bean paste

Latin

Conjunction
infl|la|conjunction|interrogative|

  1. Can it be that.

Mandarin

Pinyin syllable
an

  1. A transliteration of any of a number of Chinese characters properly represented as having one of four tones, Än, án, Çn, or àn.

Usage notes
English transcriptions of Chinese speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Chinese language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

Category:Mandarin pinyin


Old English

Etymology
Common Ger.|ang *term||ainaz, from IE.|ang *term||oinos. Germanic cognates include Old Frisian term||Än, Old Saxon term|en|Än (Dutch term|een), Old High German term|ein (German term|ein), Old Norse term|einn (Swedish term|en), Gothic term|ð°ð¹ð½ð. The IE root is also the source of Latin term|unus, Greek term|scGrek|οινοÏ|troinos, Old Irish term|oen.

Pronunciation
IPA|/ÉËn/

Numeral
infl|ang|numeral|head=Än

  1. cardinal|lang=ang one

Usage notes
As in modern English, usage doubles as both a numeral and a pronoun.

Article
infl|ang|article|head=Än

  1. a, an (indefinite article)

Adjective
infl|ang|adjective|head=Än

  1. lone
  2. sole

Derived terms
angenga|ÄnÄ¡enga


Romanian

Etymology
From L.|ro term|annus||year.

Pronunciation
IPA|[an]|lang=ro

Noun
ro-noun|gendm|plani

  1. year

Declension
ro-noun-m

Derived terms
l|ro|anual

Category:ro:Time


Scottish Gaelic

Pronunciation
IPA|/Én/

Article
infl|gd|article

  1. the

#: e.g. an taigh - the house


Torres Strait Creole

Etymology
From E.|tcs term|hand|lang=en.

Noun
infl|tcs|noun

  1. hand, lower arm
  2. flipper

Category:tcs:Anatomy


Turkish

Noun
infl|tr|noun

  1. moment

af:an
ast:an
de:an
et:an
el:an
es:an
fr:an
ga:an
gl:an
ko:an
io:an
it:an
sw:an
ku:an
la:an
hu:an
nl:an
ja:an
pl:an
pt:an
ru:an
sq:an
simple:an
fi:an
sv:an
ta:an
te:an
vi:an
tr:an
vo:an
zh:an

Revision and Credits for"an"
  • 2007-12-22 01:42 - Circeus - Change deprecated template, Replaced: {{fr-noun-reg|m}} → {{fr-noun|m}} [[Project:AutoWikiBrowser|AWB]]

  • Full Revision History
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