# -ens

-ens is a German suffix meaning “plural suffix for family names that end in a sibilant consonant”.

## In other languages

- Русский: суффикс наречий

## Suffix

1. plural suffix for family names that end in a sibilant consonant
   - Schmitz → (die) Schmitzens (“the Schmitzes, “the Schmitz family”)

## Suffix

1. _archaic_ genitive suffix for personal names that end in a sibilant consonant
   - Max → Maxens Vater (“Max’s father”)
2. _archaic_ genitive suffix for personal names that end in -ia
   - Claudia → Claudiens Tochter (“Claudia’s daughter”)

## Suffix

1. forms adverbs from superlatives and ordinal numbers
   - der erste (“the first”) → erstens (“firstly”)

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Sources: Meanings and forms from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR).
URL: https://wordwide.space/de-en/wort/-ens