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-ir
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: Appendix:Variations of "ir"
Languages (12)
Catalan • French • Fula • Fwe • Ido • Middle English • Occitan • Old French • Old Norse • Portuguese • Spanish • Welsh
Page categories
Page categories
Catalan
Etymology
Inherited from Latin -īre, the ending of the present active infinitive form of fourth conjugation verbs, which merged with -ēscere, -īscere, from which come the -eix- infix.
Pronunciation
Suffix
-ir
- forms infinitives
Usage notes
- Dir does not count as a third conjugation verb, belonging to the second conjugation.
Conjugation
Derived terms
Further reading
- “-ir”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
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French
Etymology
Inherited from Latin -īre, the ending of the present active infinitive form of fourth conjugation verbs. Cognate with Spanish -ir, Italian -ire, Romanian -i and -î, etc.
Pronunciation
Suffix
-ir
- (no longer productive) forms the infinitives of many verbs
Usage notes
- Most verbs with infinitives in -ir are marked by the once-inchoative infix -iss- in many parts of their conjugation, as well as in various derived words; two such verbs are choisir (“to choose”) and pourrir (“to rot”). A fair number of these have English counterparts in -ish; some such examples are finir (“to finish”), nourrir (“to feed, to nourish”), accomplir (“to accomplish”), and polir (“to polish”).
- Many verbs with infinitives in -ir have an inchoative meaning. Examples include blanchir (“to whiten, to bleach, to make whiter, to become pale”), durcir (“to harden, to make more rigid, to become stronger”), grandir (“to become bigger, to magnify, to make bigger”), rougir (“to redden, to blush, to become redder, to make redder”), and vieillir (“to age, to become older, to make older”).
- A sizable group of verbs have infinitives in -ir but do not use the infix -iss-, and are otherwise fairly regular; these include, among others, the common verbs sortir (“to go out, to take out”), partir (“to leave”), dormir (“to sleep”) (but these examples are also irregular, with sors instead of *sortis). An irregular -ir verb which is truly conjugated exactly as a regular -ir verb except only without the infix (although it is dated and has a regular alternative conjugation) is chauvir.
- This suffix is spelled -ïr on a few verbs where the previous syllable ends in a vowel, such as haïr (“to hate”) and ouïr (“to hear”). Additionally, it is spelled -ire on the verb maudire (“to curse”), by analogy with the related but irregular verb dire (“to say”), and the verb bruire.
- Not all verbs whose infinitives happen to end in these letters can truly be said to have this suffix; in particular, a fair number of irregular verbs have infinitives in the unrelated suffix -oir.
Conjugation
This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.
Conjugation of -ir (see also Appendix:French verbs)
See also
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Fula
Affix
-ir
- (Pulaar) indicates that the action is performed with an instrument or tool, (by means of)
- winndude (“to write”) + -ir → winndirde (“to write with...”)
- helde (“to break”) + -ir → helirde (“to break with.../to break by means of”)
- when a nominalizing class-marker suffix is affixed, it forms an instrumental deverbal (a noun indicating the means by which a verb is accomplished)
- wuppude (“to do laundry”) + -ir → wuppirgal (“a tool used to do laundry”)
Usage notes
References
- M. Niang, Pulaar-English English-Pulaar Standard Dictionary, New York: Hippocrene Books, 1997.
- Mamadou Saliou Diallo, La Suffixation Verbal en Pulaar (Peul): Morphologie et Phonologie des Suffixes Verbaux dans le Pulaar du Fouta-Djallon (Guinée), Thèse, Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines, Université Mohammed V, Rabat, Maroc, (1992)
Fwe
Alternative forms
Suffix
-ir
- An applicative (transitivizing) suffix.
- kùàmbà (“to speak”) + -ir → kùàmbìrà (“to tell someone”)
- kùnyènsà (“to defend”) + -ir → kùnyènsèrà (“to defend for”)
- kùtòmà (“to charge a dowery”) + -ir → kùtòmènà (“to charge a dowery to”)
Usage notes
- The alternative forms -er, -in, and -en are used based on vowel harmony and nasal harmony.
- The tone of the suffix is affected by the tones of the other vowels in the word.
- When following the causative suffix -is, this suffix may also appear as -iz or -ikiz; these forms are in free variation and carry no distinct meaning.
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Ido
Etymology
Suffix
-ir
- Used to denote the past infinitive of a verb.
- Me devas telefonir tu.
- I should have called you.
Related terms
Middle English
Suffix
-ir
- alternative form of -er (agentive suffix)
Occitan
Etymology
From Latin -īre, the ending of the present active infinitive form of fourth conjugation verbs, which merged with -ēscere, -īscere, from which come the -iss- and -isc- infix.
Pronunciation
Suffix
-ir
- A verb ending for infinitives.
Conjugation
Conjugation of -ir in 
Lengadocian (Central Occitan)
Lengadocian (Central Occitan)Remove ads
Old French
Etymology
From Latin -īre, the ending of the present active infinitive form of fourth conjugation verbs.
Suffix
-ir
- used to form infinitives of second conjugation verbs
See also
Old Norse
Etymology 1
From Proto-Norse -ᛃᚨᛉ (-jaʀ), from Proto-Germanic *-jaz.
Suffix
-ir m
- (rare) used to create agent nouns from class 1 weak verbs
Usage notes
- Agent nouns formed with this suffix are rare, and mostly found in old poetry. The oldest instance is Proto-Norse ᚱᚨᚢᚾᛁᛃᚨᛉ (raunijaʀ) on the Øvre Stabu spear head, from circa 210–240.
Etymology 2
Originally multiple distinct endings:
- In the u-stem nominative, from Proto-Germanic *-iwiz, from Proto-Indo-European *-ewes, from *-us (u-stem suffix) + *-es (nominative plural suffix).
- In the i-stem nominative, from Proto-Germanic *-īz, from Proto-Indo-European *-eyes, from *-is (i-stem suffix) + *-es (nominative plural suffix).
- In the i-stem accusative, by analogy with the ō-stems, which inflect similarly to the i-stems while having same ending in the nominative and accusative plural; this similarity is also why some ō-stems also take -ir in the nominative and accusative plural.
Suffix
-ir
- i-stem/masculine u-stem indefinite nominative plural suffix
- feminine i-stem indefinite accusative plural suffix
- alternative indefinite nominative/accusative plural suffix for some ō-stems
Usage notes
- This ending usually induces umlaut of the root in u-stems and masculine and neuter i-stems; in feminine i-stems, it has been levelled out on the model of the ō-stems.
Descendants
Portuguese
Etymology
From Old Galician-Portuguese -ir, from Latin -īre, the ending of the present active infinitive form of fourth conjugation verbs. In some verbs, it is a reflex of Latin -ere of the third conjugation.
Pronunciation
Suffix
-ir (verb-forming suffix, first-person singular present -o, first-person singular preterite -i, past participle -ido)
- (no longer productive) forms the infinitive of the third-conjugation verbs
Conjugation
Further reading
- “-ir”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025
- “-ir”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025
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Spanish
Etymology
From Latin -īre, the ending of the present active infinitive form of fourth conjugation verbs.
Suffix
-ir (verb-forming suffix, first-person singular present -o, first-person singular preterite -í, past participle -ido)
- a verb ending for infinitives
Conjugation
Below are the suffixes for the regular conjugation of -ir verbs
These forms are generated automatically and may not actually be used. Pronoun usage varies by region.
Related terms
See also
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Welsh
Pronunciation
Suffix
-ir
- (literary) verb suffix for the impersonal present indicative/future
Usage notes
-ir causes i-affection of internal vowels, for example, canu (“to sing”) + -ir → cenir (“is sung, one sings, will be sung, one will sing”).
Derived terms
Category Welsh terms suffixed with -ir not found
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