FromMiddle French-ois, from conflation ofLatin-ēbās and-iēbas — second, third, and fourth conjugation variants of-bās, later generalized to all verbs.
-ais (non-lemma form of verb-forming suffix)
- forms thefirst-person andsecond-person singularimperfectindicative form of a verb
Je regardais la télé pendant que tu parlais au téléphone.- I was watching the telly while you were talking on the phone.
Inherited fromOld French-eis (feminine form-esche). In some senses fromLate Latin,Vulgar Latin-iscus (fromFrankish*-isk, fromProto-Germanic*-iskaz(“-ish”), conflated withAncient Greek-ισκος(-iskos), all ultimately fromProto-Indo-European*-iskos), in others fromLatin-ēnsis. Akin to-ois.
-ais (adjective-forming suffix,feminine-aise,masculine plural-ais,feminine plural-aises)
- forms adjectives that denote where something or someone is from
- France(“France”) + -ais → français(“French”)
- Angle(terre)(“England”) + -ais → anglais(“English”)
- Marseille(“Marseille”) + -ais → marseillais(“from Marseille”)
-ais m (noun-forming suffix,invariable,feminine-aise)
- forms noun demonyms specifying a person, usually male, from a given location
- France(“France”) + -ais → Français(“Frenchman, (male) person from France”)
- Angle(terre)(“England”) + -ais → Anglais(“Englishman, (male) person from England”)
- Portug(al)(“Portugal”) + -ais → Portugais(“Portuguese male”)
- Marseille(“Marseille”) + -ais → Marseillais(“(male) person from Marseille”)
- forms nouns that specify the name of the language spoken in this place
- France(“France”) + -ais → français(“French”,language)
- Angle(terre)(“England”) + -ais → anglais(“English”,language)
-ais
- inflection of-as:
- vocative/genitivesingular
- nominative/dativeplural
- -aes(pre-reform spelling)
-ais m pl orf pl (non-lemma form of noun-forming suffix or adjective-forming suffix)
- plural of-al
Inherited fromOld Galician-Portuguese-ades, with the loss of the intervocalic -d-,[1] fromLatin-ātis. Cognate withGalician-ades andSpanish-áis.
-ais (non-lemma form of verb-forming suffix)
- a suffix indicating thesecond-personpluralpresentindicative of-ar
- amar(“to love”) + -ais → amais(“[you all/formal you] love”)
- cantar(“to sing”) + -ais → cantais(“[you all/formal you] sing”)
-ais (non-lemma form of verb-forming suffix)
- a suffix indicating thesecond-personpluralpresentsubjunctive of-er
- correr(“to run”) + -ais → corrais(“[that] you all run”)
- a suffix indicating thesecond-personpluralpresentsubjunctive of-ir
- emitir(“to emit”) + -ais → emitais(“[that] you all emit”)
-ais
- verb suffix for thefirst-personsingularpreterite
In the literary language,-ais causes i-affection of internal vowels, for example,canu(“to sing”) + -ais → cenais(“I sang”).
