"end" in seven languages
Meaningend
Spanish
/fin/
masc.inherited
Masculine (el fin de semana); the final of a competition is la final.
French
/fɛ̃/
fem.inherited
Italian
/ˈfine/
fem.inherited
La fine is the end; il fine, masculine, is the aim or purpose.
Portuguese
/fĩ/
masc.inherited
Masculine, as in Spanish; the nasal vowel is all that is left of the n.
Romanian
/sfɨrˈʃit/
neut.other source · participle of sfârși 'to finish', from Old Church Slavonic sŭvŭršiti
Catalan
/fi/
fem.inherited
La fi; the n returns in the plural fins and in final.
English
/ɛnd/
native English · Old English ende
The Latin ancestor
FĪNEM‘boundary, limit, end’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
FĪNIS was a boundary line before it was an end, and Latin used it as both masculine and feminine; the sisters still disagree. French makes the n a nasal vowel, Catalan drops it (fi, plural fins).
English relatives: final, finish, finite, define
Sound laws at work
Learn it
In a sentence
- esNo es el fin del mundo.
- frCe n'est pas la fin du monde.
- itNon è la fine del mondo.
- ptNão é o fim do mundo.
- roNu e sfârșitul lumii.
- caNo és la fi del món.
- enIt's not the end of the world.