wees

wees

1. plural of wee

wees

1. third-person singular simple present indicative of wee

• ewes, swee

• wies (Cape Afrikaans)

From Dutch wezen, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną. See Dutch zijn.

• IPA^(key): /viəs/

• Audio:

  (file)

wees (present is, present participle synde, past was, past participle gewees)

1. (copulative) To be.

   Ek was gister dronk (gewees).

   I was drunk yesterday.

   Hy kon al 'n dokter gewees het.

   He could have been a doctor by now.

2. (auxiliary) Used to form the perfect tense in certain cases; compare hê.
   1. Forms the perfect of the passive voice.

      Ek word geslaan. → Ek is geslaan.

      I am (being) beaten. → I was / have been beaten.

   2. Forms the perfect of gaan (“go”) + locative when the verb is elided.

      Hy gaan huis toe. → Hy is huis toe. (Without elision: Hy het huis toe gegaan.)

      He goes / is going home. → He went / has gone home.

   3. Optionally forms the perfect tense of the verbs wees (“be”), verloof raak (“get engaged”), trou (“marry”), skei (“get divorced”), oorly (“die”).^[1]

      My ouers sal hierdie jaar skei. → My ouers is hierdie jaar geskei. (Alternatively: ... het hierdie jaar geskei.)

      My parents will get divorced this year. → My parents got divorced this year.

      My ouma sal vannag oorly. → My ouma is vannag oorlede. (Alternatively: ... het vannag oorly.)

      My grandma will die tonight. → My grandma died tonight.

   4. (obsolete) Formerly formed the perfect tense of certain other intransitive verbs, e.g. kom (“come”).

• The perfect tense of wees has the form is gewees in main clauses, but gewees het in subclauses and in the infinitive (i.e. whenever the auxiliary follows the participle). In practice, only the infinitive use is common: Ek sou baie kwaad gewees het as jy dit gedoen het. (“I would have been very angry if you had done this.”). Otherwise the normal way to express the past is by means of the preterite was. In main clauses, the form was gewees is also common, especially in speech. (The latter is formally a pluperfect, but is generally used without any semantic distinction.)

• sewe

• IPA^(key): /ʋeːs/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eːs

From Middle Dutch wêse, from Old Dutch wēso, from Proto-West Germanic *waiso, of uncertain origin, with no solid cognates outside of Germanic; possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂ (“widow”).^[1]

Cognate with German Waise, Middle Low German wêse, probably Old English *wāsa (in wuduwāsa).

wees m or f (plural wezen, diminutive weesje n)

1. an orphan, person or animal having survived both parents
2. an orphaned one, left out of a sequence

• Afrikaans: wees

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

wees

1. imperative of zijn
2. imperative of wezen

• weesgegroet

wees

1. singular past indicative of wijzen

• Taaladvies.net on ‘wees’ or ‘ben’

• weese (Mooring)
• wiis (Sylt)

From Old Frisian wesa, from Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną.

wees

1. (Föhr-Amrum, Heligoland) to be

• The present conjugation of wees is highly irregular. Compare further kem, skel, wed, wel.

wees m pl or f pl

1. plural of we