although there are other suffixes such as -ify which compete with it. However, verbs with this suffix are now primarily ergatives, and also have a causative sense ("to cause to become") when used transitively. Some examples: dark > darken white > whiten hard > harden thick > thicken Swedish also retains use of the suffix, which is still somewhat productive. Some examples: blek "pale" > blekna "to go pale" tyst "quiet" > tystna "to fall silent" fast "firm, fastened" > fastna "to get stuck" hård "hard" > hårdna "to be hardened" kall "cold" > kallna "to become cold" rutten "rotten" > ruttna "to rot" Similarly, in the Danish language with, e.g., blegne (to go pale) and gråne (become grey). See also Inchoative aspect Translative case References Verb types