Wiktionary

falls

See also: Falls and fälls

English

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Angel Falls in Venezuela

Pronunciation

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Noun

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falls (plural falls)

  1. A waterfall.
    Niagara Falls
    • 1983 [1981], John Crowley, “The Art of Memory”, in Little, Big, Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 475:
      And climbed up through the woods, past the lake island where the white gazebo stood up to its knees in mist, up to where a falls fell melodiously into a deep dark pool.


Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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falls

  1. plural of fall

Verb

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falls

  1. third-person singular simple present indicative of fall

German

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Etymology

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Presumably from the genitive of Fall.

Pronunciation

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Conjunction

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falls

  1. (conditional, somewhat formal) if, in the event that
    Falls es anfängt zu regnen, müssen wir das Fenster zumachen.
    If it starts raining, we need to close the window.
    Falls es keinen Nebel gibt, genießen Sie die Sonne.
    If there is no fog, enjoy the sun.
  2. (chiefly colloquial) in case, in order to be; prepared if
    Lass uns das Fenster zumachen, falls es anfängt zu regnen.
    Let's close the window, in case it starts raining.

Usage notes

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  • Falls is synonymous to the more common wenn (“if”), but has the advantage of being unambiguously conditional, while wenn can also be used temporally (meaning "when, whenever").
  • Colloquially, falls is used somewhat differently than in standard German proper. It does occur in sense 1, but infrequently. In return, it is often heard in sense 2 where formal usage would require für den Fall, dass.

Synonyms

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Further reading

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  • “falls” in Duden online
  • “falls” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Icelandic

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Noun

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falls n

  1. indefinite genitive singular of fall

Luxembourgish

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Etymology

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From German falls (17th c.).

Pronunciation

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Conjunction

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falls

  1. if (in the case that)

Swedish

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Etymology

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Noun

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falls

  1. indefinite genitive singular of fall
  2. indefinite genitive plural of fall

See also

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