List of symbols

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This page lists the symbols in Apertium used to denote part-of-speech and further morphological features, as well as chunk tags used for more syntactic functions, as well as XML tags.

This page also documents alignment between Apertium morphological tags and Universal Dependencies POS tags and features.

This is meant to be a glossary of symbol names in alphabetical order with notes. Some of these names are specific to particular packages or language pairs, as not all languages have the same grammatical features (most don't have spatial distinction in articles for example).

If you were wondering what the symbols #, /, @, +, ~ or * mean, read Apertium stream format.

Part-of-speech Categories

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal POS
n	Noun	see 'np' for proper noun	NOUN
vblex	Standard ("lexical") verb	see also: vbser, vbhaver, vbmod, vaux, vbdo	VERB
v	Standard verb	shortened form of vblex, often used in agglutinative languages	VERB
vbmod	Modal verb		VERB
vbser	Verb "to be"	from ser (to be)	VERB or AUX
vbhaver	Verb "to have"	from haver (to have)	VERB or AUX
vbdo	Verb "to do"	"to do" includes all eleven tenses and forms of to do, can also be an auxiliary verb	VERB or AUX
vaux	Auxiliary verb	wikipedia	AUX
cop	Copula	wikipedia; sometimes verb-like, sometimes not	AUX
adj	Adjective		ADJ
adv	Adverb		ADV
preadv	Pre-adverb		ADV
postadv	Post-adverb		ADV
mod	Modal word	[1]	PART
det	Determiner	wikipedia	DET
prn	Pronoun	wikipedia	PRON
pr	Preposition	wikipedia	ADP
post	Postposition		ADP
num	Numeral		NUM
np	Proper noun	From nom propi wikipedia	PROPN
ij	Interjection	wikipedia	INTJ
cnjcoo	Co-ordinating conjunction	wikipedia	CCONJ
cnjsub	Sub-ordinating conjunction		SCONJ
cnjadv	Conjunctive adverb	wikipedia	SCONJ, ADV
atp	Attachable prefix	In German, zusammen-
ideo	Ideophone
clt	Clitic

Punctuation

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal POS
sent	Sentence-ending punctuation	e.g. full stop, question mark	PUNCT
cm	Comma punctuation	,	PUNCT PunctType=Comm
lquot	Left quote	«	PUNCT PunctType=Quot PunctSide=Ini
rquot	Right quote	»	PUNCT PunctType=Quot PunctSide=Fin
lpar	Left parenthesis	(	PUNCT PunctType=Brck PunctSide=Ini
rpar	Right parenthesis	)	PUNCT PunctType=Brck PunctSide=Fin
guio	Hyphen	- used to connect two words into one e.g. year-long	PUNCT PunctType=Dash
apos	Apostrophe	' or '	PUNCT
quot	Quotation	"	PUNCT PunctType=Quot
percent	Percentage	%	PUNCT
lquest	Left question/exclamation mark	¿¡ (used in Spanish)	PUNCT PunctSide=Ini
clb	Clause Boundary	Refers to any of the following symbols: .?;:!·…	PUNCT
punct	Punctuation		PUNCT

Part-of-speech Sub-categories

Gender

These tags are usually used with nouns. When they occur with things that agree/concord with nouns (like adjectives and verbs), they in fact constitute inflectional/grammatical tags.

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal features
f	Feminine		Gender=Fem
m	Masculine		Gender=Masc
nt	Neuter		Gender=Neut
ma	Masculine (animate)	Mostly in Slavic languages	Gender=Masc
mi	Masculine (inanimate)	Mostly in Slavic languages	Gender=Masc
mp	Masculine (personal)	in Polish	Gender=Masc
mn	Masculine or neuter		Gender=Masc,Neut
fn	Feminine or neuter		Gender=Fem,Neut
mf	Masculine or feminine	Used when masculine and feminine have the same form	Gender=Masc,Fem
mfn	Masculine , feminine , neuter	Used when masculine, feminine, and neuter have the same form	Gender=Masc,Fem,Neut
ut	Common	From utrum, found in Scandinavian languages.	Gender=Com
un	Common or neuter	As above, only common or neuter	Gender=Com,Neut
GD	Gender to be determined

Count/Mass

These tags are usually used with nouns, and things that agree/concord with nouns (like adjectives and verbs).

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal feature
cnt	Countable
unc	Uncountable (mass)

Animacy

These tags are usually used with nouns, and things that agree/concord with nouns (like adjectives and verbs).

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal feature
aa	Animate		Animacy=Anim
an	Animate or inanimate		Animacy=Anim,Inan
nn	Inanimate		Animacy=Inan
hu	Human		Animacy=Hum

Adjectives

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal feature
sint	Synthetic	"nice, nicer, nicest" is synthetic. "handsome, more handsome, the most handsome" is not. wikipedia
preadj	Pre-adjective	for languages where most of adjectives are after the noun (ex: French in eo->fr bidix)
preadj_nh	Pre-adjective if not human	according to the noun, the adjective is before or after

Noun Class

Symbol	Gloss	Notes
cl1	Noun class 1
cl2	Noun class 2
cl3	Noun class 3
cl4	Noun class 4
cl5	Noun class 5
cl6	Noun class 6
cl7	Noun class 7
cl8	Noun class 8
cl9	Noun class 9
cl10	Noun class 10
cl11	Noun class 11
cl12	Noun class 12

Pronoun types

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal feature
pers	Personal		PronType=Prs
tn	Tónico
log	Logophoric
detnt	Neuter determiner	POS?	DET
predet	Pre determiner	POS?	DET
atn	Atónico
qnt	Quantifier		PronType=Ind
ord	Ordinal		NumType=Ord
obj	Object		Case=Acc
subj	Subject		Case=Nom
pro	Proclitic
enc	Enclitic
acr	Acronym	Not Pronuon?	Abbr=Yes
rel	Relative		PronType=Rel
ind	Indefinite		PronType=Ind
itg	Interrogative		PronType=Int
dem	Demonstrative		PronType=Dem
def	Definite		Definite=Def
pos	Possessive		Poss=Yes
ref	Reflexive		Reflex=Yes
prx	Proximate
med	Medial
dst	Distal
expl	Syntactic expletive	wikipedia
rec	Reciprocal Pronoun
res	Reciprocal Pronoun

Transitivity

Used for verbs.

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal feature
tv	Transitive	takes direct object in accusative case (used in Turkic)	Subcat=Tran
iv	Intransitive	does not take direct object in accusative case (used in Turkic)	Subcat=Intr
TD	Transitivity to be determined	if the sub-category is (currently) unknown

Separable verbs

Symbol	Gloss	Notes
sep	Separable verb	wikipedia, lingolia, PDF
fs	Separable verb in subordinate clause
fm	Separable verb in main clause

Proper nouns

Symbol	Gloss	Notes
ant	Anthroponym	wikipedia, it's very common to use ant together with f and m for traditionally gender-specific names
top	Toponym	In some language pairs without the locative case this may be loc. Although this should be changed. wikipedia
hyd	Hydronym	wikipedia
cog	Cognomen	In normal use, surnames
org	Organisation
al	Altres	Other, misc.
pat	Patronymic	A name derived from the name of a father or ancestor, e.g. Johnson, O'Brien, Ivanovich.

Inflectional morphology

Number

Note: number can be a sub-category tag too, e.g. with pronouns.

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal feature
sg	Singular		Number=Sing
pl	Plural		Number=Plur
sp	Singular or plural		Number=Sing,Plur
du	Dual		Number=Dual
ct	Count	see mk-bg	Number=Count
coll	Collective		Number=Coll
ND	Number to be determined

Case

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal feature
nom	Nominative		Case=Nom
acc	Accusative		Case=Acc
dat	Dative		Case=Dat
gen	Genitive		Case=Gen
dg	Dative and Genitive	in ro-es, discouraged in new developments	Case=Dat,Gen
voc	Vocative		Case=Voc
abl	Ablative	wikipedia	Case=Abl
ins	Instrumental or Instructive	wikipedia	Case=Ins
loc	Locative	wikipedia	Case=Loc
prp	Prepositional	wikipedia
tra	Translative		Case=Tra
ill	Illative		Case=Ill
ine	Inessive		Case=Ine
ade	Adessive		Case=Ade
all	Allative		Case=All
abe	Abessive		Case=Abe
ess	Essive		Case=Ess
par	Partitive		Case=Par
dis	Distributive		Case=Dis
com	Comitative		Case=Com
soc	Sociative
prl	Prolative		Case=Pro
ses	Superessive	Hungarian	Case=Sup
sub	Sublative	Hungarian	Case=Sub
dela	Delative	Hungarian	Case=Del
term	Terminative	Hungarian, Estonian, ...	Case=Ter
temp	Temporal	[2]	Case=Tem
obl	Oblique	[3]	Case=Obl
erg	Ergative	[4]	Case=Erg
CD	Case to be determined

Voice

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal feature
actv	Active voice		Voice=Act
pass	Passive voice	is more used in Turkic.	Voice=Pass
pasv	Passive voice	is more used in Germanic.	Voice=Pass
midv	Middle voice		Voice=Mid
nactv	Non-active voice	See Albanian.
caus	Causative voice	see also #Derivations	Voice=Cau

Tense and mode

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal features
aff	Affirmative	wikipedia	Polarity=Pos
aor	Aorist	wikipedia A tense in Turkic languages.
cni	Conditional	Lot of pairs will probably use cnd or cond...	Mood=Cnd
deb	Debitive mode	Exclusive to Latvian (wikipedia)
fti	Future indicative		Tense=Fut Mood=Ind
fts	Future subjunctive		Tense=Fut Mood=Sub
fut	Future		Tense=Fut
ifi	Past definite	from Pretério perfecto o indefinido	Tense=Past Definite=Def
imp	Imperative	englishlanguageguide	Mood=Imp
itg	Interrogative
ito	Infinitive with 'to'	German	VerbForm=Inf
lp	L-participle
neg	Negative		Polarity=Neg
nonpast	Non-past		Tense=Pres,Fut
past	Past		Tense=Past
pii	Imperfect	from Pretério imperfecto de indicativo wikipedia	Tense=Past Mood=Ind Aspect=Imp
pis	Imperfect subjunctive		Tense=Past Mood=Sub Aspect=Imp
plu	Pluperfect	In cy-en	Tense=Pqp
pmp	Pluperfect	In es-gl (from Pluscamperfecto)	Tense=Pqp
pp2	Past participle (???)	It's at least used in the Esperanto dictionaries for future active participles, ont (seems quite odd)	VerbForm=Part Tense=Past
pp3	Past participle (???)	It's at least used in the Esperanto dictionaries for past active participles, int (seems quite odd)	VerbForm=Part Tense=Past
pp	Past participle	wikipedia	VerbForm=Part Tense=Past
pprs	Present participle	Also appears as ppres (deprecated)	VerbForm=Part Tense=Pres
ppres	Present participle	see also: pprs. wikipedia	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part
pres	Present		Tense=Pres
pret	Preterite	Preterite	Tense=Past
pri	Present indicative	see also: pres. wikipedia	Tense=Pres Mood=Ind
prs	Present subjunctive	wikipedia	Tense=Pres Mood=Sub
supn	Supine	wikipedia	VerbForm=Sup

Non-finite verb forms

These tags are used for non-finite verb forms, which are often elsewhere called "infinitives" or "participles". See https://doi.org/10.3765/ptu.v4i1.4587 for discussion.

Noun-like

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal features
ger	Gerund		VerbForm=Vnoun
ger_aor	Aorist gerund		VerbForm=Vnoun
ger_fut	Future gerund		VerbForm=Vnoun Tense=Fut
ger_hab	Habitual gerund		VerbForm=Vnoun Aspect=Hab
ger_impf	Imperfect gerund		VerbForm=Vnoun Aspect=Imp
ger_past	Past gerund		VerbForm=Vnoun Tense=Past
ger_perf	Perfect gerund		VerbForm=Vnoun Aspect=Perf
ger_pres	Present gerund		VerbForm=Vnoun Tense=Pres

Adjective-like

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal features
gpr	Verbal adjective		VerbForm=Part
gpr_aor	Aorist verbal adjective		VerbForm=Part
gpr_fut	Future verbal adjective		VerbForm=Part Tense=Fut
gpr_hab	Habitual verbal adjective		VerbForm=Part Aspect=Hab
gpr_impf	Imperfect verbal adjective		VerbForm=Part Aspect=Imp
gpr_past	Past verbal adjective		VerbForm=Part Tense=Past
gpr_perf	Perfect verbal adjective		VerbForm=Part Aspect=Perf
gpr_pres	Present verbal adjective		VerbForm=Part Tense=Pres

Adverb-like

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal features
gna	Verbal adverb		VerbForm=Conv
gna_aor	Aorist verbal adverb		VerbForm=Conv
gna_fut	Future verbal adverb		VerbForm=Conv Tense=Fut
gna_hab	Habitual verbal adverb		VerbForm=Conv Aspect=Hab
gna_impf	Imperfect verbal adverb		VerbForm=Conv Aspect=Imp
gna_past	Past verbal adverb		VerbForm=Conv Tense=Past
gna_perf	Perfect verbal adverb		VerbForm=Conv Aspect=Perf
gna_pres	Present verbal adverb		VerbForm=Conv Tense=Pres

Infinitives

Generally these must occur with auxiliaries.

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal features
inf	Infinitive		VerbForm=Inf
infps	Personal infinitive	Used in Portuguese, likely should be merged	VerbForm=Inf
prc_aor	Aorist participle		VerbForm=Inf
prc_fut	Future participle		VerbForm=Inf Tense=Fut
prc_hab	Habitual participle		VerbForm=Inf Aspect=Hab
prc_impf	Imperfect participle		VerbForm=Inf Aspect=Imp
prc_past	Past participle		VerbForm=Inf Tense=Past
prc_perf	Perfect participle		VerbForm=Inf Aspect=Perf
prc_pres	Present participle		VerbForm=Inf Tense=Pres

Aspect

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal feature
hab	Habitual		Aspect=Hab
imperf	Imperfective	Should be merged with impf	Aspect=Imp
impf	Imperfective		Aspect=Imp
perf	Perfective		Aspect=Perf

Person

Note: person can be a sub-category tag, e.g. with pronouns.

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal feature
p1	First person		Person=1
p2	Second person		Person=2
p3	Third person		Person=3
impers	Impersonal	Sometimes called 'autonomous'	Person=0
past3p	Past third person	In rus and bel-rus, should be 2 tags	Person=3 Tense=Past

Derivations

Symbol	Gloss	Notes
caus	Causative
ingr	Ingressive	https://nn.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ingressiv
subs	Verbal Noun or Verbal Substantive	Shorten form of substantive. Noun formed from a verb
agnt	Agent noun	Agent Noun

Possession

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal feature
px1sg	First person singular possessive	e.g. in Turkic languages	Person[psor]=1 Number[psor]=Sing
px2sg	Second person singular possessive	e.g. in Turkic languages	Person[psor]=2 Number[psor]=Sing
px3sg	Third person singular possessive	e.g. in Turkic languages	Person[psor]=3 Number[psor]=Sing
px1pl	First person plural possessive	e.g. in Turkic languages	Person[psor]=1 Number[psor]=Plur
px2pl	Second person plural possessive	e.g. in Turkic languages	Person[psor]=2 Number[psor]=Plur
px3pl	Third person plural possessive	e.g. in Turkic languages	Person[psor]=3 Number[psor]=Plur
px3sp	Third person possessive singular or plural	e.g. in Turkic languages	Person[psor]=3

Subject marking

e.g. in verbs with both, otherwise, see #Person and #Number.

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal features
s_sg1	First person singular object		Number[subj]=Sing Person[subj]=1
s_sg2	Second person singular object		Number[subj]=Sing Person[subj]=2
s_sg3	Third person singular object		Number[subj]=Sing Person[subj]=3
s_pl1	First person plural object		Number[subj]=Plur Person[subj]=1
s_pl2	Second person plural object		Number[subj]=Plur Person[subj]=2
s_pl3	Third person plural object		Number[subj]=Plur Person[subj]=3

Object marking

e.g. in verbs with both

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal features
o_sg1	First person singular object		Number[obj]=Sing Person[obj]=1
o_sg2	Second person singular object		Number[obj]=Sing Person[obj]=2
o_sg3	Third person singular object		Number[obj]=Sing Person[obj]=3
o_pl1	First person plural object		Number[obj]=Plur Person[obj]=1
o_pl2	Second person plural object		Number[obj]=Plur Person[obj]=2
o_pl3	Third person plural object		Number[obj]=Plur Person[obj]=3

Adjectives

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal features
pst	Positive		Degree=Pos
comp	Comparative	wikipedia	Degree=Comp
sup	Superlative	wikipedia	Degree=Sup
attr	Attributive	wikipedia
pred	Predicative	wikipedia

Formality

Symbols	Gloss	Notes
crd	Cordial
el	Elite
fam	Familiar
frm	Formal
infml	Informal
pol	Polite
low	Low courtesy
mid	Mid courtesy
hi	High courtesy

Specificity

Symbols	Gloss	Notes
spc	Specific	Definite=Spec
nspc	Non-sepecific

Others

Symbol	Gloss	Notes
abbr	Abbreviation (e.g. etc., Mr.)	Acronyms are also included (see acr)
date	Dates, years...
email	Electronic Mail	Shorten form of Electronic Mail
file	Filenames
mon	Money
percent	Percentage	e.g. 25%, 0.9%
time	Time
url	Web address
web	Links and Emails
year	Years
maj	Large script in which every letter is the same height
min	small script in which every letter is the same height

Compounds

Symbol	Gloss	Notes	Universal feature
cmp	Compound Noun

Chunk tags

Tag	Description
<SN>	Noun phrase / noun group (sintagma nominal)
<SA>	Adjective phrase / adjective group
<SV>	Verb phrase / verb group (sintagma verbal)

XML tags

Note: All XML tags are explained in depth in the PDF documentation, see also the dix.dtd and dix.rng files in the GitHub repository.

XML tag	Means	Appears in XML tags / notes / examples
<dictionary>	Mono- or bilingual dictionary	Toplevel tag for all dictionaries
<alphabet>	Set of characters in the language	In <dictionary>
<sdefs>	Symbol definitions	In <dictionary>
<sdef>	Symbol definition	In <sdefs>. Ex: <sdef n="noun"/>
<pardefs>	Paradigm definitions	In <dictionary>.
<pardef>	Paradigm definition	In <pardefs>.
<section>	A section of the dictionary	In <dictionary>. Ex: <section id="main" type="standard">
<e>	A dictionary entry (a word)	In <section> and in <pardef>.
<i>	Invariant (left and right side)	In <e>. Ex.: <i>beer</i>
<p>	A pair	In <e>.
<l>	Left side (surface form)	In <p>. Ex.: <l>beer</l>
<r>	Right side (lexical unit)	In <p>. Ex.: <r>beer<s n="noun"/><s n="singular"/></r>
<s>	A lexical symbol (noun, adj..)	In <r>, <l> and <i>. Ex.: <s n="noun"/>
<a>	Post-generator wake-up mark	In <r>, <l> and <i>. Ex.: <l><a/>a<s ... (for the a/an rule in English)
<b>	Blank space	In <r>, <l> and <i>. Ex.: <l>you're<b/>welcome<s ...
<g>	Group	For multiwords
<ig>	Identity group	Combination of <i> and <g>
<j>	Join	A + symbol in compounds
<prm>	Parameter	Only in Metadix
<sa>	Symbol Argument ???	Only in Metadix
<t>	Tag or Template	In Apertium-separable <t> is any tag, in crossdix it is template (matches a single tag)
<d>	Delimiter	In Apertium-separable marks end-of-word
<v>	Variable	Only in crossdix - like + in regexes

Transfer

<clip> tag

See the documentation (pdf), p.144 for more information.

XML attribute value	Means	Appears in attribute	Notes
whole	lemma and grammatical symbols	part
lem	lemma	part
lemh	(inflected) head word of multiword	part
lemq	following queue of multiword	part

Scraping this page

This page should be relatively scrapeable if requested with ?action=raw.

Section headers which precede tables all have = as the first character of the line and have a category name without spaces in a comment.

Lines that define tags begin with | <code>. Splitting a line on || gives either 3 or 4 columns. The 4th column can be split on spaces to give UD POS tags and feature values or the word or. These are mixed together but features have = and POS tags don't. A line might be followed by a comment containing either unknown or default, which indicate a placeholder tag or a tag which is commonly used when the correct value cannot be determined, respectively.

A Python scraper script can be found at https://github.com/mr-martian/apertium-recursive-learning/blob/master/tags.py

See also

• Guidelines for tag assignment (etc.) in Turkic
• Tagging guidelines for Portuguese
• Syntax tags
• Secondary tags
• Apertium stream format
• FreeMind Apertium PoS