Finale

See also: finale and finále

German

Alternative forms

• Final m (Switzerland; only in the sport sense)

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian finale in the 17th c., initially in the form Final. Pfeifer also considers a direct borrowing from Latin fīnālis on account of the Italian term potentially being attested later. The sports sense is a 20th c. semantic loan from English final.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fiˈnaːlə/

• Audio (Austria):

  (file)

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aːlə

Noun

Finale n (strong, genitive Finales or Finals, plural Finale or Finals)

1. (sports) final
2. finale

Usage notes

• The general declension is with a genitive des Finales and plural die Finale.
• The form Finals, both for the genitive and the plural, originally belongs to the Swiss German variant Final. It is now often used for the German/Austrian Finale as well, but only in the sport sense. Given the fact that either plural may sound awkward, Endspiele or less often Finalspiele may be preferred.

Declension

Declension of Finale [neuter, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	das	Finale	die	Finale, Finals
genitive	eines	des	Finales, Finals	der	Finale, Finals
dative	einem	dem	Finale	den	Finalen, Finals
accusative	ein	das	Finale	die	Finale, Finals

Synonyms

• (sports): Endspiel (match between two sides); Endkampf (competition with more than two sides)

Derived terms

• Achtelfinale
• Finalist
• Halbfinale
• Pokalfinale
• Semifinale
• Viertelfinale

Related terms

• final

Further reading

• “Finale” in Duden online
• “Finale”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[1] (in German)