Meaning & use
inflectional ending
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountabletechnical
A small ending added to a word, such as -s or -ed, to show a grammatical feature like plural or past tense.
Grammar: Usually countable: English has only a few inflectional endings.
Patterns
- add an inflectional ending to something
- an inflectional ending such as -ed
Adding the inflectional ending -ed to walk produces the past tense walked.
Young children sometimes overuse the inflectional ending -s and say foots.
English has few inflectional endings compared with Latin.
nouncountablespecialist
Any changing end part of a word in a highly inflected language that shows case, gender, number, or person.
Grammar: Common in discussion of languages like Latin, German, or Russian.
Patterns
- the inflectional ending of a noun
- case endings
In Latin the inflectional ending of a noun shows its case.
German adjectives take different inflectional endings depending on gender.
Students memorize the inflectional endings for each verb tense.
Word forms
| plural | inflectional endings |
|---|
Common combinations
- add an inflectional ending
- To make the plural, add an inflectional ending.
- regular inflectional endings
- Regular inflectional endings follow a predictable pattern.
- drop the inflectional ending
- Pidgin languages often drop the inflectional ending.
- verb inflectional endings
- Verb inflectional endings mark tense and person.
- inflectional ending -ing
- The inflectional ending -ing forms the present participle.
Synonyms and how they differ
- inflection
- Inflection can mean the whole process of changing a word, while inflectional ending names only the added end part.
- suffix
- Suffix is the wider term and includes derivational endings like -ness, whereas inflectional endings only change grammar.
- ending
- Ending is the plain word, with no technical claim about what the ending does.
Opposites
Word family
- inflect verb
- to change the form of a word to show grammar
- inflection noun
- a change in word form, or a rise and fall in the voice
- inflectional adjective
- relating to word changes that mark grammar
- inflected adjective
- having changed forms for grammar
Commonly confused: inflectional ending or derivational suffix? inflectional ending or inflection (voice)?
inflectional ending vs derivational suffix
A derivational suffix such as -ness builds a new word, whereas an inflectional ending only changes the form of the same word.
inflectional ending vs inflection (voice)
Inflection can also mean a change in pitch of the voice, which is unrelated to word endings.
Practice
Which of these is an inflectional ending?
Choose one answer.
The -ed in jumped marks past tense of the same verb. The others create new words or word classes, so they are derivational.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “inflectional ending”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.