What is an inflectional affix?

What is an inflectional affix?

• A. Added to root words to indicate tense or number without changing the part of speech
• B. Changes the word's part of speech
• C. Creates a new word with a different meaning
• D. Indicates the word's origin

Answer: (A)

Inflectional affixes are endings (often suffixes) added to a base word to show grammatical information like tense or number, and they do not change the word’s part of speech. They modify the word’s form to fit different contexts while keeping the same category and meaning. For example, adding -ed to walk makes walked, signaling past tense but still a verb; adding -s to dog makes dogs, signaling plural but still a noun; adding -s to walks signals third-person singular present tense but the word remains a verb. This contrasts with derivational changes that create a new word or shift its part of speech, and with notes on origin, which relate to etymology rather than inflection.

Inflectional affixes are endings (often suffixes) added to a base word to show grammatical information like tense or number, and they do not change the word’s part of speech. They modify the word’s form to fit different contexts while keeping the same category and meaning. For example, adding -ed to walk makes walked, signaling past tense but still a verb; adding -s to dog makes dogs, signaling plural but still a noun; adding -s to walks signals third-person singular present tense but the word remains a verb. This contrasts with derivational changes that create a new word or shift its part of speech, and with notes on origin, which relate to etymology rather than inflection.