inflectional ending
[/ɪnˈflɛkʃənəl ˈɛndɪŋ/]
nounpl: inflectional endings
desinência flexional
1. A suffix or morpheme added to the end of a word that indicates grammatical information such as tense, mood, number, person, case, or gender without changing the fundamental meaning of the word
In the word 'walked', the '-ed' is an inflectional ending that indicates past tense
Na palavra 'caminhava', o '-va' é uma desinência flexional que indica o tempo pretérito imperfeito
2. A grammatical affix that modifies a word to express its relationship to other words in a sentence
The inflectional ending '-s' in 'cats' shows that the noun is plural
A desinência flexional '-s' em 'gatos' mostra que o nome está no plural
This is a technical linguistic term commonly taught in grammar courses in both Brazil and the USA. In Brazilian Portuguese education, the study of 'desinências flexionais' is a fundamental part of morphology instruction in schools. The term reflects how Romance languages like Portuguese maintain rich inflectional systems that mark grammatical relationships more extensively than English does.
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