Inflection is the change in the form of a word to mark such distinctions as tense, person, number, gender, …. Etc.

1. Inflection
Department of English Language and Translation
By Sadam Alrdaat
Supervised by
Dr. Khaleel B. Al Bataineh

2. 
-
is the change in the form of a word to mark such
distinctions as tense, person, number, gender, ….
Etc.

For example, we usually create the past simple tense
of verbs by adding “-d” or “-ed” (as in heard or
walked, which also function as the verbs’ past
participles), and we normally create plurals by adding
“-s” or “-es” to the ends of nouns (as in dogs, cats,
watches, etc.).
Inflection

3. 
There are two types of inflection:

-Regular Inflection: the way we change a word’s form
to reflect things like tense, plurality, gender, etc., is
usually governed by consistent, predictable rules.

Examples:

Boy -------- boys

Books ----------- books

Lady------------- ladies

4. 
- Irregularly Inflection:

There are many instances in which the way a word is
inflected doesn’t seem to follow any rules or
conventions at all.

examples:

-
adjective bad – worse – worst

-
noun foot – feet, mouse – mice, ox – oxen,
sheep – sheep

-
verb bring – brought – brought, feel – felt – felt,
give – gave – given, hit – hit – hit, see – saw –

seen, wear – wore – worn, etc.

5. 
For the plural inflection of nouns, the following may
well be noted:

• loanwords that retain their original, ‘foreign’ plural,
e.g. cactus – cacti, criterion – criteria. More and more
of these plurals are becoming regularized.

• nouns that end in -o or -i, where there is often
confusion about whether the inflection is -s or-es, e.g.
curio-s, domino-es, etui-s, halo-es or -s, piccallili-es or s.
Different forms of irregular inflection

6. 
• Nouns ending in -y, which may change the y to i and
add -es, or may simply add -s, e.g. abbey-s, academy –
academies, monkey -s, mystery – mysteries, odyssey-s,
symmetry – symmetries.

• nouns that change either the spelling or
pronunciation of their final sound (voicing of /θ/, /f/ or
/s/) when the plural suffix is added, e.g. bath-s, hoof –
hooves, house-s, mouth-s, shelf –shelves, truth-s, wolf
– wolves.

7. 
For the inflections of verbs, the following may well be
noted:

• where the final consonant of the root is doubled in
spelling with the addition of a suffix: flip –flipping – flipped,
lag –lagging– lagged, prod – prodding – prodded, refer –
referring –

referred, shovel – shovelling – shovelled, sin – sinning –
sinned.

• where the final consonant might be expected to double,
but does not, e.g. benefit – benefiting –benefited, galop –
galoping – galoped, gossip – gossiping – gossiped, market
– marketing –

marketed, pilgrim – pilgriming – pilgrimed.

8. 
• where the final consonant is -c and a k is added
before the inflectional suffix, e.g. bivouac –
bivouacking – bivouacked, magic – magicking –
magicked, picnic – picnicking – picnicked.

• where the final consonant is -y, which may change
to i before an inflectional suffix, e.g. cry –cries – cried
(but crying), shy – shies – shied, supply – supplies –
supplied, weary – wearies –

wearied.

9. 
For adjective inflections, the following usually apply:

• the consonant doubling rule, as for verbs, e.g. big –
bigger – biggest, hip – hipper – hippest,

sad – sadder – saddest.

• the y to i rule, as for verbs, e.g. dry – drier – driest,
fluffy – fluffier – fluffiest, lively – livelier –

liveliest, rosy – rosier – rosiest, wacky – wackier –
wackiest (but not sly -er, -est).

10. 
Additionally, two-syllable adjectives that form their
comparative and superlative by means of inflectional
suffixes, rather than the periphrastic more/most
construction such as common -er/-est, narrow -er/-
est,

thirsty -er/-est.

More beautiful

The most beautiful

11. 
One other point is worth mentioning here, though
strictly speaking it belongs to derivational
morphology rather than to inflectional. English has a
number of nouns that survive from Old English which
have a related adjective that has been borrowed into
English usually from Latin,

e.g. church – ecclesiastical. Some dictionaries usefully
indicate these connections, e.g. CED4.

Further examples are: lung – pneumonic, pulmonary,
pulmonic; mind – mental, noetic, phrenic; wall –
mural.

12. 
References

Howard .J (2002) Lexicography : An introduction .
Taylor & Francis Routledge
https://www.slideshare.net/ibesti123/morphology-a-
word-and-its-form-inflectional

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Regular-and-
Irregular-Inflection.htm

https://www.slideshare.net/SilentUFO/morphology-
presentation-print

https://www.thoughtco.com/inflection-grammar-
term-1691168

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1Q670MxuhU