Inflections

Read these sentences carefully:

• the prince, who had not come in the prince's coach, decided after all to meet the princess.
• He did not wish to visit him in his castle.
• He wanted to visit the princess but she wants to listen to pop music.
• Water is heavy, but molten lead is heavier.
• Cars are fast, but aeroplanes are faster.

In each sentence, the same word appears in different forms:

• Prince, prince's, princess.
• He, him, his.
• Wanted, wants.
• Heavy, heavier.
• Fast, faster.

These changes in the form of a word are called inflections. Every change alters the meaning of the word.

• 'Prince' is the son of a king, 'prince's' means belonging to a prince and 'princess' means the daughter of a king.
• 'He' is the subject of 'did not wish to visit',
• 'him' is the object of 'did not wish to visit', 'his' means 'belonging to him'.
• 'Wanted' means it happened in the past, 'wants' means it's happening now.
• 'Heavy' means there is one thing being weighed, 'heavier' means that there are two things being weighed.
• 'Fast' refers to one thing only, 'faster' refers to two things.

We can alter the meaning of a word without using inflections. For example, we can say 'the coach of the prince,' instead of 'the prince's coach.' This is becoming more usual in French and English, but German and Latin are inflected languages, in that the ending of the words denotes their meaning.