The Inflectional Affixes of the English Language

Question 1

Inflectional Affixes

Answer 1

do not change the part of speech, they come at the end of a word (except for infixes), they do not pile up: They close a word.

Question 2

noun plural

Answer 2

{-s, pl} ex: cats, boys, horses, mice, deer

Question 3

noun singular possessive

Answer 3

{-‘s} ex: boy’s, cat’s horse’s, of the desk

Question 4

noun plural possessive

Answer 4

{-s’} ex: boys’, cats’, horses’, of the desks

Question 5

third person singular present tense

Answer 5

{-s} ex: sees, eats, does, poses, is

Question 6

simple past tense

Answer 6

{-d pt} ex: walked, drove, needed, sank, slept

Question 7

past participle

Answer 7

{-d pp} ex: eaten, walked, driven, needed, sunk, slept

Question 8

Present Participle

Answer 8

{-ing vb} ex: walking, drving, needing, sinking, sleeping (used to show progression)

Question 9

comparative degree of adjectives and adverbs

Answer 9

slower, friendlier, more (less) beautiful

Question 10

superlative degree of adjectives and adverbs

Answer 10

{-est sp} ex: slowest, friendliest, most beautiful

Question 11

Derivational Affixes

Answer 11

all of the suffixes that are not inflectional These words to which these suffixes can be added are arbitrary (not all derivational suffixes can be added to a base) do not normally close out a word (that is, more than one can be added to a base