Latin

in-

in, into, on, upon

Forms

in-
im- — Used before b, m, or p in Latin.
il- — Used before l in Latin.
ir- — Used before r in Latin.
en- — Developed in French in some words later borrowed into English.

Origin

Reconstructed Proto-Indo-European *en, ‘in.’

Note

Identical spellings can hide two different prefixes: this one indicates position or direction, while the other means ‘not.’

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verb

inflect

in-FLEKT/ɪnˈflekt/

To change a word's form to express grammatical information.

In English, we inflect most nouns by adding a plural ending.

A man adds an s tile to apple beneath a picture of three apples, while a matching picture of one apple retains the unchanged word apple.

Etymology

inLatinin, into, on, upon

+flectLatinbend or turn

Bending inward became a figurative image for changing or altering something. In grammar, the thing altered is a word's form, especially its ending, to show its grammatical function.

In context

Frank's School0:19

verbs inflect in english for three reasons and those three reasons are number person and tense

1.57.1 Why English Verbs Inflect

More examples

She inflects the verb "walk" as "walked" to indicate past time.
The verb "go" is inflected irregularly: its past tense is "went."
Latin inflects nouns to show their role in a sentence.

Forms

inflect · inflects · inflected · inflecting

inflection noun — A word-form change that expresses grammatical information.

inflectional adjective — Relating to grammatical changes in word forms.

Similar words

conjugate: Applies specifically to changing verb forms for grammatical information.
decline: Applies specifically to changing noun, pronoun, or adjective forms.