REGULAR INFLECTIONS

Inflections are the way that the ending of a word changes when you use the word in different ways. For example, you say ‘I read’ but ‘he reads’.

The inflections of some words are irregular, especially the past tense of common verbs (e.g. buy changes to bought in the past tense).With irregular inflections, you cannot simply work them out . You just have to learn them. All of these irregular inflections are shown in the dictionary next to the word that you are looking up.

The two pages here show you what happens with inflections that are not irregular. There are easy rules for regular inflections and you can use these rules to work out how a particular word changes. The following tables show you how nouns, adjectives and verbs change their endings.

Nouns

Most nouns form their plural by adding -s.

chair – chairs, plate – plates

Nouns which end in -s, -ss, -ch, -x and -z make their plurals by adding –es

mass – masses, match – matches

Nouns which end in a consonant (e.g.m, t, p) + y form their plurals by taking away the -y and adding -ies

baby – babies, university – universities

Nouns which end in a vowel (e.g. a, e, o) + y form their plurals by adding -s

tray – trays, toy – toys

Adjectives

Comparative       this is used to show that someone    you can either add -er

form of                 or something has more of a                to the end of the adjective,

adjectives            particular quality than someone        or use the word more

                              or something else                                 before it (see below)

Superlative          this is used to show that someone    you can either add -est to

form of                  or something has more of a                the end of the adjective,

adjectives             particular quality than anyone          or use the word most

                               or anything else                                   before it (see below)

One-syllable        these adjectives usually form their   small, smaller, smallest

adjectives             comparative and superlative with

                               -er and –est

Two-syllable        these adjectives can all form their     complex, more complex,

adjectives            comparative and superlative with      most complex

                              more and most

Three-syllable    these adjectives usually form their    beautiful, more beautiful,

adjectives            comparative and superlative with       most beautiful

                              more and most

Regular inflections (continued)

Note:

Some two-syllable adjectives can form the comparative and superlative with -er and -est too. The most common of these are:

adjectives ending in -y and -ow

happy – happier, happiest

noisy – noisier, noisiest

shallow – shallower, shallowest

adjectives ending in -le

able – abler, ablest

noble – nobler, noblest

simple – simpler, simplest

some other common two-syllable adjectives which can take -er and -est

common, cruel, handsome, pleasant, polite, quiet, wicked

When you are using the -er, -est forms, if the adjective ends in -e, take away the -e before adding the ending: pale, paler, palest

If the adjective ends in -y, change this to -i before adding the ending: happy, happier, happiest

Verbs

For regular verbs add the following endings:

3rd person singular    add -s        pack – packs

Present participle        add -ing    pack – packing

Past tense and the        add -ed     pack – packed

past participle

Note:

For verbs ending in -s, -ss, -ch, -x, or -z you need to add -es for the third person singular ending (e.g. reach, reaches), but the present participle, past tense and past participle are the same as other regular verbs: reach, reaches, reaching, reached.

For verbs ending in -e, take away the -e before adding the present participle, past tense, and past participle endings: hate, hates, hating, hated.

For verbs ending in a consonant followed by -y, for the present participle take away the -y and add -ies, and for the past tense and past participle take away the -y and add -ied: cry, cries, crying, cried.

Verbs ending in a vowel followed by -y are regular: play, plays, playing, played.

SUMMARY

·         If a word has irregular inflections these are shown in the dictionary next to the word.

·         You can work out all regular inflections by using these pages.

·         You need to look at the last letters of nouns and verbs to be sure that you have got the right rules for producing their regular inflections.