Endings
What does a small piece added to a word show or change?
Meaning
Small pieces attached to a word can change its meaning or show how it fits into a sentence. They can make a new word or mark features such as number, time, person, and a participant's role. Languages differ in how many they use and where they attach, and some express these meanings without them. Unlike Prepositions and postpositions, these pieces belong to the word rather than standing separately beside it.
How to spot it
Compare related forms of a word and look for recurring attached pieces that add meaning or show its role in the sentence.
In your native language
English uses endings such as -s for plural nouns and present-tense verbs with he, she, or it, -ed for many past-tense verbs, and -ing in forms built with be. It also adds pieces to make new words, as in kind and kindness. Most nouns do not change their ending to show their sentence role; word order and prepositions do that work.
My sister works in a shop.
-s marks the present-tense verb with a singular subject such as my sister.
We washed the cups.
-ed marks past time; -s shows that there is more than one cup.
Thank you for your kindness.
-ness makes a noun from the adjective kind.
In your learning language
Spanish verb endings mark person, number, tense, and choices such as commands or wishes. Nouns and adjectives often have plural endings, and many adjectives also change endings for grammatical gender, the noun's masculine or feminine group. Suffixes can create new words, as in pan and panadero, but participant roles are usually shown with prepositions and word order rather than noun case endings.
Hoy trabajo en casa.
I'm working at home today.
Trabajo is a first-person singular present form.
Ayer trabajé hasta las seis.
Yesterday I worked until six.
The ending -é marks first-person singular past here.
Las ventanas están abiertas.
The windows are open.
The noun is plural, and las and abiertas have matching feminine plural forms.
Learners whose language has little verb ending variation may overlook small differences such as trabajo and trabajé. Learners whose language marks participant roles with noun endings may look for such endings instead of learning the required prepositions.