Case / Suffix Sticker
What sign sticks to the word?
Significado
A visible marker attached to a word that shows role, relation, number, tense, person, case, direction, or other grammatical function.
Como identificar
Look for small endings that change the word's role or meaning.
Exemplos
-s|-ed|-ing|case endings|plural endings
dogs|walked|house's
The teacher corrected the students' essays.
Visual guide
word + suffix sticker --------------------- dog + -s -> dogs walk + -ed -> walked house + 's -> house's ending = grammar signal
Same job, different coding no ending: dog (context) word: plural marker + dog suffix: dog + -s -> dogs many endings can encode: role, number, time, person
Vista por língua
Na tua língua materna
Portuguese does not have noun case suffixes, but suffixes and endings encode tense, person, number, gender, and plural.
falo, falamos, casas bonitas
I speak, we speak, beautiful houses
Na tua língua de aprendizagem
English has very little case marking, mainly in pronouns and possessive forms.
She saw him.
he/him = limited case marking in pronouns
Learners from case-rich languages may expect noun endings; learners from case-poor languages may still confuse he/him.
Usually lighter in your learning language
Do not over-transfer this pattern from your own language. It is often less explicit in your learning language.