Which term describes the change of a word's form to indicate tense, number, or mood?

• A. Phonology
• B. Semantics
• C. Morphology
• D. Inflection

Answer: (D)

Inflection is the modification of a word’s form to express grammatical features such as tense, number, or mood. This usually happens by adding endings or making small internal changes, and it doesn’t change the core meaning of the word—just its grammatical role. For example, a verb may take an ending to signal past tense (walk → walked), a noun may gain a plural ending to signal more than one (cat → cats), and adjectives can show degree in languages that mark comparison. In some languages, inflection also marks mood (such as subjunctive vs. indicative). Phonology concerns sound patterns, semantics is about meaning, and morphology is the broader study of word formation that includes inflection; the specific term for changing a word form to encode grammar is inflection.