Desinencia
From Latin desinens, -entis (the one that ends), from desinere (to end)
The desinencia (inflectional ending) is the final part of a word that indicates its grammatical function — that is, what the word is doing inside the sentence. A desinencia can show an action, a name, the time an action takes place, gender, number, person, and more.
For example
The "-o" ending marks masculine and the "-a" marks feminine, as in niño ("boy") and niña ("girl").
More desinencias:
Examples
- Mesa ("table") — the name of an object.
- Gato ("male cat") — the name of a male animal.
- Gatas ("female cats") — the name of several female animals.
- Amaré ("I will love") — the action is performed by the speaker and will happen in the future.
- Amé ("I loved") — the action was performed by the speaker in the past.
- Aman ("they love") — the action is performed by several people being talked about, in the present.
Note
Spanish desinencias do far more work than English word endings. In English, an ending like -ed or -s carries very little information; in Spanish, a single ending can tell you who is acting, when, and in what mood — all at once.