In grammar, a word inflects when it changes its shape to show a different job or a different bit of meaning. English does this only a little: walk / walks / walked, or I / me / my. Teachers say a verb “inflects for tense” or a noun “inflects for number,” which just means the form changes to show time, or one-versus-many. Some languages inflect far more — one verb can have dozens of forms. Though actually, English speakers often do not notice their own inflections, because the changes are small and we also lean on word order and little words like of and will. This is a classroom and linguistics word, not everyday chat. A related older picture is still alive in “inflect your voice”: to bend the tone up or down. The grammar use grew from that idea of bending a form.

產生詞形變化；屈折變化