Afbøjes

Afbøjes is a Danish verb meaning to inflect or decline a word, that is, to change its form to reflect grammatical categories such as number, definiteness, tense, mood, or other grammatical features. The term is used in linguistics and grammar to describe the process by which a word takes different shapes in different contexts.

In Danish grammar, inflection is relatively limited compared with many other languages, but it still applies to several word classes. Nouns are inflected for number (singular or plural) and, in certain constructions, for definiteness with suffixes or determiners. Adjectives inflect to agree with the noun in number and definiteness, and to some extent for degree (positive, comparative, superlative). Verbs inflect to indicate tense or aspect, and, in some cases, mood or voice. Modern Danish has a simplified system of inflection compared with many languages, and the forms used depend on word class and syntactic position.

The noun “mand” (man) and its plural “mænd” illustrate how inflection can produce a new word form to express number. The definite form is typically marked with a suffix or a determiner, as in “mand” vs. “manden.” For verbs, inflection covers time references such as present and past forms, while the subject’s person or number is generally not reflected in the verb form in Danish.

Etymologically, afbøje comes from af- (off, away) plus bøje (to bend), conveying the sense of bending a word away from its base form to fit grammatical function. Related terms include afbøjning (inflection/declension) and bøjning (inflection).