Koncovka

Koncovka is a term used in linguistics and computing, especially in Polish. In linguistics, it denotes the suffix or inflectional ending attached to a word stem to express grammatical information such as case, number, gender, tense, aspect or person. It is a central feature of inflected languages, notably Slavic languages such as Polish, Czech and Russian.

In grammar, koncovka enables word forms to change to reflect grammatical categories. The endings vary by word class and declension or conjugation pattern, and they interact with root stems to produce different forms. The concept is essential for understanding how sentences convey meaning through morphology rather than fixed word order alone.

In Polish, koncovka describes the endings that nouns, adjectives and pronouns take to form cases and numbers, and that verbs carry for person and number in finite forms. For example, the masculine noun dom (house) in genitive singular becomes domu, while in nominative plural it becomes domy, illustrating endings -u and -y. Adjectives agree with the noun they modify by taking corresponding endings, and verbs show person-number endings in present or past tense forms.

In computing, koncovka also means a file extension—the suffix after the dot in a file name that indicates the file type, such as .txt, .pdf or .jpg. The term is used in everyday Polish to distinguish suffixes in language from those in file names.

Overall, koncovka denotes a word-ending element that signals grammatical information or serves as a suffix in other contexts.