desinências

Desinências are suffixes that are added to the root or radical of a word to express grammatical information such as gender, number, person, tense, and mood. They are a fundamental component of word formation and inflection in many languages, particularly in Romance languages like Portuguese and Spanish.

In Portuguese, desinências can be broadly categorized into nominal and verbal desinências. Nominal desinências are added to nouns and adjectives to indicate gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural). For example, in "menino" (boy) and "menina" (girl), the "-o" and "-a" are gender desinências. In "meninos" (boys) and "meninas" (girls), the "-s" is a number desinência.

Verbal desinências are attached to verb radicals to indicate person (first, second, third), number (singular/plural), tense (past, present, future), and mood (indicative, subjunctive, imperative). For instance, in the verb "falamos" (we speak), the "-mos" indicates first-person plural. In "falará" (he/she/it will speak), the "-rá" indicates third-person singular future indicative.

Understanding desinências is crucial for comprehending the grammatical structure of a language and for correctly conjugating verbs and declining nouns and adjectives. They are a key element in distinguishing between different grammatical forms of the same word.