déclinaison

Declinaison is a French term that translates to "declension" in English. It refers to the inflection of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in certain languages to indicate grammatical functions such as case, number, and gender. This system of changes in the form of a word allows it to fit correctly into the grammatical structure of a sentence.

In languages like Latin, German, and Russian, declension is a prominent feature. For instance, a noun's ending might change depending on whether it is the subject of a sentence (nominative case), the object of a verb (accusative case), or indicates possession (genitive case). The number of declension patterns, or "declensions," varies by language, with each pattern dictating specific sets of endings for different grammatical categories.

While English has largely lost its complex declension system, remnants can be seen in the possessive 's (e.g., "John's book") and pronoun forms (e.g., "he," "him," "his"). The concept of declension is fundamental to understanding the syntax and morphology of many Indo-European languages and plays a crucial role in how meaning is conveyed through word forms.