flektierte

Flektierte is a term used in linguistics to describe forms of a word that have been inflected to encode grammatical information. The related verb flektieren means to inflect or to modify a word so that it signals features such as case, number, gender, mood, tense or person. The adjective flektiert is often used to characterize a form that shows such inflection, for example a flektierte Form of a noun or a verb.

Etymology and concept: flektieren stems from the Germanization of the Latin root flectere/flexio, meaning to bend or turn. In linguistic usage, inflection (Flexion) contrasts with analytic forms that rely more on auxiliary words than on word endings. Flektierte Formen carry information that helps determine how a word functions in a sentence relative to others.

Examples: In German, nouns show flektierte Formen by case endings, such as der Mann (nominative) and des Mannes (genitive). Verbs flektieren for person and tense: ich gehe, du gehst, er geht (present tense). The past tense forms and participles, such as ging and gegangen, are also flektierte Formen. Adjectives decline as flektierte Formen depending on gender, case, and number (großer Mann, große Frau, gutes Kind).

Cross-linguistic note: Inflection is common in many languages, including Russian, Latin, and Finnish, while English relies more on word order and helper words, resulting in relatively fewer flektierte Formen.

See also: inflection, declension, conjugation, morphology.