Grammatical conjugation
Grammatical conjugation is the systematic variation of a verb’s forms to express categories such as tense, person, number, mood, and voice.
Inflection: A grammatical process that changes a word’s form to express features such as tense, number, or case. Conjugation is the inflection of verbs, rather than nouns or adjectives.
Person–number agreement: A grammatical relation in which a word’s form matches the person and number features of another expression. Agreement is a common reason a verb changes form across subjects.
Analytic language: A language that relies relatively heavily on separate words and word order rather than inflection to express grammatical relations. Analytic structures often express distinctions that conjugation marks within a verb.
Latin grammar: The system of sounds, words, and sentence structures used in Latin. Latin provides a well-known example of verbs organized into conjugation classes.
Tense: A grammatical category that locates an event in time relative to a reference point. Verb forms often mark when an event occurs.
Conjugation class: A group of verbs that follow the same pattern of inflection. Classes organize verbs by the endings or stem changes they share.
Periphrasis: The expression of a grammatical meaning through multiple words rather than a single inflected form. Periphrastic verb constructions contrast with categories expressed through conjugated forms.
Spanish verbs: The verbs of Spanish, which inflect for categories including person, number, tense, and mood. Spanish verb paradigms show how many forms can arise from one infinitive.
Grammatical person: A grammatical distinction among participants such as speaker, addressee, and other entities. Verb endings can identify who performs or experiences an event.
Verb stem: The part of a verb that remains after inflectional endings are removed. Many conjugated forms combine a stem with grammatical endings.