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Correct Answer: an inflectional ending.
in the word "baked," the letters "ed" at the end of the word serve a specific grammatical purpose. they are not just any group of letters but are known as an inflectional ending. this type of ending is crucial in english language grammar as it modifies the form of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, mood, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, and case.
inflectional endings are added to the base or root of a word without changing its essential meaning but instead altering its grammatical function. in the case of "baked," the root word is "bake," which is a verb that describes the action of cooking food by dry heat. by adding the inflectional ending "ed," the word is changed from present tense ("bake") to past tense ("baked").
this transformation allows the verb to communicate not only the action but also the time when the action occurred, which is essential for clear and precise communication in english. other common examples of inflectional endings include "s" or "es" for plurals in nouns and third-person singular present tense verbs, "ing" for present participles, and "er" and "est" for comparative and superlative forms of adjectives.
it's important to distinguish inflectional endings from derivational suffixes, which can also be added to the ends of words but create new words with new meanings. for example, adding "-ment" to "achieve" forms the noun "achievement," significantly altering the word's function and meaning. in contrast, inflectional endings like "ed" in "baked" do not create new words but only modify the existing word's grammatical properties.
thus, in the word "baked," the "ed" is correctly identified as an inflectional ending, crucial for indicating the past tense of the verb "bake." understanding these endings is fundamental for mastering english grammar and enhancing both written and spoken communication skills.
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