Editing Declension (section)

{{Short description|Inflection of words according to number, gender, and/or case}}
{{more citations needed|date=September 2017}}
{{Grammatical categories}}

In [[linguistics]], '''declension''' (verb: ''to [[wikt:decline#Verb|decline]]'') is the changing of the form of a [[word]], generally to express its [[syntactic function]] in the sentence by way of an [[inflection]]. Declension may apply to [[noun]]s, [[pronoun]]s, [[adjective]]s, [[adverb]]s, and [[determiner]]s. It serves to indicate [[grammatical number|number]] (e.g. singular, dual, plural), [[grammatical case|case]] (e.g. [[nominative case|nominative]], [[accusative case|accusative]], [[genitive case|genitive]], or [[dative case|dative]]), [[grammatical gender|gender]] (e.g. masculine, feminine, or neuter), and a number of other [[grammatical categories]]. Inflectional change of [[verb]]s is called [[Grammatical conjugation|conjugation]].

Declension occurs in many languages. It is an important aspect of language families like [[Quechuan languages|Quechuan]] (i.e., languages native to the [[Andes]]), [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] (e.g. [[German language|German]], [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]], [[Irish language|Irish]], [[Baltic language|Lithuanian and Latvian]], [[Slavic languages|Slavic]], [[Sanskrit]], [[Latin]], [[Ancient Greek|Ancient]] and [[Modern Greek]], [[Albanian language|Albanian]], [[Romanian language|Romanian]], [[Kurdish language|Kurdish]], [[Classical Armenian|Classical]] and [[Modern Armenian]]),{{Overly detailed inline|date=August 2024}} [[Bantu languages|Bantu]] (e.g. [[Swahili language|Swahili]], [[Zulu language|Zulu]], [[Kikuyu language|Kikuyu]]), [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] (e.g. [[Modern Standard Arabic]]), [[Finno-Ugric languages|Finno-Ugric]] (e.g. [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], [[Finnish language|Finnish]], [[Estonian language|Estonian]]), and [[Turkic languages|Turkic]] (e.g. [[Turkish language|Turkish]]).

[[Old English]] was an [[inflectional language]], but largely abandoned inflectional changes as it evolved into [[Modern English]]. Though traditionally classified as [[Synthetic language|synthetic]], Modern English has become a mostly [[analytic language]].