Editing Declension (section)

==English-speaking perspective==
<!-- This section uses Croatian as an invisible comparison language in the comments. Glosses are widely used for the same purpose, but additional lines in a foreign language might just confuse.-->
Unlike English, many languages use [[suffixes]] to specify subjects and objects and word cases in general. [[Inflected languages]] have a freer word order than modern English, an [[analytic language]] in which [[word order]] identifies the subject and object.<ref name="Drout">{{Cite book|first=Michael|last=Drout|title=King Alfred's Grammar|chapter=Word Order and Cases|url=https://people.umass.edu/sharris/in/gram/KingAlfredGrammar.html|chapter-url=https://people.umass.edu/sharris/in/gram/GrammarBook/GramCases.html|access-date=2021-05-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200224012042/http://people.umass.edu/sharris/in/gram/KingAlfredGrammar.html|archive-date=2020-02-24|url-status=live|website=umass.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last1=Martin|first1=Howard|last2=Ng|first2=Alan|last3=Korpi|first3=Sarah|title=Word Order |url=https://courses.dcs.wisc.edu/wp/readinggerman/word-order/|access-date=2021-09-23|website=A Foundation Course in Reading German|publisher=University of Wisconsin-Madison}}</ref> As an example, even though both of the following sentences consist of the same words, the meaning is different:<ref name="Drout" />
* "The dog chased a cat."
* "A cat chased the dog."

Hypothetically speaking, suppose English were a language with a more complex declension system in which cases were formed by adding the suffixes:<!--similar to notation in Drout, just shorter-->
: -{{blue|no}} (for [[Nominative case|nominative]] singular), -{{cyan|ge}} ([[Genitive case|genitive]]), -{{brown|da}} ([[Dative case|dative]]), -{{green|ac}} ([[Accusative case|accusative]]), -{{orange|lo}} ([[Locative case|locative]]), -{{purple|in}} ([[Instrumental case|instrumental]]), -{{gray|vo}} ([[Vocative case|vocative]]), -{{pink|ab}} ([[Ablative case|ablative]])

The first sentence above could be formed with any of the following [[Word order|word orders]] and would have the same meaning:<ref name="Drout" />
* "The dog{{blue|no}} chased a cat{{green|ac}}." 
* "A cat{{green|ac}} chased the dog{{blue|no}}."
* "Chased a cat{{green|ac}} the dog{{blue|no}}."

As a more complex example, the sentence: 
* Mum, this little boy's dog was chasing a cat down our street!<!-- Croatian: Mama, ovoga malenog dječaka pas lovio je mačku po našoj ulici! -->
becomes nonsensical in English if the words are rearranged (because there are no cases):
* A cat was down our street chasing dog this little boy's mum!<!-- Croatian: Mačku je po našoj ulici lovio pas ovoga malenog dječaka, mama! -->

But if English were a highly inflected language, like [[Latin]] or some [[Slavic languages]] such as [[Croatian language|Croatian]], both sentences could mean the same thing.<ref name="Drout" /> They would both contain five nouns in five different cases: ''mum'' – vocative (hey!), ''dog'' – nominative (who?), ''boy'' – genitive (of whom?), ''cat'' – accusative (whom?), ''street'' – locative (where?);<ref>{{Cite web|title=Imenice|trans-title=Nouns|url=http://gramatika.hr/pravilo/imenice/17/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-23|website=Hrvatska školska gramatika|publisher=Institut za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje|language=hr|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180326143831/http://gramatika.hr:80/pravilo/imenice/17/ |archive-date=2018-03-26 }}</ref> the adjective ''little'' would be in the same case as the noun it modifies (''boy''), and the case of the determiner ''our'' would [[Agreement (linguistics)|agree]] with the case of the noun it determines (''street'').<ref>{{Cite web|title=Atribut|trans-title=Attribute|url=http://gramatika.hr/pravilo/atribut/80/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-23|website=Hrvatska školska gramatika|language=hr|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180326144854/http://gramatika.hr:80/pravilo/atribut/80/ |archive-date=2018-03-26 }}</ref>

Using the case suffixes invented for this example, the original sentence would read:
* Mum{{gray|vo}}, this{{cyan|ge}} little{{cyan|ge}} boy{{cyan|ge}} dog{{blue|no}} was chasing a cat{{green|ac}} down our{{orange|lo}} street{{orange|lo}}!<!--Croatian: Mama, ovoga malenog dječaka pas lovio je mačku po našoj ulici!-->

And like other inflected languages, the sentence rearranged in the following ways would mean virtually the same thing, but with different expressiveness:<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Red riječi u rečenici|trans-title=Word order in sentences|url=http://gramatika.hr/pravilo/red-rijeci-u-recenici/108/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-23|website=Hrvatska školska gramatika|language=hr|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180326143919/http://gramatika.hr:80/pravilo/red-rijeci-u-recenici/108/ |archive-date=2018-03-26 }}</ref>
* A cat{{green|ac}} was down our{{orange|lo}} street{{orange|lo}} chasing dog{{blue|no}} this{{cyan|ge}} little{{cyan|ge}} boy{{cyan|ge}}, mum{{gray|vo}}!<!--Croatian: Mačku je po našoj ulici lovio pas ovoga malenog dječaka, mama!-->
* Mum{{gray|vo}}, down street{{orange|lo}} our{{orange|lo}} a cat{{green|ac}} was chasing this{{cyan|ge}} little{{cyan|ge}} boy{{cyan|ge}} dog{{blue|no}}!<!--Croatian: Mama, po ulici našoj mačku je lovio ovoga malenog dječaka pas!-->

Instead of the ''locative'', the ''instrumental form'' of "down our street" could also be used:<ref name="Stolac">{{Cite web|title=Zagrebačka slavistička škola – Izražavanje prostornih značenja padežnim oblicima|url=https://www.hrvatskiplus.org/article.php?id=1823&naslov=izrazavanje-prostornih-znacenja-padeznim-oblicima|first=Diana|last=Stolac|language=hr|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520140620/https://www.hrvatskiplus.org/article.php?id=1823&naslov=izrazavanje-prostornih-znacenja-padeznim-oblicima|archive-date=2021-05-20|url-status=live|website=hrvatskiplus.org}}</ref>
* Mum{{gray|vo}}, this{{cyan|ge}} little{{cyan|ge}} boy{{cyan|ge}} dog{{blue|no}} our{{purple|in}} street{{purple|in}} was chasing a cat{{green|ac}}!<!--Croatian: Mama, ovoga malenog dječaka pas našom je ulicom lovio mačku!-->
* A cat{{green|ac}} was, mum{{gray|vo}}, our{{purple|in}} street{{purple|in}} chasing dog{{blue|no}} this{{cyan|ge}} little{{cyan|ge}} boy{{cyan|ge}}<!--Croatian: Mačku je, mama, našom ulicom mačku lovio pas ovoga malenog dječaka!-->
* Our{{purple|in}} street{{purple|in}} a cat{{green|ac}} was chasing dog{{blue|no}} this{{cyan|ge}} little{{cyan|ge}} boy{{cyan|ge}}, mum{{gray|vo}}!<!--Croatian: Našom ulicom mačku je lovio pas ovoga malenog dječaka, mama!-->

Different word orders preserving the original meaning are possible in an inflected language,<ref name=":0" /> while modern English relies on word order for meaning, with a little flexibility.<ref name="Drout" /> This is one of the advantages of an inflected language. The English sentences above, when read without the made-up case suffixes, are confusing.

These contrived examples are relatively simple, whereas actual inflected languages have a far more complicated set of declensions, where the suffixes (or prefixes or [[infixes]]) change depending on the [[Noun gender|gender of the noun]], the [[Grammatical number|quantity of the noun]], and other possible factors. This complexity and the possible lengthening of words is one of the disadvantages of inflected languages. Notably, many of these languages lack [[Article (grammar)|articles]]. There may also be ''irregular nouns'' where the declensions are unique for each word (like [[irregular verbs]] with [[Verb conjugation|conjugation]]). In inflected languages, other [[Part of speech|parts of speech]] such as [[Numeral (linguistics)|numerals]], [[demonstrative]]s, [[Adjective|adjectives]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=Vrste riječi|url=http://gramatika.hr/pravilo/vrste-rijeci/16/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-23|website=Hrvatska školska gramatika|language=hr|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180326145055/http://gramatika.hr:80/pravilo/vrste-rijeci/16/ |archive-date=2018-03-26 }}</ref> and [[Article (grammar)|articles]]<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Martin|first1=Howard|last2=Ng|first2=Alan|last3=Korpi|first3=Sarah |title=Cases |url=https://courses.dcs.wisc.edu/wp/readinggerman/category/02-cases-present/ |url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-23 |website=A Foundation Course in Reading German |publisher=University of Wisconsin-Madison|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919021351/https://courses.dcs.wisc.edu/wp/readinggerman/category/02-cases-present/ |archive-date=2015-09-19 }}</ref> are also declined.