What type of suffix adds meaning to a word without changing its grammatical function?

An inflectional suffix is used to modify a word in a way that changes its tense, number, mood, or case while preserving the original part of speech. For instance, adding -s to a noun to indicate plural (e.g., cat to cats) or adding -ed to a verb to signify past tense (e.g., walk to walked) exemplifies how these suffixes add grammatical meaning without altering the grammatical function of the word.

On the other hand, a derivational suffix, for example, changes the meaning and often the part of speech of the base word, such as turning a noun into an adjective with -ful (e.g., beauty to beautiful). A descriptive suffix is not a recognized term in morphological studies related to word formation and does not accurately describe how suffixes modify meaning. Similarly, a compound suffix is not a standard term typically used in morphology, as it does not reflect how words are typically altered in English linguistics. Therefore, the correct focus here is on how inflectional suffixes maintain the grammatical function of the original word while adding specific grammatical features.