All the words that turn to white in the image below are simple inflected forms of words I already knew before coming to that page. This relates to a couple of recent threads about the speed of learning “new” words, what number of known words indicate what level of mastery, etc. I started a new thread because only the lead post can have a picture, and a picture is worth a thousand words.
I assume most people here know what inflection is – a change in a word, usually at the end, consistent with a specific usage. English examples: talk → talks, talked, talking; and she → her. Some languages, like Russian, have a whole lot more of this than others, so my known word count really is not nearly as impressive as it might seem to someone studying a non- or lightly-inflected language. And, as demonstrated, it is easy to add many “new” known words when they’re not really new.
