no ending??

[Unregistered]

Hi..
"Infinitive is the basic form of a verb.
It remains unchanged in all persons and takes no ending.."
Here what does 'takes no ending'?
'Ending' means a suffix??
Can you paraphrase 'takes no ending' ?

Thanks

 

[RonBee]

Dear Unregistered:

It is hard for me to imagine how "takes no ending" could be more clear.
​

~R

 

[rewboss]

We usually talk about verbs having "grammatical endings", by which we mean a kind of suffix.

Regular English verbs have very few endings. The third-person plural ends in -s, the past tense and past participles end in -ed, and the present participle ends in -ing. Other forms of the verb, including the infinitive, have no endings.

This isn't the case in all languages. In German, for example, the infinitive usually ends in -en or -eln, while French infinitives can end in -er, -ir or -re.