Here's a breakdown:
* Word Order: While Old English had some flexibility in word order, it generally followed a more strict structure than modern English. For example, the subject usually came before the verb, and objects followed the verb. This fixed word order helped clarify grammatical relationships.
* Inflections: Inflections are changes to the form of a word that indicate its grammatical function in a sentence. Old English had a complex system of inflections, where endings were added to nouns, verbs, adjectives, and other parts of speech to indicate things like:
* Case: The function of a noun (e.g., subject, object, possessive)
* Number: Singular or plural
* Gender: Masculine, feminine, or neuter (for nouns and adjectives)
* Tense: Past, present, future (for verbs)
Example:
Modern English: "The dog chased the cat."
Old English: "Se hund ða catt geċēas."
In this example, you can see that the word order is similar in both sentences. However, in Old English, the noun endings "hund" and "catt" indicate their roles as subject and object respectively. The verb "geċēas" also carries inflections that show it's in the past tense.
Therefore, Old English relied on both word order and inflections to express grammatical relationships, making it a more inflected language than modern English.