Which statement best describes derivational affixes vs inflectional affixes?

• A. Derivational affixes create new words or relate to meaning; inflectional affixes form different grammatical forms
• B. Inflectional affixes create new words; derivational affixes show tense
• C. Only prefixes can be derivational; inflectional affixes are never prefixes
• D. Derivational affixes always change pronunciation

Answer: (A)

Derivational and inflectional affixes serve different purposes in word formation. Derivational affixes attach to a base to create a new word or change its meaning or part of speech. Inflectional affixes attach to a word to signal grammatical information—such as tense, number, or comparison—without producing a new word.

For example, adding -ness to happy gives happiness, a new word with a related meaning, and adding -er to teach forms teacher, effectively changing the word's role. In contrast, adding -s to cat to make cats marks plural, or -ed to walk signals past tense, which changes the form but not the fundamental word.

That’s why the best description is that derivational affixes create new words or relate to meaning, while inflectional affixes form different grammatical forms. The other statements don’t fit because they either claim derivational work is limited to prefixes, or that inflectional affixes create new words, or that derivational changes always alter pronunciation.