Zero-marking language

Zero-marking language is when a language doesn't use specific words to indicate things like tense, pluralization, or possession. Instead, they rely on context clues and the way words are structured in the sentence to convey meaning.

Think of it like a secret code where you don't write down certain words, but you know what they mean based on other things around them. For example, if we were playing a game and I said "Dogs bark," you would know that I'm talking about more than one dog because of the word "dogs." But if I said "Dog bark," you might not know if I meant one or many dogs unless there was other information in the sentence to help you figure it out.

Languages like English use a lot of marking to help us understand these things, like adding -s to a word to make it plural, or using "was" or "will be" to indicate tense. But other languages, like Chinese or Japanese, don't use those markers as much and instead rely on things like word order and context to make their point.

So, zero-marking language is like a game of hide-and-seek where you have to use your brain to figure out what's being hidden. It takes a little more work to understand, but it can also be very efficient once you get the hang of it!