Isolating languages are languages that have little to no inflection, meaning they do not change the form of words to express grammatical relationships. Instead, they rely on word order and context to convey meaning. Examples of isolating languages include Mandarin Chinese and Vietnamese, where each word typically represents a single idea or concept. In isolating languages, grammatical functions are often indicated by the use of particles or auxiliary words rather than by altering the words themselves. This characteristic makes them distinct from inflected languages, such as Spanish or German, which use various endings and changes to indicate tense, number, or case.