Word formation: the essentials

formation

There is a more advanced guide to word formation in the in-service training area. You may like to go on to that after you have worked through this guide. There is also a guide to morphology which covers some key concepts but this does not assume you are familiar with it. Both those guides are linked in the table of related guides at the end of this.

English (like all languages) uses its existing resources to make new words. Here are just some of the most common ways it does it.

What we do	For example
We use the same word but change its word class and extend the meaning. This is called conversion.	dry (adjective) stable (noun)	⇒	dry (verb) stable (verb)
	The towel is dry so use that to dry the dog. Please stable the horse in that stable over there.
We add a bit to the beginning of a word. The thing we add is a prefix and the process is called prefixation or prefixing. Suffixation and prefixation are together known as affixation.	interested possible	⇒	uninterested impossible
	There are some who are interested, some who are uninterested.
We add a bit to the end of a word. The thing we add is a suffix and the process is called suffixation or suffixing. Suffixation and prefixation are together known as affixation.	friend friendly	⇒	friendly friendliness
	He sounds friendly enough but I don't think his friendliness is sincere.
We repeat the word or repeat it with a minor change. This is called reduplication.	tacky chat so	⇒	ticky-tacky chit-chat so-so
	It's not only tacky; it's made out of ticky-tacky.
We combine two words to make a third meaning. This is called compounding and can be used to make nouns (commonly) or adjectives and verbs (less commonly).	cup + board ocean + going baby + sit	⇒	cupboard ocean-going babysitting
	Originally a cupboard was a board on which cups were hung.
We shorten words. This is called clipping. Sometimes we insert the ' to show that a word has been clipped. Not all clipped words are informal (but that's the way to guess).	automobile telephone	⇒	auto 'phone
	If you 'phone tonight, let it ring because I can't always hear the house telephone from the garden.
We combine two words to form a third. This is called blending and the word that results is a blend or portmanteau word. This is different from compounding because the words that make up the blend are often clipped in some way.	motor + hotel smog + fog breakfast + lunch	⇒	motel smog brunch
	I was too busy for breakfast today and I can't have lunch so I'll get some brunch.

Spelling is affected by many suffixes.
Now take this test to see if you can match the term for word formation to the examples.

This guide concerns only the ways we use some basic prefixes and suffixes. At the end, there are links to areas for further study.

Affixation: suffixation and prefixation

building new words

Affixation is the most common (and most commonly taught) way of making new words in English.

The first thing to notice is that adding a prefix usually changes the meaning of the word.
For example, if we add im to possible, we get its opposite meaning. If we add hyper to market, we get a whole new (but related) meaning.
The second thing is that adding as suffix usually doesn't change the meaning but it does change the word class.
For example, if we add -ness to hopeless we get the noun from the adjective, hopelessness. If we add -ly to topical we make the adverb from the adjective, topically.

That's not a hard rule because some prefixes can act to change word class, for example:
devil → bedevil
changing a noun to a verb
and some suffixes can act to change meaning without affecting the word class, for example:
hopeful→ hopeless
making the opposite meaning.

Affixes are referred to as morphemes and there are two sorts of these:

Bound morphemes which cannot stand alone as independent words, such as:
    -ation
    pre-
    -itify
    -en
    dis-
etc.
Free morphemes which also have an independent existence in the language such as:
    -less
    -able
    super-
    ex-
    -ful (with a spelling change)
    under-
etc.

Prefixes

adding to the beginning

There are lots of prefixes in English. These are their most common functions:

Negative	Reversing an action	Time and ordering	Degree or size
un- in- im- ir- a- non-	de- un- dis-	fore- ex- pre- post- re-	super- sub- under- over- out-
Opposite, not or lacking in Mostly for adjectives such as amoral, incredible etc.	These usually go with verbs such as disagree, undo, deforest etc.	re- and fore- prefix verbs such as redo, foretell etc. The others go with nouns mostly such as pre-war, ex-husband etc.	These are common in words such as superheavyweight, understate, overgeneralise etc.

For a much longer list, see the in-service guide to this area, linked below.

Suffixes

adding to the end

As we noted above, these usually change word class while retaining the essential meaning of the root form. So friend changes to friend-ly but the sense remains. Here are some examples:

Making nouns	Making verbs	Making adjectives	Making adverbs
employ-ee organis-ation boy-hood keep-er happi-ness ideal-ism/-ist manage-ment friend-ship	democrat-ize simpli-fy deaf-en	friend-ly music-al hero-ic attract-ive use-ful use-less drink-able hair-y	happi-ly north-wards crab-wise

Most suffixes make nouns or adjectives with very few making new verbs or adverbs.
For a longer and more nearly complete list, see the in-service guide to this area, linked below.

Putting it together: a revision task

Here's some revision and exemplification. Your task is to:

Identify the affixes
Say what they do

The first row is done as an example.
When you have made a few notes, click on the table for the answers.

affixation task

By the way, the word multinational can be used as a noun but that is not the function of the -al morpheme. It makes an adjective and then the adjective is used as a noun (by a process we saw above below called conversion).

Now try this short test.

If you want to learn more about how other words are formed in English and more about the two areas above, try the in-service guide to word formation, linked below. There is also a link to the lexis index in this section of the site.

Related guides
compounding	for a more technical guide to this area
word formation	for the more technical, in-service guide to word formation
morphology	for more on how words are broken down and combined
lexis index	go here for more links to guides about words and vocabulary