Word formation

If you are here for the first time, you can work through this guide sequentially but if you are returning to check something, here's a list of the contents to take you to its various sections.
Clicking on -top- at the end of each section will bring you back to this menu.

Introduction	Affixation	Combining forms	Prefixation	Suffixation	Back formations	Conversion
False separation	Apophony / Mutation	Frequentatives	Acronyms	Borrowings and Calques	Blending and Clipping	Coinages / Neologisms

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Forming new words

How does English make new words?
Here are some examples:

drive (verb)	⇒	drive (noun)
writer	⇒	co-writer
tick	⇒	tick-tock
cup + board	⇒	cupboard
perambulator	⇒	pram
motor + hotel	⇒	motel
happy	⇒	happily

Take this little test to see if you can match the term for word formation to the examples.

If you found that test too difficult, you would be wise to do the initial training guide in this area before returning to try this again.

English makes a good deal of use of affixation (either suffix or prefix attachment), compounding and conversion but less of the other means of word formation.  (Other languages may include, e.g., infixing in the middle of a word, circumfixing to both beginning and ends of words and so on.)  Affixation and Conversion form the main focus of this guide.  Compounding deserves a section to itself and a link to that guide is in the list at the end.

Other ways in words are made are also considered below.

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Affixation building new words

The most important way by far that English forms new words is by deriving them from the forms currently in the language.  Affixation is the general terms applied to this in English and affects both words class and meaning.

Here are some examples of affixation with the affixes in black.

unhappy happiness dislike

likeable friendly unfriendly

overdone undone redone

doable popularize amazement

Figure out what the affixes are doing, their function, and then complete these sentences.  Click here when you have.

Inserting a prefix usually changes the __________ but not the __________.
Inserting a suffix usually changes the __________ but not the basic __________.

There are exceptions to this general rule:

1. The prefix be- makes verbs as in, e.g., bejewel, become, besiege, befriend etc. but the prefix used in this way is not productive for new coinages.
2. The suffixes -less and -ful affect the meaning rather than the word class producing gradable adjective antonym pairs such as hopeful-hopeless, useful-useless, painful-painless etc. but this is not a consistent arrangement because, e.g., helpful and helpless are not antonyms and there are no equivalent antonyms for friendless, boastful and many other adjectives so *friendful and *boastless do not exist.

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Combining forms

Most prefixes and suffixes will affect the meaning of a word or alter its word class.  Some, however, are called combining forms because they add a new layer of meaning when they combine with another word or morpheme.
They are not usually considered simple affixes and they occupy a rather grey area between affixation and compounding.  The words with which they combine are in themselves often independent, free-standing lexemes and the form adds to the sense rather than altering it.  Combining forms can combine with other combining forms or affixes as well.
Many of these affixes are used in scientific language as a way of increasing the meanings contained within an expression.  Some occur with a very narrow range of other items and are not consistently used.
Here are some examples:

prefixed forms

bio- adds the sense of organic life to a word so we can have, e.g.
    biogeography
    biochemistry
    biomechanics
and so on.
dendro- relates to trees so we can have, e.g.
    dendrochronology
neuro- relates to nerves so we can have:
    neurosurgeon
    neurophysiology
etc.
glosso- relates to language so we can have:
    glossogeography
ferro- relates to iron so we can have:
    ferromagnese
    ferrosilicon
    ferromagnet
etc.
cardio- relates to the heart so we can have:
    cardiovascular
    cardiothoracic

suffixed forms

-cide relates to killing so we can have:
    herbicide
    fratricide
etc.
-ology refers to a branch of knowledge so we can have
    astrology
    sociology
etc.
-phobe relates to fear so we can have:
    computerphobe
    agoraphobe
etc.
-genic refers to producing so we can have:
    anthropogenic
    toxigenic
    carcinogenic
etc.
-nym relates to names so we can have:
    patronym
    eponym (see below)
etc.

Combining forms themselves may combine with affixes and other combining forms so we get, in addition to some of the previous examples:
    phobic
    neurosis
    biology
etc.

The test for whether we are dealing with a simple affix or a combining form is to consider:

1. Does the form alter the meaning of what it is attached to or does it add to the meaning?  If it is the latter, it is a combining form.
2. Can the form stand alone?  If it can, it is part of a compound not a combining form.  Combining forms are bound morphemes, in other words.
   (In some analyses, a rather looser view is taken and, for example, the -winner part of breadwinner may be considered a combining form.  In this analysis, that would be an example of compounding, not affixation.)

If you would like a list of some combining forms with their meaning and a few examples, click here.

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Prefixes in English adding to the head

For this part of the guide, you need to download the worksheet.
The first exercise involves sorting the prefixes in the list into groups under the headings in the table.  Do that now and then click for the answer.

Some notes:

1. There are more prefixes and examples above than on the worksheet so you may wish to add some to your copy.
2. Three prefixes are missing from this list: be-, en- and a- because they do change the word class.  For example, bewitch, enslave, asleep.
   1. The first (be-) makes nouns into adjectives or produces verbs.
   2. The second (en-) makes nouns into verbs.
   3. The third (a-) makes verbs into predicative adjectives.
3. The prefixes post- and pre- also act to change word class because they usually act to convert a noun to an adjective as in, e.g.:
       an event before the war = a pre-war event
       a discussion after the meeting = a post-meeting discussion
4. There are rarer or miscellaneous prefixes such as:
   1. pan- meaning all as in pan-European
   2. proto- meaning original as in protoplasm and prototype
   3. neo- meaning new as in neoliberalism
   4. auto- meaning self as in auto-charging
   5. semi- meaning half as in semi-detached
   6. vice- meaning deputy as in Vice-President
5. The general rule in English is that prefixes are not stressed so, for example, denationalise is pronounced as /ˌdiː.ˈnæ.ʃə.nə.laɪz/ with the main stress unmoved from the root word, nation and there is only a slight secondary stress on the prefix.
   However, super- and sub- may be stressed so we get, e.g.:
   superman as /ˈsuː.pə.mæn/
   and
   subway as /ˈsʌb.weɪ/
   This is not always the case because supernatural, for example, is pronounced as /ˌsuː.pə.ˈnæt.ʃrəl/ and substandard as /ˌsʌb.ˈstæn.dəd/ and in both cases, the prefix carries only secondary stress.

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Suffixes in English adding to the tail

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.
Suffixes are, generally, derivational morphemes making changes to word class.

Go back to the worksheet and try the task on suffixation before returning and clicking here.

Notice how unbalanced the list is.  The majority of suffixes make nouns or adjectives with fewer making verbs or adverbs.  The adjective formations include -d / -ed and -ing which are participle adjectives.
Some of these forms may be considered combining forms rather than suffixes proper.  See the list linked below, for more.

Making nouns

Many suffixes make nouns from other nouns: trick-ery, king-dom, child-hood, book-let, gang-ster, Trotsky-ite, republic-an, elector-ate etc.
Only two suffixes make nouns from adjectives: happi-ness, abil-ity etc.
Some suffixes make nouns from verbs: disinfect-ant, hold-er, explor-ation, dot-age, act-or, refus-al etc.

Making adjectives

Many adjectives with suffixes are made from nouns: cream-y, hope-less, dolt-ish, hope-ful etc.
If the word from which it is derived ends in -l or -le some confusion can arise because the resulting adjective appears to be an adverb (as it ends in -ly).  For a list of such words, consult the guides to adjective and adverbs or click here for a list as a PDF document.
Many adjectives are also made from verbs with -ible or -able: extend-ible, enlarge-able etc.
The difference is that removing the -able suffix usually leaves a recognisable word but removing the -ible suffix does not.  Compare, for example:
    edible
    tangible
    possible
etc. with
    preferable
    pronounceable
    readable
etc.  The first three examples are of what is termed a bound base or bound root (ed-, tang- and poss-).  See the guide to morphology for slightly more.
In nearly all cases, the -ible forms are more formal and less common so we have formal-informal pairings such as:
    credible - believable
    edible - eatable
    potable - drinkable
    risible - laughable
    illegible - unreadable
    comprehensible - understandable
    incorruptible - unbribable
    combustible - burnable
    feasible - doable
etc.
There is a wide range of other adjectival formations which differ semantically (see below)

Making adverbs

There are very limited choices but -ly is by far the most common: odd-ly, interesting-ly, work-wise, up-wards, width-ways, country-wide etc.  The suffix -wards with the -s is adverbial only.  Without the -s it can be adverbial or adjectival.
When the adjective ends in -ic, the usual choice is -ally rather than -ly: specific-ally, manic-ally etc.
The suffix -long is rare in the formation of adverbs and head-long seems the only possibility.  Other such words are adjectival or nouns.

Making verbs

Choices are limited to 4 suffixes: divers-ify, person-ify, hard-en, soft-en, real-ize, item-ise, pontific-ate, differenti-ate etc.  (There are, however, some back formations using -ate to make verbs, such as, desiccate, abdicate etc.)
Verbs may be formed from nouns or adjectives, usually the latter.
Many verbs formed this way are causative in nature meaning that they cause the condition embodied in the adjective or noun from which they are derived.

Diminutive and feminine suffixes

Missing from the list above are suffixes which, while not changing the word class of the base, affect its meaning.  These include:
-let = small or trivial as in booklet, leaflet etc.
-ette
    = compact as in kitchenette, maisonette etc.
    = imitation as in leatherette, suedette etc.
    = feminine as in usherette, suffragette etc.  (This use is rare and becoming rarer.)
- ie or -y = affectionate diminutive as in daddy, mummy, auntie, doggie etc.
-ess = feminine as in actress, manageress etc.  (This form, too, is becoming rarer but is maintained for marking certain nouns such as lioness, duchess, princess etc.  See the guide to markedness for more.)

Suffixes: semantic functions and formation qualities

It is not easy to assign semantic rather than grammatical functions to suffixes in the way that prefixes can be handled but there are some general rules concerning some of the most common ones.

-ness, -ity, -dom, -hood, -ship, -some, -y

imply the state or quality of being something: a kind person exhibits kindness; a brutal person exhibits brutality.  We also have freedom, wisdom, statehood, brotherhood, fellowship, hardship etc.
The suffix -some implies with the quality of and occurs in, e.g., wholesome, quarrelsome, troublesome, bothersome, venturesome etc.
The suffix -y also implies with the quality of and is often applied to weather conditions so we get, e.g., windy, snowy, rainy etc. in addition to wealthy, healthy, slimy, greedy etc.
Rarer examples include -th (growth, stealth) and -red (hatred, kindred).
Latin- and French-derived equivalent suffixes include:
    -age (breakage, marriage)
    -ance (abundance, brilliance)
    -cy (accuracy, lunacy)
    -ion (action, decision)
    -ice (service, cowardice)
    -ment (improvement, judgment, punishment)
    -ty (cruelty, frailty)
    -ure (pleasure, architecture, pressure).
The suffix -ity often requires the stress to be shifted to the last syllable of the stem so we get, e.g., similar and similarity.  There is also a shortening of the vowel in many cases so, e.g., chaste (/tʃeɪst/) changes the vowel in chastity (ˈtʃæ.stɪ.ti/).

-less and -ful

sometimes make antonym pairs in an inconsistent and unpredictable manner such as we saw above but are both derivational (making adjectives from nouns) and semantic, altering the meaning so -less means without and -ful means having as in clueless and useful.
The suffix -ful is also used to mean the amount which a noun contains as in handful, armful, bucketful etc.

-let, -ling, -y/-ie

imply a diminutive or a term of endearment: starlet, duckling, beastie, birdie, doggy.  See above.
Rarer non-productive examples include -en (maiden, chicken) and -ock (hillock, bullock).
The suffix -y usually implies in the form or manner of when the derivation is from a noun to an adjective as in ghostly, hilly, manly, motherly etc.  See above for the possible confusion with adverb forms.

-ify, -ise-/ize-, -en

all signify causative meanings, making something like the adjective from which a verb derives, as in socialise, intensify, broaden, deafen, strengthen, straighten etc.

-ive / -ative / -itive

work in much the way that the suffix -ing on participle adjectives works, that is, it is the state of something formed from (almost always) the verb.  Just as we have, e.g.:
    cooperating
    asserting
    informing
which all describe what something does, we have parallel adjectives doing much the same as in:
    cooperative
    assertive
    informative
Adjectives with -ative or -itive are often formed from verbs ending in -ate (see below).

-ate

is unusual in that it forms both verbs and adjectives (from verbs and nouns).
When it forms verbs, it is often a combining form rather than a suffix proper because the stem is a bound base which does not appear alone so we get, e.g.:
    differentiate
    fornicate
    desiccate
    communicate
    adjudicate
    duplicate
    concentrate
    penetrate
    illuminate
    catenate
    collocate
etc. and implies making something of the quality of the base which is a Latin derived form and none of the bases in this list have an independent existence.  There is a strong argument that these sorts of words are not formations in English but derived directly from Latin cognates.
Rarely, the base form is a recognisable English word as in, e.g.:
    captivate
    validate
    originate
    liquidate
and in these cases the suffix is properly derivational rather than a combining form.
When it is adjective forming, is has the same sense of the quality of something so we get, e.g.:
    proportionate
    affectionate
    carbonate
    importunate
    intimate
    private
etc. and, again, some of the forms come with a bound base which has no independent existence in the language and can, therefore, be analysed as combining forms or as forms derived without affixation directly from French or Latin.

-en

to signify made of as in, e.g., wooden, golden, earthen etc.

-ee

usually implies the passive recipient of an action as in employee, deportee, interviewee etc. but, confusingly, the suffix may also denote the active doer of the verb as in escapee, attendee, absentee etc.

-er, -or, -ster

signify the doer of an action so we get, e.g., baker, painter, doctor, emperor, surveyor, punster, songster etc.
Rarer versions are -ar (beggar) and -yer (lawyer).
There are numerous Latin- or French-derived suffixes which also signify the doer of an action (often when the verb or noun from which they derive is obscure or outmoded) and they include:
    -ain (chieftain, captain)
    -ar (scholar)
    -en (citizen)
    -on (surgeon)
    -eer (engineer, musketeer)
    -ier (financier, sommelier)
    -ary (missionary, expeditionary)
    -y (deputy)
    -eur (amateur, restaurateur, provocateur)

-ish, -ly, -ally, -wise, -ways

signify somewhat like or akin as in, e.g., childish, bluish, mannish etc.  Often the suffix may be added to coin a new word (or nonce word) such as in
    It's getting latish
    He's angryish
and so on.
The suffixes -ly, -ally and -wise form adverbs frequently and mean in the manner of so we get, e.g. manly, godly, friendly, comically, drastically etc. as well as thousands of adverbs derived from adjectives.  Less productively, -wise and -ways are used as in, e.g., lengthwise, crabwise, likewise, otherwise, edgeways, sideways etc.
The suffix -ly was once the preferred way to form adjectives from nouns and hence there are many adjectives which end in -ly (fatherly, cowardly, earthly and a hundred or so more).  The suffix is now reserved for adverb formation.

-ible, -able

both imply ability to be as in, e.g., regrettable, removable, serviceable, noticeable, credible, fallible, legible, susceptible etc..  The first of these is unproductive in Modern English but is still common enough in established words.  As was noted above, however, the removal of the -ible suffix does not usually leave a recognisable Modern English word.
The pronunciation of the two is indistinguishable (usually /əb.l̩/) and this causes spelling problems for native and non-native speakers alike.

-long, -ward(s)

imply in the direction of as in, e.g., homewards, upwards, leftwards, outward etc.
In these cases, the suffix with the -s ending is adverbial:
    travelling homewards
    moving rightwards
but we do not allow:
    *a homewards journey
    *a rightwards movement
etc.
Without the -s ending, the word so formed can be adjectival or adverbial
    travelling homeward
    moving rightward
    a homeward journey
    a rightward movement
The suffix -long is rarer but occurs in, e.g., headlong and sidelong and can be both adverbial and adjectival
The suffix -long also implies for a period of so we find yearlong, daylong, weeklong etc.  In this case the product is adjectival.

-wide

is reserved for encompassing and occurs in words such as nationwide, countrywide, worldwide etc.
The prefix is usually hyphenated when used with nations or other geographical expressions such as Europe-wide, planet-wide, Japan-wide etc. and in these cases can be appended to almost any geographical or political entity so we allow, government-wide, Whitehall-wide, Pacific-wide, USA-wide, senate-wide and so on.

-most

implies nearest to and occurs, e.g., in topmost, nethermost, uppermost, innermost, outermost etc.

-ite, -ist, -eer, -(i)an, -ese

all refer in some way to people as:
members of communities: socialite, Trotskyite, Keynesian, communist, Maoist, terrorist etc.  (The -ite ending is often used disparagingly.)
nationalities: Japanese, Madagascan, Egyptian etc.
occupations (especially artistic with -ist): pianist, violinist, timpanist etc. and those derived from the nouns they deal with: engineer, puppeteer, musketeer, mountaineer etc.
The suffix -(i)an to denote a resident of a location, an occupation or refer to an historical / literary period often requires a stress movement to the final syllable of the stem: Elizabeth to Elizabethan, magic to magician, for example.

-ism, -ology, -graphy, -ics

both refer to areas of knowledge or activity, the first usually to ideologies, the latter three to academic domains: republicanism, monarchism, geology, cosmology, economics, paleogeography etc.

-ocracy, -crat

appear in the list above but are probably more accurately described as combining forms.  The first part of a word so formed is unlikely to be a free morpheme in English so, while, e.g., democrat and democracy derive from the Greek demos [people], the first morpheme is a bound root at best.

Constraints

There are some interesting constraints concerning which affixes can be used with which base words.  Constraints include meaning (we can't say *unugly), etymology (we prefer metallic and wooden and can't have *metalen or *woolic) and phonology (we can have widen and deepen but not *smallen or *tallen).
For much more on this area, see the section in the guide to morphology by clicking here (new tab).

Productiveness

Some derivational suffixes are no longer used to make new words (or very rarely so) while some are much more productive.  For example:

1. If you were asked to make an adjective from the verb stroll, changing
       You can stroll there easily
   to
       It is easily _______________
   it is very unlikely that you would produce strollible and much more likely that strollable would be your choice.  The suffix -ible is nowadays unproductive and confined to established words.
2. By the same token, if you were asked to make a noun for a person from the verb rock, changing
       She is rocking the boat
   to
       She is the _______________ of the boat
   it is very unlikely that you would produce rockant or rockist and much more likely that you would opt for rocker.  The suffixes -ant and -ist certainly do form doer-nouns from verbs (claimant, inhabitant, accountant, conformist, apologist, tourist etc.) but they are no longer very productive.  The suffix -ite is often preferred to -ist in political contexts.
3. Finally, if you were asked to make an adverb from the adjective foldable (or almost any adjective), it is almost certain that you would select the -ly ending (foldably) over any of the other alternatives: foldablewise, foldableways etc.  None of the three possible alternatives is listed in most dictionaries and most people would have considerably more trouble decoding the last two possibilities than the first choice.

Constraints and productiveness are covered in a bit more detail in the guide to morphology, linked in the list at the end.

Pronunciation

As is the case with prefixes, suffixes in English are, as a rule , not stressed.  There are some exceptions to this.

• The suffix -ette, making diminutive or feminine forms is usually stressed so suffragette is pronounced as /ˌsʌ.frə.ˈdʒet/.
• The suffix -ese denoting nationality as an adjective or representative noun is often stressed so Chinese is pronounced as /tʃaɪ.ˈniːz/.
• The suffix -ation making nouns from verbs is stressed so organisation is pronounced as /ˌɔː.ɡə.nə.ˈzeɪ.ʃən/.
• The suffix -eer, denoting the occupation derived from the noun, is stressed so engineer is pronounced /ˌen.dʒɪ.ˈnɪə/ and auctioneer is pronounced /ˌɔːk.ʃə.ˈnɪə/.
• The suffix -ee denoting the recipient of a verb or the doer of a verb is stressed so escapee and employee are both stressed on the ending as /ɪ.ˌskeɪ.ˈpiː/ and /ˌemplo.ɪ.ˈiː/.
• Some nouns derived from people's names move the stress to the subsequent syllable and the -ian suffix so Darwinian is pronounced as /ˌdɑːrw.ˈɪ.niən/.
• The suffix -ocracy, denoting a system of government similarly requires the stress to move to the syllable before the suffix so democracy is pronounced /dɪ.ˈmɒ.krə.si/.  Non-intuitively, the suffix -crat does not lead to this sort of stress movement.

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Back formations

This is a process akin to affixation but in which the new word is not formed by adding to the existing word but by analogy with an assumed but non-existent root.  It always involves a change of word class so lies within the realm of suffixation.  When words are formed in this way, it is not always a simple matter to recognise the process and sometimes only research into the words' origins and first appearances in the language confirm that this has been the process.
For example, it might be assumed that the word donation is formed by adding the noun-forming -tion suffix to the verb donate and dropping the final 'e' in the conventional way just as relation has been formed from the verb relate.  That is, in fact, not the case.  The word donation is attested from the mid-15th century and derives from the Latin word donationem.  The verb was formed by analogy and is not attested until 1819.
There are many hundreds of words in English derived by back formations from existing words.  Here are a few examples:

Word	back-derived from ...	... by analogy with ...
addict	addiction	depict-depiction etc.
aggress	aggression	progress-progression etc.
automate	automation	decimate-decimation etc.
burgle	burglar	other doer nouns ending in /lər/: sprinkle-sprinkler etc.
craze	crazy	laze-lazy etc.
edit	editor	audit-auditor etc.
enthuse	enthusiasm	*no obvious parallel
extradite	extradition	expedite-expedition etc.
gamble	gambler	other doer nouns ending in /ər/: tell-teller etc.
isolate	isolated	participle adjectives: educate-educated etc.
liaise	liaison	an assumed verb root adding -ion (erroneously)
prodigal	prodigality	sentimental-sentimentality etc.
sulk	sulky	bulk-bulky etc.
televise	television	revise-revision etc.

* This formation is odd because it has no obvious derivational parallel.  The verb has been formed presumably on the basis that there ought to be a verb as the root of the noun.  It is first attested from 1827 but the noun goes back until at least the 16th century.

Normally, nouns for doers of actions are derived from the verb so we get, speak-speaker, hate-hater and thousands more.  Many other verbs, however, have been back-formed from doer nouns and they include:
babysit, bookkeep, bushwhack, cadge, commentate, curate, eavesdrop, kidnap, loaf, peddle, shoplift, spectate, swindle and more.

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Most of this guide is concerned with derivation, the affixation of morphemes to alter word class and meaning in consistent and, generally, predictable ways.
This is not the only way in which new words are formed and the rest of the guide is concerned with the alternatives.

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Conversion

In this guide, the word conversion is used for the shifting of a word from one class to another.  It is also known as functional shifting, for obvious reasons.

Go back to the worksheet and try the final exercise on this area and then click when you have done it.

Nonce words
Occasionally, it is possible to create new coinages by simple conversion.  For example, the word ask was a verb and nothing else for centuries but an expression such as a big ask is only attested from 1987 (in Australian English).  It is now possible to hear the word used as a noun, especially in sporting and management jargon in expressions such as the ask is that ... .

Shifts in meaning
Some words, when converted from a verb to a noun or vice versa, shift their meaning, sometimes greatly, sometimes slightly.  For example:
    intimate
is a verb meaning suggest whereas
    intimate
is an adjective meaning closely connected to
The word
    concentrate
as a verb means focus attention but as a noun it refers to a substance which has been made more powerful and derives from a different meaning of the verb.
On the other hand
    collocate
functions as a verb and a noun with no meaning change.

Stress movement
Some words function both as verbs and nouns.  Which way the conversion goes is slightly arguable.  What do you notice when you read this list aloud?
    The export business.  Whisky is one Scotland's exports.
    He's a convict who was difficult to convict.
    Can you give me a discount?  Can you discount that?
    Don't insult him.  That's a nasty insult.
Right.  The stress moves.  First syllable for the noun, second for the verb.  There are lots of verb-noun pairs that work like this.

Pronunciation
In addition to the movement of the stress, other changes to the pronunciation occur.  For example:
The verb combat is pronounced as /kəm.ˈbæt/ but the noun is /ˈkɒm.bæt/ with the first vowel unweakened
record: /’rɛkɔːd/ goes to /rɪˈkɔːd/ (with a change to the first vowel from /ɛ/ to /ɪ/)
abuse: /əˈbjuːs/ goes to /əˈbjuːz/ (with a final consonant change from /s/ to /z/).
combine: /ˈkɒmbaɪn/ to /kəmˈbaɪn/ (with a vowel change from /ɒ/ to /ə/ [the first is a piece of farm machinery]).

There is often change in pronunciation of the final consonant in pairs such as house (noun: /haʊs/) and house (verb: /haʊz/), mouth (noun: /maʊθ/) and mouth (verb: /maʊð/), thief (noun: /θi:f/) and thieve (verb: /θi:v/).
Usually, but not always, the spelling changes to reflect the pronunciation.

For more, go to the guide to word stress, linked below.

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False separation and misdivision

A lesser-known or addressed type of word formation occasionally occurs in English by a process known as coalescence which is also heavily influenced by pronunciation, in this case the phenomenon of catenation.
Catenation usually occurs when the consonant sound at the end of one word joins the vowel at the beginning of the next so we get, for example, an orange pronounced as a norange (/ə nˈɒ.rɪndʒ/) and right arm becomes something like rye tarm (/raɪ tɑm/).
Occasionally, this leads to a change in the way the word is formed, a process called false separation, misdivision or false splitting.
For example:

• The word apron in English derives from the Old French naperon, meaning a small table cloth (originally from the Latin mappa, meaning a napkin).  English has changed the word from the original, a napron, to the more familiar an apron.
• The word adder in English derives from the West Saxon word næddre , a snake, and the change is from a nadder to an adder.
• The word umpire in English, meaning a referee derives originally from the Old French nonper, meaning an uneven number and refers to the use of a third person to decide or arbitrate in a game.  English has moved from a numpire to an umpire.

More rarely, the phenomenon works in reverse, so, for example:

• The word newt in English derives from the Middle English word evete which became ewte later.  Misdivision has given us modern term a newt instead of an ewte.
• The word nickname in English derives from the Middle English ekename meaning an additional name so now by misdivision, instead of an ekename, we have a nickname.

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Apophony or mutation

You may see apophony called ablaut, vowel mutation, internal modification, stem modification or mutation, internal inflection and a range of other more or less hideous names.
Simply, it means an internal alteration to a word to show number, case, person or tense.  Modern English makes more use of external alteration in the form of prefixes and suffixes but many irregular verbs, pronouns, determiners and plural forms are still modified for tense, case and number through internal changes.
Old English, in common with many other Germanic languages, ancient and modern, made a good deal of use of internal mutation or apophony to signal types of marked meanings.  Many of these remain in the language but few new ones are formed.  (An exception is the slow transformation of the past tense of sneak which is correctly formed by suffixation as sneaked but is increasingly formed by internal vowel mutation as snuck.  An allied phenomenon is the slow disappearance of shrank as the past tense of shrink in favour of shrunk.)
Here are some examples of forms of words made by apophony:

verb forms

bind, bound
lie, lay
rise, rose, risen
sing, sang, sung
weave, wove
A list of irregular verb forms, many formed by apophony is available here.

noun to verb formations and vice versa

advice, advise
belief, believe
blood, bleed
breath, breathe
brood, breed
food, feed
gift, give
life, live
practice, practise
sing, song
wreath, wreathe
With stress movements:
contrast, contrast
export, export
object, object
permit, permit

plurals

foot, feet
goose, geese
louse, lice
mouse, mice
tooth, teeth
wolf, wolves
wife, wives
Two determiners
that, those
this, these

case formations

me, my, mine
he, him, his
they, their
us, our
who, whose

There are two allied phenomena which should be mentioned in this context because they both contribute, albeit it historically and rather peripherally, to word formation in English.

1. Metathesis
   This usually involves the switching of consonants (although there are a number of patterns).  Examples of words formed in Modern English from older forms are:
       bird (originally bridd)
       third (originally thrid)
       ask (originally ax)
2. Apocope
   This involves the loss of a sound at the end of words so, for example, father is pronounced in BrE as /ˈfɑːð.ə/ but, in AmE, retains its fuller pronunciation as /ˈfɑːð.r̩/ with a syllabic /r/.
   While the word is unlikely to be spelled as fatha any time soon to reflect its pronunciation in British English, the same cannot be said for other examples and the word cuppa is frequently encountered in informal writing and the verb diss, an apocope of disrespect, has gained a certain currency.
   Clipping the ends of words (as in photograph to photo) is common and the results usually begin as informal terms but may slowly gain wider use (see below for more examples of clipping and apocope).
   All languages, too, exhibit the phenomenon with pet names for people so, e.g., Alexander is often reduced to Alex and Gwendolyn to Gwen etc.

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Frequentatives or doublings

Many words in English which are now considered simple verbs (mostly) have been formed by a process of doubling another word and then reducing it with the addition of one of two suffixes: -er and -le.
The process is no longer productive in English although people occasionally will produce nonce words by the same process.  It is probably not a category of much concern to learners and teachers in practical terms but is included here in a search for completeness.  It is also of some interest to many.
A full list is probably not available anywhere but here are some examples of this process:

with -er

batter (bat + bat)
blabber (blab + blab)
clamber (climb + climb)
flutter (float + float)
glimmer (gleam + gleam)
slither (slide + slide)
spatter (spit + spit)

with -le

crackle (crack + crack)
crumble (crumb + crumb)
dribble (drip + drip)
muddle (mud + mud)
nuzzle (nose + nose)
prattle (prate + prate)
snuggle (snug + snug)
waddle (wade + wade)

Other languages, notably Slavic ones, Finnish, Greek and Hungarian also make use of this word-formation process, incidentally.

An odd phenomenon in English is that the resulting words may themselves be doubled (or, to use a small misnomer, reduplicated) to produce words such as
    flitter-flutter
    crickle-cracker
    spitter-spatter
and so on.
For obvious reasons, such formations are sometimes called ricochet words.

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Acronyms

An acronym is a word formed from the initial of other words in a phrase and some are of ancient origin.  Most, though, are quite new.  A distinction can be made between acronyms proper (which can be pronounced, such as NATO) and those which are initialisms in which each letter is separately pronounced (such as CIA).  Some of these terms may combine letter pronunciation and word pronunciation and in some cases speakers differ in how the terms are pronounced.
Quite commonly, acronyms are formed not just from the first letter of each word in a phrase (such as ASH: Action on Smoking and Health) but from the first two or three letters in some or all of the words (such as RADAR: RAdio Detecting And Ranging).  Additionally, whether functional words (such as and, of etc.) are included in the formation depends on the whether they make the outcome more easily pronounced.
Many acronyms are neologisms (see below).
This is not the place to set out a long list of such formations (you can hunt the web for those) so we'll confine ourselves to a few examples of the different sorts which usually are distinguished by how they are said.  Some of these are formed from letters which many native speakers would have difficulty tracing to the source.

Acronym	formed from	Pronounced as
laser	Light Amplification by Simulated Emission of Radiation	One word	/ˈleɪ.zə/
NATO	North Atlantic Treaty Organisation	One word	/ˈneɪ.təʊ/
scuba	Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus	One word	/ˈskuː.bə/
quango	QUasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation	One word	/ˈkwæŋ.ɡəʊ/
START	STrategic Arms Reduction Treaty	One word	/stɑːt/
gif	Graphics Interchange Format	One word	/ɡɪf/
wysiwyg	What You See Is What You Get	One word	/ˈwɪz.iː.wɪɡ/
UFO	Unidentified Flying Object	One word or the initials	/ju.fəʊ/ or /juː.ef.əʊ/
FAQ	Frequently Asked Questions	One word or the initials	/fæk/ or /ef.eɪ.ˈkjuː/
CD-ROM	Compact Disc Read-Only Memory	As two initials plus one word	/siː.diː.ˈrɒm/
jpeg	Joint Photographic Experts Group	As one initial plus one word	/ˈdʒeɪ.peɡ/
BBC	British Broadcasting Authority	As initials	/ˌbiː.biː.ˈsiː/
FRG	Federal Republic of Germany	As initials	/ef.ɑː.ˈdʒiː/
AAA	Anti-Aircraft Artillery	Triple plus initial	/ˈtrɪp.l̩.eɪ/
W3C	World-wide web Consortium	Initial plus number plus initial	/ˈdʌb.ljuː.θriː.siː/
IOU	I Owe You	I owe you	/ˈaɪ.əʊ.ju/
PIN	Personal Identification Number	Pin number	/pɪn.ˈnʌm.bə/

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Borrowing and calquing

Words are borrowed from other languages in two ways:

1. In the original language.  These are called loan words.
   For example:
       ersatz [from German]
       moccasin and tomahawk [both from Powhatan]
       kangaroo [from Guugu Yimidhirr]
       bungalow [from Gujarati]
       veranda [from Hindi]
       blighty [from Urdu]
       coup d'état [from French]
       paparazzi [from Italian]
       robot, howitzer [from Czech]
       siesta, guerrilla, macho [from Spanish]
       karaoke, tsunami, origami [from Japanese]
   etc.  For a fuller list, see the guide to the roots of English.
   Loan words may, in the process of borrowing, be converted in terms of class so, for example, an adjective such as bosh in Turkish, meaning empty, is converted to a noun in English to mean empty or nonsensical talk.
   A subset of borrowing is the importation from dialect in the language into mainstream usage or from one variety of the same language into others.  The most obvious cases in English are the loan words which originally existed only in dialects but which have become standard (if very colloquial) use and those which have been imported from Australian or American English.  For example:
       loaf [to mean head or brain, originally from rhyming slang, loaf of bread]
       yob [originally back-slang for boy]
       selfie [originally Australian slang]
       rustbucket [originally Australian]
       truck [originally AmE for lorry, now common in BrE]
       train station [originally AmE for railway station]
2. In translation.  This is called calquing and the word or phrase is a calque or loan translation.
   For example:
       blue ribbon [from the French cordon blue]
       loan word [from the German Lehnwort]
       it goes without saying [from the French ça va sans dire]
       masterpiece [from the Dutch meesterstuk]
       devil's advocate [from the Latin advocātus diabolī]
       blue-blood [from the Spanish sangre azul]

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Clipping and blending

There are two related processes.

1. Clipping
   A word may be cut, either from the beginning or the end, sometimes both and rarely by removing a syllable internally.  For example:
       pram [clipped in three ways from perambulator]
       zoo [clipped from zoological gardens]
       uni [clipped from university]
       bus [clipped from omnibus]
       plane [clipped from aeroplane or airplane]
       hi-fi [clipped and then blended from high fidelity]
   When a word is clipped only at the end, the process (and the product) may be referred to as apocope, see above.  Further example are:
       rhino
       chimp
       pub
   etc.
2. Blending
   Two words may be blended (and often clipped as well) to make a third.  The result is often referred to as a portmanteau word.  For example:
       smog [a blend of smoke and smog]
       simulcast [a blend of simultaneous and broadcast]
       telethon [a blend of television and marathon]
       Oxbridge [a blend of Oxford and Cambridge]
       edutainment [a blend of education and entertainment]
       Eurasia [a blend of Europe and Asia]

A third related process which works over time in many languages is the loss of a sound as a word comes into frequent use.  The process results in what are called aphetic forms (the process itself is called aphaeresis).  Most usually in English, the loss is of an unstressed initial vowel so we get formations such as
    alone → lone
    espy → spy
    acute → cute
    until → till
    especially → specially
    amend → mend
    abate → bate
and so on.
This sometimes results in synonyms (such as till / until) but more often the meanings of the words slowly drift apart (as in acute / cute) and become separate lexemes.  Sometimes the non-aphetic form is lost entirely from the language (as has happened for example with withdrawing-room which is no longer current and even drawing room is slightly unusual these days).
In casual speech one may hear the process at work so because is often pronounced 'cos, unless as less and about as 'bout etc.  Were it not for the stiffening effect of the written word, the aphetic forms may well have become the accepted ones.
Over time, too, whole syllables and consonants, too, may be lost so, although the word knee, for example, is spelled with the 'k', the letter is no longer pronounced, as it once was.

A fourth form of clipping is apocope in which the final part of a word may be lost so we get, e.g.:
    barbeque → barbie
    credibility → cred
    disrespect → diss
    magazine → mag
    cinematograph → cinema
    picture → pic
etc.
Often, but certainly not exclusively, the apocope is less formal, sometimes slang.

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Coinages, toponyms and eponyms

Coinages are the result of an individual or organisation deliberately introducing a new word into a language to fill a perceived gap in the lexicon.  They are also known as neologisms.  They are related to toponyms which are new words named after a place and eponyms, new words named after a famous person (real or fictional).
Here are some examples:

1. Neologisms
   can be wholly new words, affixes attached innovatively to old words to make new ones or words used in new word classes (such as ask or high as nouns).  Some examples are:
       quark [invented by James Joyce and used as a term in particle physics]
       Catch 22 [invented by Joseph Heller in the book of that name]
       quiz [of uncertain origin but possibly invented in the 19th century by a Dublin theatre manager]
       agnostic [invented by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1869]
2. Toponyms
   are usually applied to products which come from certain places or events closely associated with them.  Some examples are:
       kashmir, jodhpur [from areas of India]
       ulster [from the province in Ireland]
       bourbon [from a county of Kentucky]
       marathon [from a location in Greece]
3. Eponyms
   may come from the names of real or fictitious people.  As time goes by , they usually lose the initial capital, no longer being recognised as proper nouns.  They generally refer to objects closely associated with a person or character or the nature of the person.  Some examples are:
       wellington boot {from the general of that name]
       scrooge [from the character in Dickens]
       boycott [from Charles Boycott, an Irish land agent]
       biro [from the inventor of the pen]

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If you are happy that you have understood the nature of word formation in English, you can go on to considering the teaching and learning implications in this area which also considers how other languages use word-formation processes in more depth.

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Related guides
teaching word formation	the obvious next step
prefixes and suffixes	the PDF version of the lists in this guide
combining forms	a PDF formatted list of the most common combining forms in English
word stress	for a guide to heteronyms among other things
compounding	for a related area of word formation which deserves its own guide
nominalisation in EAP	for a consideration of how making nouns from verbs and adjectives produces a more academic style
morphology	for a more general and theoretical guide
markedness	for a guide that explains how some nouns are marked for size, sex etc. often through suffixation
the initial training guide	for a simpler version of this guide
the roots of English	for more on borrowings
lexis index	for links to other guides in the general area

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