2. 📝 Word Formation

🔹 Derivation

• Most common prefixes with their meanings:

  • Negative: un- (unhappy), dis- (disagree), ir-/il-/in- (irregular, illegal, incomplete).

  • Time/Order: pre- (preview), post- (post-war), re- (rewrite).

  • Size/Degree: over- (overcook), sub- (subway).

• Most frequent suffixes (adjectives, adverbs, nouns, verbs):

  • Nouns: -ness (kindness), -tion (completion), -ment (movement), -er (teacher).

  • Adjectives: -ful (helpful), -less (homeless), -able (washable), -y (cloudy).

  • Adverbs: -ly (quickly).

  • Verbs: -ise/-ize (modernise/modernize), -fy (simplify), -en (widen).

• Changes in grammatical category:

  • Showing how adding an affix changes the word's function (e.g., happy (adj.) $\to$ unhappy (adj.) $\to$ unhappiness (noun) $\to$ unhappily (adv.)).

🔹 Compounding

• Compound nouns:

  • Explanation: Two or more words acting as a single noun.

  • Examples: sunflower, greenhouse, bus stop.

• Compound adjectives:

  • Explanation: Two or more words (often with a participle or an adjective) modifying a noun.

  • Examples: well-known, part-time, fast-moving.

• Spelling rules: hyphenated, unhyphenated, solid/separated:

  • Emphasize that rules evolve, but compound adjectives preceding a noun are usually hyphenated (a high-speed train).

  • Contrast: a bookshop (solid) vs. a bus stop (separated).

🔹 Conversion

• Noun $\to$ verb: to email, to google, to microwave, to chair.

• Verb $\to$ noun: a run, a call, a cut, a drive.

🔹 Other Processes

• Abbreviations: clipping, blending (brunch, smog):

  • Clipping: Shortening a word (e.g., advertisement $\to$ ad, laboratory $\to$ lab).

  • Blending: Fusing two words (e.g., Breakfast + Lunch $\to$ Brunch; Smoke + Fog $\to$ Smog).

• Back-formation (editor $\to$ edit): Removing a suffix to form a new word (e.g., television $\to$ televise, editor $\to$ edit).