We often come across new words or technical terms in different subjects. An awareness of word formation processes enables us to work out the meaning of unfamiliar words in academic contexts.

This part will introduce the following common word formation processes:

  i)  affixation (prefixes and suffixes)
 ii)  compounding
iii)  clipping
iv)  blending
 v)  borrowing (loan words)

ii)   Compounding
Compounding is another common word-forming process in English. A compound word is formed by combining two words. Compound words can appear as a single word (e.g. homework), a hyphenated word (e.g. high-rise) or two separate words (e.g. real estate). Below are more examples.