ADULT EDUCATION TO READ & WRITE IN ENGLISH

We teach adults with little or no formal education how to read, write, speak, spell and listen. We help students to write and read very basic texts and sentences easily. To enable students to communicate in very simple English. We caoch them on elementary arithmetic of addition, substraction, multiplication and division. We guide and encourage our pupils to build confidence in themselves.

WE Teach:

- English alphabet
- Word formation
- Sound production
- Numbers, colours and shapes
- Months of the year, days of the week, date and time
- Reading & comprehension, writing, grammar and oral English
- Addition, Substraction, Multiplication & Division.

Duration: 12 months

Assignment, class work, test, debates, presentations and examination are taking periodically and at the end of the session and certificates of participation are issued to students at the end of their program.

FEES:
#50,000/Per term/3months

List of textbooks and other study materials will be given to students to purchase from bookshop.

LOCATION:

SYMMETRIC ADULT EDUCATION
Suite 35, Mota Complex,
Opposite Harmony Estate,
Ifako-Gbagada,
Lagos State,
Nigeria.

LESSON DAYS:
Monday, Wednesday & Friday
10:a.m. to 1:p.m.

12 Types Of Verb Tenses And How To Use Them

What Is A Verb Tense? 12 Types Of Tenses Past Tenses Present Tenses Future Tenses Rely On Grammar Coach

If you’re familiar with basic English grammar, we bet you can describe a verb and perhaps name a tense or two. In the sentences the boy walks and the girl ran, the words walks and ran are the verbs.

Did you also recognize that walks is in the present tense, or that ran is in the past tense? Whether you did or didn’t, we’re here to review verb tenses with you and also astound you with the fact that there are 12—count them, 12—verb tenses in all!

What is a verb tense?
Generally speaking, verb tenses identify the time period when an action occurs. The verb walks communicates not only how many people completed the action (it’s singular), but also when it occurred. In this case, the tense is present. The person walks right now.

Interestingly, not all languages treat verb tenses the same way. In English, the ending on a verb communicates what tense it’s in. (Walk becomes walks and walked.) In some cases, an auxiliary verb (also known as a helping verb, like will or need) is required as well. In Chinese languages, for example, a verb doesn’t change its spelling depending on the tense. A separate word (or particle) is combined with the verb to explain when it occurred.

12 types of verb tenses
The simple tenses (past, present, and future) are the most basic forms, but there are 12 major verb tenses in English in all. We’ll review the tenses here.

Past tenses
The past tenses use verbs to say that something happened in the past, meaning any time before this moment right now. There are four variations of past tenses:

Simple past: describes events that began and ended in the past.

Past continuous: describes events that began in the past, continued for a length of time, and ended in the past.

Past perfect: describes a past event that occurred before another past event.

Past perfect continuous: describes an event that began in the past, continued for a length of time, and was in progress when another past event happened.

Simple past
The simple past tense describes events that have already happened and are completely finished. Most verbs can be made past tense by adding -ed, –d, or sometimes the variant –t at the end of a present tense verb, as in liked and watched.

However, many irregular verbs have unique past tense forms. For example, go becomes went, and think becomes thought.

Simple past is usually used to write about historical events, like so:

Galileo observed the stars.

In this example, the verb tense indicates that the astronomer Galileo completely finished the act of observing the stars at some point in the past.

Past continuous
The past continuous tense describes an ongoing activity that occurred in the past. It is formed by combining the past tense verb to be (which must be correctly conjugated to agree with the subject) and the present participle of a verb (ending in –ing):

The planet was moving along an elliptical orbit.
In this example, the verb tense says that the planet began moving sometime in the past and continued to do so for a period of time (in the past).

Establish the different times to use was vs. were so you won’t have any mistakes again.

Past perfect
The perfect tenses involve more complex time relationships. They build upon simple tenses by combining a verb with has, have, or had.

The past perfect tense, also called the pluperfect tense, describes a past event in relation to another event that occurs closer to the present. It is formed by combining had and the past participle of the verb.

The girl bought the telescope her teacher had recommended to her.
The girl bought (simple past) what the teacher had recommended (past perfect tense). One action occurred (had recommended) before the other (bought).

Past perfect continuous
The past perfect continuous tense describes an ongoing action that—like the past perfect—was performed in relation to another event that occurs closer to the present. It is formed by combining had been with the present participle of the verb.

He had been studying for his astronomy final when the doorbell rang.
The above example uses the verb tense to indicate that he was studying for a length of time before another event (the doorbell ringing) interrupted or stopped his act of studying.

Present tenses
Generally speaking, we use the present tenses to say that an event is happening right now in the present time. Like the past tenses, there are four variations of present tenses:

Simple present: Describes an event as happening in the present.
Present continuous: Describes an event as being in progress in the present and likely continuing into the future.

Present perfect: Describes an event that occurred in the past but has some connection to the present.

Present perfect continuous: Describes an event that began in the past but still continues to happen in the present.

Simple present
The simple present tense describes events happening now. It’s also useful for describing a direct action that’s not exclusive to the past or 4future.

Sentences in present tense often have the most straightforward structure because they use the root form of the verb or a conjugation of the verb to be. The root form of the verb is the form you will find if you look up a verb in our dictionary.

We often use the simple present tense to state facts:

Cats eat mice and birds.
In this sentence, the simple present tense is used to state the fact that cats regularly eat mice and birds.

When you use the verb be in the simple present tense, it must agree with the subject of the sentence. For example:

I am tall.
You are my best friend.
She is my older sister.
We are hungry.
They are late for work.

Present continuous
The present continuous tense describes an ongoing activity that is happening now, in the present. It is formed by combining the verb to be and the present participle of the verb (ending in –ing):

The baby is laughing at Shelly’s monkey puppet.
In this example, the verb tense is used to state that the baby is currently in the process of laughing at Shelly’s silly puppet and will likely continue to do so for a while yet.

Present perfect
The present perfect tense describes a past event that’s still happening in the present. It is formed by combining the word has or have (depending on the subject) with the past 5participle of the verb.

Let’s look at this sentence:

The baby has played this game before.
In this example, the verb tense states that a past event is related to the present. In this case, the sentence is saying that the baby is currently playing a game that they have also played at another time in the past.

Present perfect continuous:
The present perfect continuous tense describes an ongoing action that began in the past and is still occurring in the present.4t It is formed by combining the phrase has been or have been (depending on the subject) with the present participle of the verb.

Shelly has been babysitting for years.
In this example, the verb tense is used to say that Shelly started babysitting children in the past, continued to babysit for years, and still continues to babysit now.

Future tenses
We use the future tenses to say that an event will happen sometime in the future. Like past and present tenses, there are four variations of future tenses:

Simple future: Describes an event that will begin and end in the future.

Future continuous: Describes an event that will begin in the future and continue for a length of time.

Future perfect: Describes a future event that will happen before another future event.

Future perfect continuous: Describes a future event that will begin, continue for a length of time, and still be in progress when another future event occurs.

Simple future
The simple future tense describes events that haven’t happened yet. It’s useful for describing an intended action or a prediction. It’s typically formed by combining the word will or, less commonly, shall with a root verb.

For example:

Molly will finish her chores when she has time.
We shall travel to France next summer.
The word will is an auxiliary verb, and finish is the root verb. Together, they explain that Molly4 intends to do her chores at a later point in time.

Learn more about auxiliary verbs and the verbs they help out, here.

Future continuous tense
The future continuous tense describes an activity that will extend over a period of time and will happen in the future. It is formed by combining the phrase will be and the present participle of the verb (ending in –ing):

I will be working all afternoon, so I can’t help Olivia with her report.
In this sentence, the verb tense is used to say that I plan to work for a period of time in the future.

Future perfect tense
The future perfect tense describes an upcoming action in relation to another event farther in the future. It is formed by combining the phrase will have and the past participle of the verb:

By tomorrow afternoon, Olivia will have finished her report.
This sentence uses the future perfect tense to say that Olivia’s report is incomplete right now, but it will be finished before tomorrow afternoon.

Future perfect continuous
The future perfect continuous tense describes an action that will extend over a period of time and will be performed in relation to another future event. It is formed by combining the phrase will have been with the present participle of the verb (ending in –ing):

When this show ends, Molly will have been watching TV for three hours.

This sentence uses the future perfect continuous tense to say that, in the future, Molly will be watching TV for three hours when this show ends (which will also happen in the future). By using the future perfect continuous tense, this sentence also implies that Molly may still continue to watch TV even after the show is over.

Perfect grammar has never been easier
To avoid confusion, you should use one consistent tense whenever possible.

❌ Incorrect: The crowd claps and laughed at the comedian.
✅ Correct: The crowd clapped and laughed at the comedian.

The incorrect example contains both a present tense verb (claps) and a past tense verb (laughed). This can be confusing. If both actions are past or present, both verbs should have the same tense.

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CONTACT:
Symmetric Adult Education.

26 TYPES OF PUNCTUATION MARKS & TYPOGRAPHICAL SYMBOLS

In addition to words, we use many different symbols and characters to organize our thoughts and make text easier to read. All of these symbols come in two major categories: punctuation marks and typographical symbols. These symbols have many different uses and include everything from the humble period (.) to the rarely used caret symbol (^). There may even be a few symbols out there that you’ve never even heard of before that leave you scratching your head when you see them on your keyboard!

WHAT IS PUNCTUATION?
Punctuation is the act or system of using specific marks or symbols in writing to separate different elements from each other or to make writing more clear. Punctuation is used in English and the other languages that use the Latin alphabet. Many other writing systems also use punctuation, too. Thanks to punctuation, we don’t have to suffer through a block of text that looks like this:

My favorite color is red do you like red red is great my sister likes green she always says green is the color of champions regardless of which color is better we both agree that no one likes salmon which is a fish and not a color seriously

PUNCTUATION EXAMPLES
The following sentences give examples of the many different punctuation marks that we use:

My dog, Bark Scruffalo, was featured in a superhero movie.

If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who are you going to call?

A wise man once said, “Within the body of every person lies a skeleton.”

Hooray! I found everything on the map: the lake, the mountain, and the forest.

I told Ashley (if that was her real name) that I needed the copy lickety-split.

WHAT IS A TYPOGRAPHICAL SYMBOLS?
The term typographical symbol, or any other number of phrases, refers to a character or symbol that isn’t considered to be a punctuation mark but may still be used in writing for various purposes. Typographical symbols are generally avoided in formal writing under most circumstances. However, you may see typographic symbols used quite a bit in informal writing.

TYPOGRAPHICAL SYMBOL EXAMPLES
The following examples show some ways that a writer might use typographical symbols. Keep in mind that some of these sentences may not be considered appropriate in formal writing.

The frustrated actor said she was tired of her co-star’s “annoying bull****.”

For questions, email us at anascabana@bananacabanas.fake!

The band had five #1 singles on the American music charts during the 1990s.

My internet provider is AT&T.

⚡️ PUNCTUATION vs. TYPOGRAPHICAL SYMBOLS

Punctuation marks are considered part of grammar and often have well-established rules for how to use them properly. For example, the rules of proper grammar state that a letter after a period should be capitalized and that a comma must be used before a coordinating conjunction.

Typographical symbols, on the other hand, may not have widely accepted rules for how, or even when, they should be used. Generally speaking, most grammar resources will only allow the use of typographical symbols under very specific circumstances and will otherwise advise a writer to avoid using them.

TYPES OF PUNCTUATION MARKS AND SYMBOLS
There are many different types of punctuation marks and typographical symbols. We’ll briefly touch on them now, but you can learn more about these characters by checking out the links in this list and also each section below:

Period
Question mark
Exclamation point
Comma
Colon
Semicolon
Hyphen
En dash
Em dash
Parentheses
Square brackets
Curly brackets
Angle brackets
Quotation marks
Apostrophe
Slash
Ellipses
Asterisk
Ampersand
Bullet point
Pound symbol
Tilde
Backslash
At symbol
Caret symbol
Pipe symbol

PERIOD, QUESTION MARK, AND EXCLAMATION MARK
These three commonly used punctuation marks are used for the same reason: to end an independent thought.

PERIOD (.)
A period is used to end a declarative sentence. A period indicates that a sentence is finished.

E.g:
Today is Friday.

Unique to them, periods are also often used in abbreviations.

E.g:
Prof. Dumbledore once again awarded a ludicrous amount of points to Gryffindor.

QUESTION mark (?)
The question mark is used to end a question, also known as an interrogative sentence.

E.g:
Do you feel lucky?

EXCLAMATION MARK (!)
The exclamation mark is used at the end of exclamations and interjections.

e.g:
Our house is haunted!
Wow!

COMMA, COLON, AND SEMICOLON
Commas, colons, and semicolons can all be used to connect sentences together.

COMMA (,)
The comma is often the punctuation mark that gives writers the most problems. It has many different uses and often requires good knowledge of grammar to avoid making mistakes when using it. Some common uses of the comma include:

Joining clauses: Mario loves Peach, and she loves him.

Nonrestrictive elements: My favorite team, the Fighting Mongooses, won the championship this year.

Lists: The flag was red, white, and blue.

Coordinate adjectives: The cute, happy puppy licked my hand.

COLON (
The colon is typically used to introduce additional information.

E.g:
The detective had three suspects: the salesman, the gardener, and the lawyer.

Like commas, colons can also connect clauses together.

Example:
We forgot to ask the most important question: who was buying lunch?

Colons have a few other uses, too.

Examples:
The meeting starts at 8:15 p.m.
The priest started reading from Mark 3:6.

SEMICOLON (
Like the comma and the colon, the semicolon is used to connect sentences together. The semicolon typically indicates that the second sentence is closely related to the one before it.

Examples:
I can’t eat peanuts; I am highly allergic to them.

Lucy loves to eat all kinds of sweets; lollipops are her favorite.

HYPHEN AND DASHES (en dash and em dash)
All three of these punctuation marks are often referred to as “dashes.” However, they are all used for entirely different reasons.

HYPHEN (-)
The hyphen is used to form compound words.

Examples:
I went to lunch with my father-in-law.

She was playing with a jack-in-the-box.

He was accused of having pro-British sympathies.

EN DASH (–)
The en dash is used to express ranges or is sometimes used in more complex compound words.

Examples:
The homework exercises are on pages 20–27.

The songwriter had worked on many Tony Award–winning productions.

EM DASH (—)
The em dash is used to indicate a pause or interrupted speech.

Examples:
The thief was someone nobody expected—me!

“Those kids will—” was all he managed to say before he was hit by a water balloon.

Test your knowledge on the different dashes here.

PARENTHESES, BRACKETS, AND BRACES
These pairs of punctuation marks look similar, but they all have different uses. In general, the parentheses are much more commonly used than the others.

PARENTHESES ()
Typically, parentheses are used to add additional information.

Examples:
I thought (for a very long time) if I should actually give an honest answer.

Tomorrow is Christmas (my favorite holiday)!

Parentheses have a variety of other uses, too.

Pollution increased significantly. (See Chart 14B)

He was at an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting.

Richard I of England (1157–1199) had the heart of a lion.

SQUARE BRACKETS []
Typically, square brackets are used to clarify or add information to quotations.

Examples:
According to an eyewitness, the chimpanzees “climbed on the roof and juggled [bananas].”

The judge said that “the defense attorney [Mr. Wright] had made it clear that the case was far from closed.”

CURLY BRACKETS {}
Curly brackets, also known as braces, are rarely used punctuation marks that are used to group a set.

Examples:
I was impressed by the many different colors {red, green, yellow, blue, purple, black, white} they selected for the flag’s design.

ANGLE BRACKETS <>
Angle brackets have no usage in formal writing and are rarely ever used even in informal writing. These characters have more uses in other fields, such as math or computing.

QUOTATION MARKS AND APOSTROPHE
You’ll find these punctuation marks hanging out at the top of a line of text.

QUOTATION MARKS (“”)
The most common use of quotation marks is to contain quotations.

Examples:
She said, “Don’t let the dog out of the house.”

Bob Ross liked to put “happy little trees” in many of his paintings.

APOSTROPHE (‘)
The apostrophe is most often used to form possessives and contractions.

Examples:
The house’s back door is open.

My cousin’s birthday is next week.

It isn’t ready yet.

We should’ve stayed outside.

SLASH AND ELLIPSES
These are two punctuation marks you may not see too often, but they are still useful.

SLASH (/)
The slash has several different uses. Here are some examples:

Relationships: The existence of boxer briefs somehow hasn’t ended the boxers/briefs debate.

Alternatives: They accept cash and/or credit.

Fractions: After an hour, 2/3 of the audience had already left.

ELLIPSES (…)
In formal writing, ellipses are used to indicate that words were removed from a quote.

Examples:
The mayor said, “The damages will be … paid for by the city … as soon as possible.”

In informal writing, ellipses are often used to indicate pauses or speech that trails off.

He nervously stammered and said, “Look, I … You see … I wasn’t … Forget it, okay.”

TYPOGRAPHICAL SYMBOLS
Typographical symbols rarely appear in formal writing. You are much more likely to see them used for a variety of reasons in informal writing.

ASTERISK (*)
In formal writing, especially academic and scientific writing, the asterisk is used to indicate a footnote.

Examples:
Chocolate is the preferred flavor of ice cream.*

*According to survey data from the Ice Cream Data Center.

The asterisk may also be used to direct a reader toward a clarification or may be used to censor inappropriate words or phrases.

AMPERSAND (&
The ampersand substitutes for the word and. Besides its use in the official names of things, the ampersand is typically avoided in formal writing.

Examples:
The band gave a speech at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

BULLET POINT (•)
Bullet points are used to create lists. For example,

For this recipe you will need:

eggs
milk
sugar
flour
baking powder

POUND SYMBOL (#)
Informally, the pound symbol is typically used to mean number or is used in social media hashtags.

Examples:
The catchy pop song reached #1 on the charts.

Ready 4 Halloween 2morrow!!! #spooky #TrickorTreat

TILDE (~)
Besides being used as an accent mark in Spanish and Portuguese words, the tilde is rarely used. Informally, a person may use it to mean “about” or “approximately.”

Examples:
We visited São Paulo during our vacation.
I think my dog weighs ~20 pounds.

BACKSLASH (\)
The backslash is primarily used in computer programming and coding. It might be used online and in texting to draw emoticons, but it has no other common uses in writing. Be careful not to mix it up with the similar forward slash (/), which is a punctuation mark.

AT SYMBOL (@)
The at symbol substitutes for the word at in informal writing. In formal writing, it is used when writing email addresses.

Examples:
His email address is duckduck@goose.abc.

CARET SYMBOL (^)
The caret symbol is used in proofreading, but may be used to indicate an exponent if a writer is unable to use superscript.

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Looking for where to attend adult education lesson, learn how to read, write, speak and spell in Lagos, Nigeria, Gbagada, Ikeja, Lekki, Ikoyi, Ajah, Surulere, Oshodi, Victoria Island, Ketu, Ojota, Ojodu-Berger, Mowe, Ikorodu, Islolo, Festac, Agege, Orile, Obalende, Lagos-Island, Apapa, Songo, etc.

#adulteducation #readandwrite #spelling #learnhowtospellandspeak #learnhowtoreadandwrite #adultschoollagos #adultlearningcenter

CONTACT:
Symmetric Adult Education, Gbagada, Lagos.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR
WORD FORMATION

Word Formation - Learn What It Is, Types and Rules with Examples

How are words formed?

Are there any rules by which words are formed?

Let’s find out. This article will walk you through what word formation is, the various types of word formation and the rules to be adhered to when forming words. The number of examples given will make your learning process more effective and easier.

Table of Contents

What Is Word Formation?
Types of Word Formation with Examples
Rules to be Followed When Forming Words
Test Your Understanding of Word Formation
Frequently Asked Questions on Word Formation in English

WHAT IS WORD FORMATION?
The English language is known for its wonderful quality of the way in which words and sentences are formed and used. Formation of new words from an existing root word by adding a syllable or another word is the general process; however, there are multiple ways in which it can be done.

TYPES OF WORD FORMATION WITH EXAMPLES
The formation of words is classified into four types based on how the process of formation is carried out. They are:

By adding prefixes
By adding suffixes
Converting from one word class to another
Forming compound words

Let us look at each type of word formation in detail.

- ADDING PREFIXES
The term ‘prefix’ refers to one or more alphabets added to the stem of a word, mostly to make it negative. The most commonly used prefixes include ‘in-’, ‘un-’, ‘dis-’, ‘im-’, ‘ir-’, etc. Look at the examples given below for a clearer understanding of how prefixes are used to form new words.

Examples of Word Formation by the Addition of Prefixes:

Discipline – indiscipline
Just – unjust
Tidy – untidy
Respect – disrespect
Understand – misunderstand
Comfortable – uncomfortable
Comfort – discomfort
Responsible – irresponsible
Honest – dishonest
Happy – unhappy
Polite – impolite
Experience – inexperience
Practical – impractical
Important – unimportant
Legal – illegal
Ethical – unethical
Potent – impotent

ADDING SUFFIXES
A suffix is a short syllable added at the end of a base word. The addition of suffixes usually changes the word class of the particular word. The most common suffixes include ‘-ment’, ‘-ness’, ‘-ity’, ‘-ous’, ‘-tion’, ‘-sion’, ‘-al’, ‘-able’, ‘-ible’, ‘-ive’, ‘-ly’, ‘-ate’, ‘-er’, ‘-or’, etc. Check out the following examples to see how suffixes are added.

Examples of Word Formation by the Addition of Suffixes
Comprehend (verb) – comprehension (noun) – comprehensible (adjective)
Inform (verb) – information (noun) – informative (adjective)
Invest (verb) – Investment (noun) – Investor (noun)
Write (verb) – writer (noun)
Authorise (verb) – authorisation (noun)
Move (verb) – movement (noun)
Add (verb) – addition (noun)
Happy (adjective) – happiness (noun)
Conserve (verb) – conservation (noun)
Wide (Adjective) – widen (verb)
Manage (verb) – manageable (adjective) – manager (noun)
Courage (noun) – courageous (adjective)
Brave (adjective) – bravery (noun)
Profit (noun) – profitable (adjective)
Quick (adjective) – quickly (adverb)
Happy (adjective) – happily (adverb)
Sad (adjective) – sadness (noun)

- CONVERSION
The process of conversion focuses solely on changing the word class of the particular word. If you have noticed, you would have seen how some nouns are used to perform the role of a verb or an adjective acting like a noun just by the addition of another word or slightly altering the spelling of the actual word.

Examples of Word Formation by Conversion
The rich should help the poor.
Adjectives such as ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ are used as nouns by using them with the article ‘the’.

Everyone is talented.
‘Talented’ – a past participle is used as an adjective in the above sentence. The word is formed by adding the suffix ‘ed’ to the end of the noun ‘talent’.

There will definitely be a lot of ups and downs in life.
Prepositions ‘up’ and ‘down’ are used as nouns by adding ‘s’ to the end of it.

He texted me about the meeting only at the last minute.
The noun ‘text’ used to refer to a text message sent on a phone is used as a verb in the sentence by adding an ‘ed’ to the end of the word.

The financial aid had to be approved before we could make a decision.
The noun ‘finance’ is used as an adjective by adding ‘ial’ to the end of it and the verb ‘decide’ is used as a noun by removing ‘de’ and adding ‘sion’ to the word.

- FORMING COMPOUND WORDS
Compound words are formed by combining one part of speech with another to form a specific word class. There are many ways in which compound words are formed. Verbs are combined with adjectives to form compound verbs, a present participle is combined with a noun to form a compound noun, two nouns are combined to form a compound noun, an adjective and a noun are combined to form a compound noun, an adverb is combined with a noun to form a compound noun, an adjective is combined with a past participle to form a compound adjective and so on. Take a look at the following examples and go through the articles on compound nouns, compound words and compound adjectives to understand how they work.

Examples of Word Formation by Compounding
Over (adverb) + load (noun) – Overload
White (adjective) + wash (verb) – Whitewash
Black (adjective) + board (noun ) – Blackboard
Cup (noun) + board (noun) – Cupboard
Short (adjective) + hand (noun) – Shorthand
Swimming (present participle) + pool (noun) – Swimming pool
Three (adjective) + legged (past participle) – Three-legged
Break (verb) + Down (preposition) – Breakdown
Up (preposition) + town (noun) – Uptown
Copy (verb) + writer (noun) – Copywriter
Sun (noun) + rise (verb) – Sunrise
Count (verb) + down (preposition) – Countdown
Flash (verb) + mob (noun) – Flash mob
Master (noun) + piece (noun) – Masterpiece
Round (adjective) + table (noun) – Round-table

Rules to be Followed When Forming Words

Formation of words can be a very interesting exercise, but you have to be really careful when you are adding inflections or affixes. There are a few things you will need to bear in mind when you are forming words. Take a look at the following points to learn what they are.

Before making any change to the stem of the word, try to analyse what is the kind of meaning you want the word to convey and what role the word will have to play in the sentence.
In most cases, the beginning of the base word remains the same. Only when prefixes are added the word has a syllable added to the beginning of it. Notice that even in this case, the word is retained as such.
When suffixes are added, there are many instances where you will have to remove the last one or more alphabets of the word and add the suffix. However, there are words like ‘movement’ where the suffix is just added without any change in the spelling of the base word.
Here is one way to easily know which suffix has to be added to form a particular word class – most often, nouns end in ‘er’, ‘or’, ‘ist’, ‘ian’, ‘ion’, ‘ment’, ‘ness’, and ‘ity’; verbs end in ‘ise’, ‘ate’ and ‘en’; adjectives end in ‘able’, ‘ible’, ‘ive’, ‘ic’, ‘ed’, ‘ing’ and ‘al’; and adverbs normally end in ‘ly’.
When words are formed by conversion, be very careful. Make sure you know that you are converting them accurately and using them in the sentence properly.

When forming compound words, see to it that you hyphenate them if necessary, use the right combination of words and do not just mix and match any word.

Changing from one tense to another also can also be considered a type of word formation, as the word is inflected to indicate the twelve different tenses in the English language.

Forming degrees of comparison can also be put under word formation. In this case, the comparative and superlative degrees are formed by adding ‘er’ and ‘est’ to the end of the adjective. The comparative and superlative degrees of polysyllabic words are formed by using ‘more’ and ‘most’, respectively, along with the adjective.

Test Your Understanding of Word Formation
Exercise 1 – Add Prefixes and Suffixes
Add prefixes and suffixes to the following words.

1. Passion____

2. Remember____

3. ____conscious

4. Sense____

5. ____acceptable

6. Entertain____

7. ____representation

8. Neat____

9. Invent____

10. ____interpret

Answers for Exercise 1
1. Passionate

2. Remembrance

3. Unconscious/Subconscious

4. Sensible/Senseless

5. Unacceptable

6. Entertainment

7. Misrepresentation

8. Neatly/Neatness

9. Invention

10. Misinterpret

Exercise 2 – Conversion of Words
Go through the following words and convert them as directed.

1. Money (convert into adjective)

2. Brave (convert into noun)

3. Clean (convert into noun)

4. Prayer (convert into adjective)

5. Resemblance (convert into verb)

6. Slow (convert into adverb)

7. Treat (convert into noun)

8. Confession (convert into verb)

9. Vary (convert into adjective)

10. Beauty (convert into verb)

Answers for Exercise 2
1. Monetary

2. Bravery

3. Cleanliness

4. Prayerful

5. Resemble

6. Slowly

7. Treatment

8. Confess

9. Various/variable

10. Beautify

Exercise 3 – Form Compound Words
Go through the words in the box given below and use them to form ten compound words.

up, table, spend, load, green, machine, case, make, estimate, over, self

1. _______ confident

2. Washing _______

3. Time _______

4. Under _______

5. _______sufficient

6. Up_______

7. _______set

8. Suit_______

9. _______over

10. _______thrift

Answers for Exercise 3
1. Overconfident

2. Washing machine

3. Timetable

4. Underestimate

5. Self-sufficient

6. Upload

7. Upset

8. Suitcase

9. Makeover

10. Spendthrift

Frequently Asked Questions on Word Formation in English

Q1
What is word formation?
Word formation is the process by which new words are formed by adding an affix, another word or converting from one word class to another by removing and adding alphabets.

Q2
What are the four types of word formation?
The four types of word formation include:

Addition of prefix
Addition of suffix
Conversion from one word class to another
Forming compound words

Q3
Give some examples of word formation.
Here are some examples of the various types of word formation for your reference:

Practical – impractical (prefix)
Purpose – purposeful (suffix)
Silent – silence (conversion)
Dining + room – Dining room (compound word)
Small – smaller – smallest (degrees of comparison).