Home » Word structure » Derivation

Topic: Derivation

These resources cover the ways in which new words can be formed, for example by joining two words together or adding an ending to a word. These processes increase the vocabulary of our language, and an understanding of these processes can be helpful in expanding our personal vocabulary knowledge.

Compound word creation

An interactive activity to explore how compounds are made

In this activity, students work with an interactive smart board display to build compound words.

The Activity pages for this starter can be found in the menu entitled 'This Unit' in the upper right corner of this page. Each Activity page contains slides that can be displayed using a projector or smart board. 

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Compound word creation: Activity 1

An interactive activity to explore how compounds are made

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Compound word creation: Activity 2

See how many compound words you can create from a given word.

For each word, see how many compounds you can think of which include the word.

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Neoclassical compounds

In this activity, students analyse neoclassical compounds, which are compounds where often the word elements were taken from the classical languages (ancient Greek and Latin) and were combined in new ways in English (the element neo- comes from the Greek for ‘new’). Neoclassical compounds involve combining forms. They are meaningful elements drawn from Greek and Latin, which can combine with other elements to form words.

Activity 1

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Building words

Exploring the internal structure of words

Goals

  • Identify prefixes, base words, and suffixes.
  • Build words by combining prefixes, base words, and suffixes.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of word classes by identifying the word class of the newly derived words.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of derivational morphology by using newly derived words in sentences.

Lesson Plan

The Activity page appears in the menu entitled 'This Unit' in the upper right.

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Building words: Activity

In this activity, explore how words are built out of a prefix, base form and a suffix. 

What meanings do different prefixes and suffixes have? Can any base form take any prefix or suffix? How can you manipulate language to create new forms? For example, deread is not an English word. What might it mean?

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Derived nouns and composition

In this activity we will look at suffixes that can change adjectives and verbs into nouns.

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Derived nouns and composition: Activity 1

Complete the examples with nouns which are derived from the highlighted adjectives. The first answer is provided for you.

Anna was late. It annoyed me. → Anna's lateness annoyed me.

Jeff is shy. I didn’t notice this until the party. → I didn’t notice Jeff’s ___ until the party. I didn’t notice Jeff’s shyness until the party.

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Genre of Argument and Discussion 2

Lesson Plan

Goals:

  • Identify and analsye how nominalisations are used in essays
  • Identify and analsye how the passiv voice is used in essays
  • Apply these features in a writing task

Lesson Plan

This is Part 2 of the lesson on Argument and Discussion. 

Make sure you have the handout from Part 1. 

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Genre of Argument and Discussion 2

Activities

This is Part 2 of the lesson on Argument and Discussion. 

Make sure you have the handout from Part 1. 

In the first lesson, you looked at how information is organised through discourse structure. In this lesson, you will examine choices of language and register.  

Activity 1

Re-read paragraph 3. Can you find an example of the same word being used in different grammatical roles?

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Morphology - an introduction

In this lesson, students explore word morphology. Morphology is an area of language study concerned with how words are formed. While syntax is about the larger structures formed when words are put together, morphology is about the structure within words.

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Noun endings

Exploring suffixes and how they affect word class

In this activity we will look at suffixes which change verbs and adjectives into nouns. This process is a part of derivational morphology. 

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Prefixes in adjectives

In this lesson, students will look at some common prefixes that can be added to adjectives and see how they change meanings.

Goals

  • Identify some common prefixes in adjectives.
  • Describe the meanings contributed by common adjective prefixes.
  • Experiment with acceptable and unacceptable prefixes for particular adjectives.

Lesson Plan

The teacher explains that today, we will look at adjectives with distinctive prefixes.

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Verb endings

In this activity we will look at suffixes which change adjectives and nouns into verbs. This process is a part of derivational morphology. 

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Word Formation: Adjective Derivation 1

Plan

Starter

Show learners the first slide and the three sentences. Ask them to identify the adjectives and to think of an affix they could attach to each one to change the meaning. Show some possible solutions in the next slide and explain how, just like with nouns, we can use affixes to alter the meaning of adjectives. 

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Word Formation: Adjective Derivation 1

Lesson

Starter

Read these three sentences. Identify the adjective in each. Discuss if you can add an affixes to change the meaning of the adjective in each sentence. 

  1. This is the only weekly magazine.
  2. She had a cold and a red nose.
  3. My kids always get too active after having sweets.

Here are some ways you could have changed the adjectives with affixes. 

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Word Formation: Adjective Derivation 2

Plan

Starter

Show learners the first slide and the four sentences. Ask them to transform the base word in brackets into an adjective by using an affix. Ask them to attempt this individually, then in pairs and finally to share with the whole class. Discuss to see if they noticed any patterns. Show the solutions in the next slide. All these examples use suffixes to change a noun into an adjective that shares the same qualities. Also, note that sometimes spelling changes are required. 

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Word Formation: Adjective Derivation 2

Lesson

Starter

Read these four sentences. Each one has a base word in brackets you need to transfrom into an adjective by adding an affix.

What do the examples have in common? Where do they differ?

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Word Formation: Noun Derivation 1

Plan

Starter

Show learners the first slide and the list of two words. Have the learners discuss what they think the words have in common in pairs or small groups. In the next slide, check to see if they noticed all the same criteria: they are nouns, formed of base words, with an extra element added to the start and/or end. See if learners know what we call these extra elements. In the next slide, have learners take notes on the definitions of affixes, prefixes and suffixes. 

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Word Formation: Noun Derivation 1

Lesson

Starter

In the last two lessons, we looked at how compound words are formed. But there are other ways of making new words and changing word classes. Look at these two words for example:

teacher, unkindness

What do these two words have in common? How are they formed? Are they compound words? 

Both these words:

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Word Formation: Noun Derivation 2

Plan

Starter

Remind learners of the words they saw last lesson which can be modified with suffixes and which denote a job or role. Show them the three new examples: what do they notice about them? Discuss with the whole class and reveal the answers in the next slide: all these examples use a suffix to create an abstract noun. If necessary, ask the learners to give more examples and definitions of concrete and abstract nouns. 

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