Translation of English verbs into nouns. Formation of nouns in English

The vocabulary of the English language is replenished in two ways: by borrowing new lexical units from other languages ​​and by forming new words from those already existing in the language using various elements. Today we are talking about the latter - the formation of nouns in English.

What is a noun?

A noun is a part of speech that denotes an object or person, answering the question What is it? (What?), Who is it? (Who?). We get to know him from the first days: various phenomena and objects that surround us are nouns (a house - a house, a boy - a boy, a flower - a flower). In linguistics, there are various classifications of nouns. One of them is by the method of education. According to it, there are three types of nouns:

• simple (consisting of one or two syllables without prefixes or suffixes):

  a hall - corridor, a woman - woman, a hand - hand;

• derivatives (which contain prefixes or suffixes):

  achievement - achievement, friendship - friendship, reaction - reaction;

• composite (consisting of two or more words, but with one lexical meaning):

  a bookshelf is a bookshelf, a pencil-box is a pencil case, and mother-in-law is a mother-in-law.

This leads to three ways of forming nouns: conversion, affixation and composition.

Conversion

Simple nouns are formed using conversion. This is the simplest method, since it does not involve the use of suffixes, prefixes, or the addition of any other words or elements. A word simply passes from one part of speech to another without changes. This mainly concerns the formation of nouns from verbs in English and vice versa - verbs from nouns.

Hello dear readers! I have prepared another lesson for you, which is dedicated to nouns. Today's lesson can also be considered as a subtopic on word formation in English. After studying the material, you will learn what nouns are in the English language according to their composition, and also become familiar with the three most productive ways of forming nouns. Let's first remember what a noun is in English.

So, a noun in English is an independent part of speech that answers the questions “who?” or “what?” In a sentence, a noun can act as a subject, object, circumstance, predicate. A noun can denote the names of: things, persons, living beings, substances, events, facts, phenomena, geographical locations, properties, actions, qualities, states, etc.

And now, before moving directly to the methods of forming nouns, it is necessary to first determine what nouns are in terms of their composition.

In English, nouns can be classified according to their composition into three groups:

1. Simple nouns are monosyllabic words.

a book - book, a ball - ball, a table - table, a hair - hair, a dress - dress

2. Derivatives nouns are words that consist of a stem + a prefix or suffix (sometimes both).

impossibility - improbability, darkness - darkness, a builder - builder, politeness - politeness

3. Complex nouns are words that are made up of two or more stems. Compound nouns can be written together and with a hyphen.

railway - railway, merry-go-round - carousel

Ways to form nouns in English

As you probably already guessed, the main ways of forming nouns in English are conversion, collocation And affixation. Let's look at each method in more detail.

1. Conversion
In English, conversion is extremely productive for word formation. The essence of this method is that the word passes from one part of speech to another, without changing its form at all. New nouns in English are formed mainly from verbs in this way.

• Ver.: to look - look →
• Noun: a look
• Ch.: to play - play →
• Noun: a play - game
• Ver.: to push - push →
• Noun: a push
• Ver.: to ride - ride on horseback →
• Noun: a ride - riding on horseback
• Ch.: to set - install →
• Noun: a set - installation

2. Composition
The essence of compounding is that by combining two or more simple words, we get a new complex word. Compound nouns can include both simple nouns and verbs and adjectives. Compound nouns can be written together or with a hyphen.

• work + man = workman (worker)
• sea ​​+ food = seafood (seafood)
• sea ​​+ side = seaside (coast)
• rail + way = railway
• mail + box = mailbox (mailbox)
• black + board = blackboard (blackboard)
• arm + chair = armchair (chair)
• school + bag = schoolbag (briefcase)
• fire + fighter = firefighter (firefighter)
• snow + ball = snowball (snowball)
• girl + friend = girlfriend (friend)
• merry+ meeting = merry-meeting (festival)
• merry + go + round = merry-go-round (carousel)
• mother + in + law = mother-in-law (mother-in-law, mother-in-law)
• editor + in + chief = editor-in-chief (editor-in-chief)
• forget + me+ not = forget-me-not (forget-me-not)
• might + have + been = might-have-been (missed opportunity)

3. Affixation
The essence of affixation is that a prefix or suffix (or sometimes both) is added to the base of a word to form a new word. Knowing the meanings of prefixes and suffixes in English will make it much easier for you to understand the meaning of words that are unfamiliar to you.

Prefixes:

mis-; un-; im-; il-; ir-; dis-; in-; non-(express denial):

disagreement - disagreement, disorder - disorder, misunderstanding - misunderstanding, impossibility - improbability, imbalance - instability, imparity - inequality, indifference - indifference, independence - independence

anti-(meaning “opposite”, “against”):

antipoison - antidote, anti-fascist - anti-fascist

co-, com-, con-, col-(meaning “together”, “together”):

collaboration - cooperation, concord - agreement, co-worker - employee, co-existence - coexistence

post-(meaning “after”):

postgraduate - graduate student, post-postscript - second postscript

pre-(meaning “before”, “before”):

preimage - original, prototype, prepossession - predisposition, pre-arrangement - preliminary agreement

trans-(meaning “through”):

transplantation - transplantation, transposition - movement

ex-(meaning “previous”, “former”):

ex-president - former president, ex-husband - ex-husband, ex-champion - ex-champion

semi-(meaning “half”):

semicolon - semicolon, semi-basement - semi-basement, semi-circle - semicircle

sub-(meaning “under”, “below”, “less”):

subdivision - division, subway - subway, metro, submarine - submarine

inter-(meaning “between”, “among”, “mutually”):

interaction - interaction, interactionism - interactionism

re-(meaning "repeat"):

reassurance - confirmation, re-cross - repeated cross-examination, interrogation, remarriage - entering into a new marriage

de-(meaning “opposite”):

de-icier - deicer, dehydration - dehydration

macro-(meaning “big”, “many”):

macro-economics - macroeconomics, macrobiotic - longevity

micro-(meaning “very small/few”):

micro-electronics - microelectronics, microscope - microscope

mini-(meaning “small”):

mini hi-fi - mini music center, minibus - minibus

mono-(meaning “one”, “one and the same”):

monorail - monorail railway, monotone - monotony

multi-(meaning “many”):

multiformity - diversity, multimillionaire - multimillionaire

under-(meaning “under”, “little”):

underskirt - underskirt, underpayment - underpayment, undergraduate - student, underestimate - underestimation

over-(meaning “over”, “too”):

overestimation - revaluation

out-(meaning "outside"):

output - exit, out-patient - outpatient

Useful video: Prefix formation of nouns in English

Suffixes:

-ade(meaning action, process and result, as well as in borrowings from French and Spanish):

blockade - blockade, cascade - cascade

-age(meaning action, condition and result, and also found in borrowings from French):

marriage - marriage, marriage, usage - use, courage - bravery, voyage - travel

-ance (y), -ense(state or property value):

frequency - frequency, intelligence - intelligence, mind

-ant(meaning person and substance):

assistant - assistant, servant - servant, oxidant - oxidizer

-arian(meaning profession or occupation):

librarian - librarian, vegetarian - vegetarian

-su(meaning quality, condition or condition):

legacy - heritage

-dom(abstract meaning of status or condition):

kingdom - kingdom, freedom - freedom

-her(legal terms or designation of the person to whom the action is directed):

employee - employee, refugee - refugee

-er, -or

leader - leader, reader - reader, player - player, buyer - buyer, inventor - inventor, aviator - aviator, calculator - calculator, lifter - lifting device, timer - device that calculates time

-r(designation of animate characters with the meaning of profession):

maker - manufacturer, user - user

-еу, -ау, -у(meaning of the totality, position):

jewelery - jewelry, jewelry, crockery - dishes, scenery - view, landscape

-hood(meaning social or marital status):

childhood - childhood, brotherhood - brotherhood, manhood - masculinity

-ian(meaning nationality or profession):

Russian - Russian, Ukrainian - Ukrainian, Bulgarian - Bulgarian, physician - therapist, musician - musician, academician - academician

-ics(meaning of sciences):

mathematics - mathematics, physics - physics

-ing(action):

meeting - meeting, proceeding - practice

-ique(meaning of French origin):

technique - equipment, boutique - boutique

-ism(meaning party, philosophical or religious movement):

racism - racism, Buddhism - Buddhism, capitalism - capitalism, vandalism - vandalism

-ist(the meaning of profession or belonging to a party, philosophical or religious movement):

pianist - pianist, communist - communist

-ity, -ety, -ty(meaning state, quality, condition):

agility - flexibility, flexibility - elasticity, ability - ability, activity - activity, activity

-ment(the meaning of an action or process or the meaning of a set of objects):

appointment - arrangement, pavement - pavement, government - government, movement - movement, equipment - equipment

-metry(meaning of sciences ending in -metry):

geometry - geometry

-ness(meaning condition, quality):

kindness - kindness, happiness - happiness, darkness - darkness

-nomy(meaning of sciences or activities ending in -miya):

astronomy - astronomy

-pathy(meaning feelings, emotions or illnesses):

sympathy - sympathy, antipathy - antipathy

-ship(meaning the relationship of groups of people or the meaning of a state, position or property and abstract concepts):

fellowship - partnership, brotherhood, readership - circle of readers of a publication, championship - championship, censorship - censorship

-sion, -tion, -ation(meaning of action, process or abstract concepts):

transformation - transformation, revolution - revolution, accommodation - housing, protection - protection, expectation - expectation, exclusion - exception, permission - permission

-th(quality value):

truth - truth, health - health
in this case, the root vowel often changes:
length - length, depth - depth, strength - strength

-ure, -ture(meaning processes, states or specific examples):

departure - departure, creature - creation, furniture - furniture, pressure - pressure, mixture - mixing, mixture

-y(abstract and collective nouns):

emergency - emergency, nationality - nationality, discovery - discovery, inquiry - question, request

Useful video: forming nouns using suffixes in English

It is no secret that many new words are formed in a language from other words. For example, there was an adjective bad - it was slightly modernized, and it turned out to be the adverb badly. But today we will not talk about them, but about a larger lexical group - about nouns. From this material we will learn about the ways in which nouns can be formed in the English language and what morphemes are involved in this. But, before studying word formation, let’s remember a little basic theory on this part of speech.

The Noun (noun) in English plays the same role as in Russian - it answers the questions what/who and, accordingly, denotes objects, phenomena and persons. In a sentence it can act as the main character - the subject, as well as as a predicate, an object and a circumstance. In addition, nouns can be modifiers if used in .

The class division is also similar to Russian grammar: proper and common nouns, countable/uncountable words. The classification of this part of speech by composition looks like this:

• Simple form (Simple ) – the word contains only the root: mouse,pen, cup, pencil, case.
• Derived form ) – in addition to the root, the word contains additional morphemes (prefixes/suffixes): relationship,kindness, reading, lioness, freedom.
• Compound form ) – a word consists of several stems, which can be written together or with a hyphen: railway, office-block, grown-up.

Let's consider how these groups of nouns are formed , and what morphemes can attach these parts of speech.

Word formation of new English nouns can be done in three main ways.

Addition

Nouns formed by this method belong to the class of compound words already familiar to us. It is noteworthy that they can contain not only nouns, but also combinations with verbs or adjectives.

As you can see from the examples, compounding is a fairly easy way to create new nouns. The only thing that can cause difficulties is their spelling, especially since specific grammatical rules have not been developed in this regard. In order to avoid making mistakes, it is recommended to check the spelling of words in a dictionary. Let us only note that in the English language there is a tendency to replace the hyphen, so it is increasingly possible to find compound words spelled together, even if they previously contained a hyphen ( e-mail ⟶ email).

Conversion

This method involves the transition of a word from one part of speech to another, without making any changes to its basis. In this way, nouns are most often formed from verbs.

Due to its simplicity, this method has become widespread in the English language.

Attaching morphemes

The most complex method of formation, the principle of which is to attach a prefix or suffix to the base of the word. The official name of this method is affixation. Since English has quite a lot of prefixes and suffixes, according to the examples this group will be the most numerous. But everything has its positive sides. By studying the basic meanings of morphemes, even when encountering an unfamiliar word, you can roughly understand its context. First, let's look at the formation of nouns in English using prefixes ( prefixes).

Now let's study word formation by adding various suffixes. This group is no less numerous.

(Noun) is a part of speech that denotes objects, living beings, substances, various phenomena and abstract concepts. In terms of their composition, English nouns are of three types: simple ( simple), derivatives ( derivative) and complex ( compound). The first are monosyllabic nouns without prefixes or suffixes. For example:

A book (book), an egg (egg), blue sky (blue sky), finger (finger).

Derived nouns are created by attaching a prefix or suffix, or sometimes both, to the simple adjective stem.

Im patience (impatience - from the noun patience), politeness (politeness - from the adjective polite), a builder (builder - from the verb to build).

And complex nouns are those that have two or more stems that, when combined, form one noun with a single meaning.

Railway (railroad), earring (earring), bellydance (belly dance).

Ways to form nouns in English

Nouns in English are formed in one of the following ways:

1. Compounding ( composition). We can get a new noun by combining two or more words into a more complex word. Such words are written either together or with a hyphen: sea + food = seafood(seafood); mail + box = mailbox(Mailbox); merry + go + round = merry-go-round(carousel).
2. Affixation ( affixation). To form a noun in English in this way, you need to add a suffix or a prefix, and sometimes both at the same time, to the stem of a word. Knowing the most common suffixes and prefixes will make it easier to understand unfamiliar words in the future. Here are some suffixes and prefixes worth remembering:

   Prefixes:

   • mis-; un-; im-; il-; ir-; dis-; in-; non- (negative): disagreement(disagreement) misunderstanding(misunderstanding), impossibility(incredibility), indifference(indifference).
   • anti- (opposite, against): antipoison- antidote.
   • co-, com-, con-, col- (together, jointly): collaboration(cooperation), concord(agreement).
   • post- (after): postgraduate– graduate student.
   • pre- (before, before): preimage– original, prototype.
   • trans- (through): transplantation- transplant.
   • ex- (previous, former): ex-president- ex-president.
   • semi- (half): semicolon- semicolon.
   • sub- (under, below, less): subdivision- division, submarine- Submarine.
   • inter- (between, among, mutually): interaction- interaction.
   • re- (repeat): reassurance- confirmation.

   Suffixes:

   • -dom(territory, state): boredom- boredom, freedom- Liberty.
   • -ship / -hood(state, status): neighborhood– neighborhood, leadership– management.
   • -th / -ty(from adjectives nouns with the same meaning are formed): true – truth(truthful - truth) Probable – probability(possible - possibility).
   • -ing(example, action): to cook – cooking(cook – preparation).
   • -ment(result of action from verbs): to develop – development(develop – development).
   • -ance / -ence(quality, condition): ignorance– ignorance; ignorance.
   • -(a)tion(process, state, characteristic): dictation- dictation, improvisation- improvisation, translation- translation.
   • -er / -or(human activity): worker- worker, instructor- Instructor.
   • -ent / -ist / -ate(human activity): scientist- scientist, accountant- accountant.
   • -ness(quality, character): darkness– darkness, kindness- kindness.
   • -al(action result): approval– approval.
   • -ician(occupation, profession): politician– politician.

   This is certainly not the entire list of prefixes and suffixes. You will encounter others as you learn English.

3. Conversion ( conversion). Formation of nouns in English happens very often with this method. The most important thing is that there is no need to add any suffixes or prefixes, and there is no need to change anything. New nouns are formed mainly from , and vice versa, and verbs from . This is how we get other parts of speech from one word. For example:
   

   to look - a look (look - look).

Keeping in mind these methods of forming nouns in English, you will be able to significantly increase your score, as you will easily form different parts of speech from the same word.

If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.

How to make a verb from a noun in English?

Here you can find out how to make a verb from a noun in English?

In English, some parts of speech can be made into others. So, for example, a verb can be formed from a noun.
This way of forming verbs is called conversion.

Conversion is the formation of a new basis from an existing one by rethinking the latter without any changes in its form.
The rule sounds quite complicated and confusing, but in practice it is very easy.

Consider the noun winter - winter.
By adding the particle to, we get the verb to winter - to winter.

Thus, the noun winter was "converted" into a verb. Naturally, this rule does not work with all nouns. But some verbs are formed this way.
That is, to form a verb from a noun, it is enough to add the particle to. Study the list of some verbs formed by the method of conversion.

hand - hand, to hand - give
finger - finger, to finger - touch
dust - dust, to dust - sweep away dust
smoke - smoke, to smoke - smoke
water - water, to water - to water

It should also be noted that you can form not only verbs from nouns, but also nouns from verbs. The most common way of forming nouns from verbs is by adding the ending -ing.

For example:
to build - to build, building - building;
to surround - surround, surrounding - surroundings;
to paint - draw, painting - picture;
to skate - skate, skating - ice skating.