Sometimes young people think that acquiring a good or wide vocabulary is a difficult thing. How can one remember and/or get to know the meanings of words, and later make these words part of their vocabulary? Do you have to run to the dictionary every time you run across a new or strange word?
One very important skill is to know how words are formed. If you want to learn words within a short time, you must get acquainted with the way English words are formed. You should also be interested in knowing the changes that have happened to English words. In almost any language, new words are constantly being formed. There are five processes of word formation:
Clipping - to clip is to cut off the beginning or the end of the word. It may also mean cutting from both ends. Phone is a clipped form of telephone.
Blending - to fuse or put two words together. Japino is a blend of Japanese and Filipino. A child of Japanese and Filipino parent is a Japino.
Compounding - to put together two or three words to form a new word, A teenager is a boy or girl in his/her teens.
Acronymy - to form words from the initial letters or syllables of several words in succession. DepEd stands for the Department of Education
Folk or popular etymology - to change a word in part or in whole to make it more like a familiar word. A Caesarian section is to deliver a child by a surgical incision in the abdominal wall. It is said the term is derived from Julius Caesar who, history says, was the first to be delivered this way.