Blending

What are blends?

A blend, in morphology, is a word formed from parts of two or more words. In this sense blending is a process, among other processes, of creating new words.
Examples:

• brunch = breakfast + lunch
• Breathalyzer = breath + analyzer
• camcorder = camera + recorder
• emoticon = emote + icon
• motel = motor car + hotel
• Globish = global + English
• sitcom = situation + comedy
• smog = smoke + fog
• Spork = spoon + fork
• workaholic = work + alcoholic

Clipping

What is clipping?

Clipping refers to the reduction of a polysyllabic word by dropping a syllable or more from it.Clipping is also called truncation or shortening.
Examples:

• spec = speculation
• vet = veteran

Types of clipping

There are three types of clipping:

Back clipping

In this type the beginning is retained:
Examples:

• ad = advertisement
• cable = cablegram
• doc = doctor
• exam = examination
• fax = facsimile
• gas = gasoline
• gym = gymnastics, gymnasium
• memo = memorandum
• pub = public house
• pop = popular music

Fore-clipping

The final part is retained:
Examples:

• chute = parachute
• coon = raccoon
• gator = alligator
• phone = telephone

Middle clipping

The middle part is retained.
Example:

• flu = influenza
• fridge = refrigerator

Complex clipping

Clipping may also occur in compounds. In complex clipping, one part of the original compound most often remains intact. But sometimes both halves of a compound are clipped:

Contraction

What is contraction?

A contraction refers to a shortened form of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters which are replaced by an apostrophe.
Examples:

• I am = I'm
• He is = He's

Contractions should not be confused with:

1. Abbreviations which consist of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase as in Dr for Doctor
2. Clipping which is the word formation process consisting in the reduction of a word to one of its parts as in spec for speculation.
3. Acronyms which is an abbreviation formed from the initial components in a phrase or a word (example: FBI, Benelux, radar)

There, Their, They're

What is the difference between there, their and they're?

The words there, their and they're are different and shouldn't be confused. The confusion may occur because the three words are homophones, pronounced in very similar ways.

Their

Their indicates possession. It is a third person plural possessive adjective that shows that a particular thing belongs to them.
Examples:

• This is their house.
• Have you met their son?
• Can you give me their phone number?

There

There may function as an adverb, an adjective, a pronoun, a noun or an interjection:

1. As an adverb there refers to a place (as opposed to the word here).
Examples:

• Please sit over there.
• I met him there twice.

Negation in English

Negative forms

Negation is the process that turns an affirmative statement into its opposite denial.
Example:
She is a nice girl - She is not a nice girl
Verbs in English are negated by placing the word not after an auxiliary or modal.
Examples:

• I am not from Germany
• I do not like playing tennis.
• She does not listen to classical music.
• I have not read this book yet.
• I did not go to Moscow.
• I had not had dinner when they came in.
• You should not sleep late.
• I cannot help you.
• I will not participate in that competition.