Morpheme facts for kids

A morpheme is like a tiny building block of a word. It's the smallest part of a word that still has its own meaning. Think of it as a piece of a word that can't be broken down any further without losing its meaning.

For example, in the word "unbreakable," we can find three morphemes:

• "un-" (which means "not")
• "break" (which means to "split" or "damage")
• "-able" (which means "can be done")

When you put these three meaningful parts together, you get "unbreakable," meaning "cannot be broken."

What are the Main Types of Morphemes?

There are different kinds of morphemes, and they each work in a special way to build words. Understanding them helps us see how language is put together.

Free Morphemes

A free morpheme is a word part that can stand alone as a complete word. It doesn't need to be attached to anything else to make sense.

• Example: The word "break" is a free morpheme. It can be used by itself, like in the sentence "Please don't break the glass." It can also be part of a bigger word, like in "unbreakable."

Bound Morphemes

A bound morpheme is a word part that cannot stand alone. It always needs to be attached to another morpheme to have meaning. Think of them as prefixes or suffixes.

• Example: The "un-" in "unbreakable" is a bound morpheme. You can't just say "un" by itself and expect it to make sense. It needs to be connected to another word part. The same goes for "-able."

Derivational Morphemes

A derivational morpheme is a type of bound morpheme that changes the meaning of a word or even changes its word type (like from a verb to a noun). When you add a derivational morpheme, you often create a completely new word.

• Example: If you take the word "happy" (an adjective) and add the derivational morpheme "-ness," you get "happiness" (a noun). This morpheme changed the word's type and meaning.

Inflectional Morphemes

An inflectional morpheme is another type of bound morpheme. Instead of creating a new word, it changes a word's grammar. It might show if something is plural, past tense, or possessive. These morphemes don't change the core meaning of the word.

• Example: If you have the word "dog" and add the inflectional morpheme "-s," you get "dogs." This simply shows that there is more than one dog. The meaning of "dog" hasn't changed, only its number. Other examples include "-ed" for past tense (walked) or "-ing" for ongoing action (walking).

Allomorphs

Allomorphs are different forms of the same morpheme. They sound different but mean the same thing. The way they sound often depends on the sounds around them in a word.

• Example: The past tense morpheme "-ed" can sound different depending on the word it's attached to:
  • In "hunted," it sounds like "id."
  • In "fished," it sounds like "t."
  • In "buzzed," it sounds like "d."
• Even though they sound different, "id," "t," and "d" in these examples are all forms of the same "-ed" morpheme, showing past tense.

See also

In Spanish: Morfema para niños