Eight “word classes” or “parts of speech” are commonly distinguished in English: nouns, determiners, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions. Nouns form the largest word class, and verbs the second-largest.

The 100 most common words in English

Grammar is the system and structure of a language. The rules of grammar help us decide the order we put words in and which form of a word to use. When you’re talking about grammar, it’s useful to know some basic terms.

What are blended words?

Blending is one of the many ways new words are made in English. It refers to joining the beginning of one word and the end of another to make a new word with a new meaning. Smog, from smoke and fog, and brunch, from breakfast and lunch, are examples of blends. Learners can also invent new blend words.

Clipping is one of the ways new words are created in English. It involves the shortening of a longer word, often reducing it to one syllable. Many examples are very informal or slang. Maths, which is a clipped form of mathematics, is an example of this.

Types of Clipping: Point Clipping. Line Clipping. Area Clipping (Polygon) Curve Clipping. Text Clipping.

Initial (or fore) clipping retains the final part of the word. Examples: bot (robot), chute (parachute), roach (cockroach), gator (alligator), phone (telephone), pike (turnpike), varsity (university), net (Internet).

An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word anagram itself can be rearranged into nag a ram, also the word binary into brainy and the word adobe into abode.