Conversion 503ds

Conversion Conversion is the word formation process in which a word of one grammatical form becomes a word of another grammatical form without any changes to spelling or pronunciation. For example, the noun email appeared in English before the verb: a decade ago I would have sent you an email (noun) whereas now I can either send you an email (noun) or simply email (verb) you. The original noun email experienced conversion, thus resulting in the new verb email.

Noun to Verb Conversion The most productive form of conversion in English is noun to verb conversion. The following list provides examples of verbs converted from nouns: Noun – Verb access – to access bottle – to bottle can – to can closet – to closet email – to email eye – to eye fiddle – to fiddle fool – to fool Google – to google host – to host knife – to knife microwave – to microwave name – to name

pocket – to pocket salt – to salt shape – to shape ship – to ship spear – to spear torch – to torch verb – to verb

For example: My grandmother bottled (verb) the juice and canned (verb) the pickles. My grandmother put the juice in a bottle (noun) and the pickles in a can (noun). She microwaved (verb) her lunch. She heated her lunch in the microwave (noun). The doctor eyed (verb) my swollen eye (noun).

Verb to Noun Conversion Another productive form of conversion in English is verb to noun conversion. The following list provides examples of nouns converted from verbs: Verb – Noun to alert – alert to attack – attack to call – call to clone – clone to command – command

to cover – cover to cry – cry to experience – experience to fear – fear to feel – feel to hope – hope to increase – increase to judge – judge to laugh – laugh to rise – rise to run – run to sleep – sleep to start – start to turn – turn to visit – visit

For example: The guard alerted (verb) the general to the attack (noun). The enemy attacked (verb) before an alert (noun) could be sounded. Sometimes one just needs a good cry (noun). The baby cried (verb) all night. We need to increase (verb) our productivity to see an increase (noun) in profits.

Other Conversions

Conversion also occurs, although less frequently, to and from other grammatical forms.

For example: adjective to verb: green → to green (to make environmentally friendly) preposition to noun: up, down → the ups and downs of life conjunction to noun: if, and, but → no ifs, ands, or buts interjection to noun: ho ho ho → I love the ho ho hos of Christmas,me.