16/6/13

Word of the week: to text

To text (poner un mensaje de texto) is a good example of conversion.
We give this name to a type of word formation which consists in changing the function of a word, without altering its form, e.g. a noun becomes a verb: butter (mantequilla) → to butter (untar con mantequilla). 

Some more examples of conversion:



bottle → to bottle - (botella - embotellar)
condition → to condition -  (condición - condicionar)
corner → to corner - (rincón - arrinconar)
dirty → to dirty – (sucio-ensuciar)
empty → to empty - (vacío - vaciar)
pity → to pity – (compasión - compadecer)
skin → to skin - (piel - despellejar)

As you can see, the most common case of conversion is from noun to verb, but other changes are possible:

adjective  noun: daily → a daily - (diario - un diario)
verb noun: to bore → a bore – (aburrir - un aburrimiento)
verb noun: to swim → a swim (nadar - un baño)
conjunction noun: but (pero) → a but (un pero)

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