ZERO AFFIXATION


What is zero affixation?


Many words in English can funtion as a noun and verb, or noun and adjective, or verb and adjective, with no change in the form. The meaning is not always the same, but this unit looks at examples where the words do have the same meaning.


What´s the answer? (noun)
Answer the question. (verb)

I must clean my room. (verb)
It´s a clean room. (adjective)

I don´t like the cold. (noun)
I don´t like cold weather. (adjective)

I didn´t reply to the letter. (verb)
I wrote a reply to the letter. (noun)

Other examples: ache (v, n), damage (v, n), dry (v, adj)




Noun and verb


You may know these words in one form but not the other:
smile, laughm increase, dream, smell, taste, rain, queue, brake, diet, guess, ring, push, murder, stay, drink, rest, look, cost, wait. 




Which verb?


When you use these words as nouns, you need to choose the correct verb to use with it.

Verb                                                              Noun


We stayed in Paris for a short time.                We had a short stay in Paris.
We rested for a while.                                   We had a short rest.
She braked quickly.                                       She put on the brakes quickly.
He needs to diet.                                           He needs to go on a diet.
I´m going to ring him.                                     I´m going to give him a ring.
I looked in the paper.                                    I had a look in the paper.
He pushed me.                                             He gave me a push.
I dreamt about you last night.                        I had a dream about you last night.

(From the book English Vocabulary in Use by Stuart Redman - Cambridge University Press)