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Clipping/clipped words (or morphology if you prefer the linguistic term) is a way of creating new words in English by shortening the original word. It’s very trendy to clip words these days, with our fast-paced lives, we need to be able to speak faster, right? I’ll tell you how clipping works if you don’t already know…
A long word is reduced by removing some of the word. This creates a new word (usually one syllable long). This word is then used instead of the original word as an informal/slang term.
I’m pretty certain you’ve come across clipped words before, but maybe you just don’t know it! Look at the slide for some examples of clipped words and their meaning.
clipped words with examples and pictures
Let’s take a look at some common clipped words in action.
List of clipped words
Here is a table of some of the most common clipped words we use in English with examples. A nice little practice exercise for you is to make up some sentences of your own.
Here’s the table for you to download and study at your leisure.
Can you think of any other clipped words? If you have, let me know in the comments below.
clipping exercises
Test yourself and see what you’ve learnt with these clipped word exercises.
Did you enjoy learning some clipped words? I guess you like learning ‘modern’ English and want to be able speak like a native and blend in. If so, I’ve got some more pages you’ll probably like too.
