Practice

How many morphemes are in each of the following words?

1. class
2. unknown
3. infrequently
4. boots
5. failsafe
6. indefatigable
7. unsmiling
8. spider
9. fortunate
10. precooked
11. synergy
12. changing
13. rearranging
14. totally
15. spatula

Answers:

1. class: 1 morpheme (class)
2. unknown: 2 morphemes (un + known)
3. infrequently: 3 morphemes (in + frequent + ly)
4. boots: 2 morphemes (boot + s)
5. failsafe: 2 morphemes (fail + safe)
6. indefatigable: 4 morphemes (in + de + fatigue + able)
7. unsmiling: 3 morphemes (un + smil + ing)
8. spider: 1 morphemes (spider)
9. fortunate: 2 morphemes (fortune + ate)
10. precooked: 3 morphemes (pre + cook + ed)
11. synergy: 1 morpheme (synergy)
12. changing: 2 morphemes (change + ing)
13. rearranging: 3 morphemes (re + arrange + ing)
14. totally: 2 morphemes (total + ly)
15. spatula: 1 morpheme (spatula)

DANGER ZONE

Make sure you don’t identify morphemes that aren’t there. For example, spider may look like it contains the suffix –er, but it does not; spider is a morpheme with a complete meaning of its own.