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Anonymous Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

base forms of words

what is the base form of these words:

went
proof
feet
worse
frogurt
motel
chinglish
bread
caltech

- they all already seem to be in their simplest form, as they have no inflectional? But what is the base form of the words? i.e. is the base form of went, 'go'?
  

Top answer

Went is the only verb listed and the base is to go .

— Cynthia3754

  • Went is the only verb listed and the base is to go .
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12 Answers
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Went is the only verb listed and the base is to go.
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The only verbs are went, proof, and bread. Their base forms are go, proof, and bread.
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The USA went is the only verb listed. And it is went.

proof is used as a verb, but used rarely.

I water-proofed all the other items, but still need to proof the tent.

I looked up all the other words up on this list, but none were listed anywhere in the American dictionaries as a verb. Bread may be a verb in British English, but not in American.
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Cynthia3754proof is used as a verb, but used rarely.
Not really. It is often used as a shortened form of proofread. It is also a very common term in cookery, e.g., proof the dough (activate yeast by adding water).
Cynthia3754Bread may be a verb in British English, but not in American.
This is another very commo
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AnonymousBut what is the base form of the words? i.e. is the base form of went, 'go'?
Yes. That's the idea. As far as I can see, only went, proof, feet, and worse can be thought of as inflectional variants of a base form.

went > go
proof > prove
feet > foot
worse > bad
frogurt??? > freeze + yogurt
mo
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CalifJimAs far as I can see, only went, proof, feet, and worse can be thought of as inflectional variants of a base form.
It is my understanding that the term base form always refers to the simplest form of a verb.
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When I read these apparent class exercises that we are often asked about, I sometimes wonder what the teacher's purpose is, and how the exercise is intended to benefit the student. I doubt very much that the teacher is trying to teach all the niceties of detail that we here are so good at coming up with.

Clive
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1. go
2. prove
3. foot
4. bad
5. frozen, yogurt
6. motor, hotel
7. Chinese, English
8. bread (the noun, which spawns bread the verb, bread the adjective, and figurative and slang uses of the word bread)
9. California Institute of Technology
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Aspara GusIt is my understanding that the term base form always refers to the simplest form of a verb.
Only verbs?

It seems to me that this idea applies to any part of speech. I assume it's the dictionary form or "the main entry" for a group of inflectionally related words, e.g.,

happy > happier, happiest > happily
move > movem
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CalifJimhappy > happier, happiest > happily
move > movement > moving > movingly
Makes sense. It’s just that I’d never before heard the term used to refer to anything but verbs.
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