What are substantiated words

In Spanish they exist different categories of words with their own functions, but sometimes they can be changed to become others thanks to the fact that we can add prefixes or suffixes that make them belong to another category. This is the case that we are going to deal with in this lesson from a TEACHER in which we will talk about what are substantiated words with examples so that you can know them perfectly.

In Spanish there are 9 types of words or grammatical categories with its own characteristics and functions. We can therefore find:

• Nouns
• The pronouns
• The determinants
• The adjectives
• Verbs
• The adverbs
• The prepositions
• Conjunctions
• Interjections

Each one of them fulfills its functions within a sentence and has its own characteristics. In the case at hand, we are going to see what nouns are in order to understand what substantiated words are.

Nouns are present in all sentences and are essential for this to make sense. These serve to identify a person, animal, thing, idea or place, that is, they are names. Therefore its main function is to name.

Definition of substantiated words

Now that we know what nouns are, we can point out that the substantiated words are those that are going to change their original grammatical category to become a noun. To achieve this, it undergoes a process called nominal derivation.

Nominal derivation is a procedure by which a new word comes up thanks to the union of a lexeme and a affix, the result of this fits within the grammatical category of the noun. In other words, thanks to the union of an affix and a lexeme we can obtain a noun with its characteristics and functions. Likewise, the words formed may be included in different types of nouns:

• Deverbal nouns
• Denominational nouns
• Deadjective nouns

Next we are going to see each of them in depth so that you can identify them and get to know them much better.

Deverbal nouns are those nouns that arise after a nominal derivation procedure between an affix and a verb. They are very common in our language and they serve to designate the person who has performed the action of the original verb or places where said action is performed. To understand it better we are going to see a series of examples of noun words from verbs:

• Lighting: Lighting
• Drink: Drink
• Cook: Cook
• Eat food
• Buy: Buy
• Sleeping: Bedroom
• Scrub: Mop
• Swear: Oath
• Wash: Washing Machine
• Wash: Laundry
• Reform: Reformatory
• Weave: Knitter
• Cough: Cough
• Win: Winner

Let's look at sentences in which different words work differently

• You swore for the most sacred thing that he had not deceived her in that matter.

In this case, swore is a verb and is used with this functionality within the sentence.

• He made her the oath that he had not deceived her in this matter.

In this case, the word oath, comes from the verb swear and has become a noun that functions as such in the sentence.

Deadjective nouns are those nouns that have arisen through a nominal derivation process in which a affix attached to an adjective. We can find many examples since they are widely used to convert an adjective into a noun:

• Acid: Acidity
• Beautiful: beauty
• Bobo: Bobada
• Clear: clarity
• Sweet: Sweetness
• Sweet: sweetness
• Lazy: Lazy
• Honored: honesty
• Fair: Justice
• Loyal: loyalty
• Slow: slow
• Crazy: insanity
• Bad: malice
• Rookie: Hazing
• Straight: Straightness
• Fool: Nonsense
• Old: Old age

• The man was mad. For many years he had lived as an ascetic and did not associate with his neighbors.

In this case, crazy works as an adjective within the sentence.

• The craziness of the man led him to behave in a strange way with his neighbors who feared for his integrity.

Here we can see that insanity is a noun and how it works.

The denominal nouns are those nouns that arise after a nominal derivation process and that originally have a affix attached to another noun. In this case, what we find is that a noun can be converted into a different one by adding an affix to it. This happens especially when we want to show professions or a set of said noun. Let's see some examples to understand it better:

• Student: Student
• Garbage: garbage can
• Song: Songbook
• Glass: glassware
• Milk: Milkman
• Tablecloth: Tablecloth
• Fashion: Dressmaker
• Boy: Girlish
• Bread: Bakery
• Ball: ball
• Teacher: teachers

Let's see examples:

• The teacher corrected the exams in a few hours.

As we see teacher is a noun and it works as such.

• The faculty corrected the exams in a few hours.

In this case, it also works as a noun, but the meaning has changed.

We hope that this lesson on what are substantiated words with examples has helped you better identify and understand them. If you want to continue improving and learning with more content like this, we encourage you to visit our sections such as Spanish language, in which you will find everything you need to understand Spanish and continue to improve day by day in your studies.

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