Editing Word stem (section)

==Root vs stem==
The word ''friendship'' is made by attaching the [[morpheme]] ''-ship'' to the [[root (linguistics)|root word]] ''friend'' (which some linguists<ref>{{cite book|title=The 'language instinct' debate|author=Geoffrey Sampson|author-link=Geoffrey Sampson|author2=Paul Martin Postal|author2-link=Paul Martin Postal|year=2005|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-8264-7385-1|page=124|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N0zJNPuXTZMC&pg=PA124 
|access-date=2009-07-21}}</ref> also call a stem). While the inflectional plural morpheme ''-s'' can be attached to ''friendship'' to form ''friendships'', it can not be attached to the root ''friend'' within ''friendship'' to form ''friendsship''. A stem is a base from which all its [[inflection|inflected]] variants are formed.<ref>{{cite book|title=Analyzing grammar|author=Paul Kroeger|year=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-81622-9|page=248|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rSglHbBaNyAC&pg=PA248 |access-date=2009-07-21}}</ref> For example, the ''stabil-'' (a variant of ''stable'' unable to stand alone) is the root of the ''destabilized'', while the stem consists of ''de·stabil·ize'', including ''de-'' and ''-ize''. The ''-(e)d'', on the other hand, is not part of the stem.

A stem can be a lone root, such as ''run'', or a [[compound (linguistics)|compound word]], such as the compound nouns ''meatball'' and ''bottleneck'' or the compound verbs ''blacken'' and ''standardize''. 

The stem of the [[verb]] ''to wait'' is ''wait'': The stem is the word part that is common to all of its inflected variants.
#''wait'' (infinitive, imperative, present subjunctive, and present indicative except in the 3rd-person singular)
#''wait''s (3rd person singular simple present indicative)
#''wait''ed (simple past)
#''wait''ed (past participle)
#''wait''ing (present participle)