Stem (linguistics)

Stem in linguistics is like the foundation of a word. Imagine building a tower with blocks. The stem is the block at the bottom that supports all the other blocks on top. In the same way, the stem is the main part of a word that carries the meaning and supports any affixes or endings that are added to it.

Let's take the word "cats" as an example. The stem of the word is "cat". "Cat" is the main part of the word that carries the meaning, which is a small furry animal. The "s" at the end of "cats" is an affix that makes the word plural, or more than one cat. But without the stem "cat", the word "cats" wouldn't make sense.

Similarly, in the word "happy", the stem is "happi". The suffix "ness" can be added to the end of the stem to create the word "happiness". The stem "happi" is important because it carries the meaning of the word, which is feeling good or content.

So, stem in linguistics is like the foundation of a word that supports and carries the meaning of the word.