Here's why:
* Meaningful Units: Morphemes are the basic building blocks of words, carrying specific meanings. They can be individual words (like "cat," "run," "happy") or smaller units that don't stand alone (like the "-ing" in "running").
* Combinations: Words are often made up of multiple morphemes combined together. For example, "unhappily" combines the morphemes "un-", "happy", and "-ly".
* Types of Morphemes:
* Free morphemes: Can stand alone as words (like "cat", "run", "happy").
* Bound morphemes: Must be attached to other morphemes to have meaning (like "-ing", "-er", "un-").
Let me know if you want to explore different types of morphemes or examples in more detail!