A portmanteau word in English is when we put two words together to make a new one. English is a very flexible language, so it is very common to create new words by joining words together. Sometimes these words are very informal and used like slang expressions, but if they become very popular, they are likely to appear in the dictionary and be considered real words in English.

For example, two of the most common portmanteau words in English are ‘motel’ and ‘brunch’. What do these words mean? The first example ‘motel’ is a portmanteau of ‘motor’ and ‘hotel’, so a hotel you stay at overnight if you’re making a long car journey.

The second example ‘brunch’ is a portmanteau of ‘breakfast’ and ‘lunch’. So basically, if you wake up late and miss breakfast, but it’s still too early for lunch, you can have ‘brunch’! Look it up in the dictionary to see the definition.

There are many more portmanteau words in English. They are both fun to learn and useful to use, so watch this series of videos on portmanteaus to learn more and build your vocabulary.