Conversion is a way of forming new words in a different part

of speech without adding any element.

Conversion is also called “ functional change ” or “ zero
derivation “. Eg: hand(n)  to hand(v), lecture(n) to
lecture(v),…The different between the words in each pair is
morphological, syntactic and semantic:
Morphological: Farm is a noun, it has two forms( a farm
and farms) but farm is a verb, it has five forms( farm- farms-
farming- farmed- farmed).
Syntactic: Farm is a noun, it functions as subject or object
or complement. Farm is a verb, it is predicate.
Semantic: a farm is where you plant trees, farm(v)= to
raise/ to grow.
Conversion may be said to be productive in forming verbs:
arm(n)  to arm(v), foot(n)  to foot(v), skin(n)  to
skin(v),…
The main reason for the widespread development of
conversion in present-day English is no doubt the absence of
morphological elements serving as classifying signals, or, in
other words, of formal signs marking the part of speech to which
the word belongs. The fact that the sound pattern does not show
to what part of speech the word belongs may be illustrated by
the word back. It may be a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb.
Conversion consists of 4 types: Traditional conversion, partial
conversion, occasional conversion, subtantivation.
 Traditional conversion means the type of conversion
commonly and traditionally used be the public. The words built
by traditional conversion are recorded in dictionaries.
Partial conversion is the building of nouns from verbs.
These nouns usually go with verbs like “ have, take, make” to
form verbal phrases. Eg: Have a look/ take/ smoke,..
Occasional conversion refers to the individual use of
conversion in special situations, occasions to express one’s idea
vividly, humourously,… It is often used in novels.
Substantivation is a matter of controvercy. Complete
substantivation is a kind of substantivation when the whole
paradigm of a noun is acquired: a private - the private – privates
– the privates. Alongside with complete substantivation there
exists partial substantivation when a feature or several features
of a paradigm of a noun are acquired: the rich,… Those who do
not accept substantivation of adjectives as a type of conversion
consider conversion as a process limited to the formation of
verbs from nouns and nouns from verbs. But this point of view
is far from being universally accepted.