{"id":564,"date":"2016-02-20T05:16:22","date_gmt":"2016-02-20T10:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.teachenglishworld.com\/?page_id=564"},"modified":"2016-02-20T05:30:34","modified_gmt":"2016-02-20T10:30:34","slug":"compound-nouns","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.teachenglishworld.com\/?page_id=564","title":{"rendered":"COMPOUND NOUNS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.teachenglishworld.com\/?page_id=513\">English Grammar<\/a> &gt; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.teachenglishworld.com\/?page_id=520\">Nouns<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words can be combined to form compound nouns. These are very common, and new combinations are invented almost daily. They normally have two parts. The first part tells us what kind of object or person it is, or what its purpose is. The second part identifies the object or person in question. Compound nouns often have a meaning that is different, or more specific, than the two separate words.<\/p>\n<style><!--\n.demo { border:1px solid #C0C0C0; border-collapse:collapse; padding:5px; } .demo th { border:1px solid #C0C0C0; padding:5px; background:#F0F0F0; } .demo td { border:1px solid #C0C0C0; padding:5px; }\n--><\/style>\n<table class=\"demo\">\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>First part: type or purpose<\/th>\n<th>Second part: what or who<\/th>\n<th>Compound noun<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\u00a0police<\/td>\n<td>\u00a0man<\/td>\n<td>\u00a0policeman<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\u00a0boy<\/td>\n<td>\u00a0friend<\/td>\n<td>\u00a0boyfriend<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\u00a0fish<\/td>\n<td>\u00a0tank<\/td>\n<td>\u00a0water tank<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\u00a0dining<\/td>\n<td>\u00a0table<\/td>\n<td>\u00a0dining-table<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>You have noticed that the compound noun can be written either as a single word, as a word with a hyphen, or as two words. There are no clear rules about this. A good rule of thumb is to write the most common compound nouns as one word, and the others as two words.<\/p>\n<p>The elements in a compound noun are very diverse parts of speech.<\/p>\n<style><!--\n.demo {\nborder:1px solid #C0C0C0;\nborder-collapse:collapse;\npadding:5px;\n}\n.demo th {\nborder:1px solid #C0C0C0;\npadding:5px;\nbackground:#F0F0F0;\n}\n.demo td {\nborder:1px solid #C0C0C0;\npadding:5px;\n}\n--><\/style>\n<table class=\"demo\">\n<caption>Table 1<\/caption>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Compound elements<\/th>\n<th>Examples<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\u00a0noun + noun<\/td>\n<td>\u00a0bedroom, water tank, motorcycle, printer cartridge<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\u00a0noun + verb<\/td>\n<td>\u00a0rainfall, haircut, train-spotting<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\u00a0noun + adverb<\/td>\n<td>\u00a0hanger-on, passer-by<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\u00a0verb + noun<\/td>\n<td>\u00a0washing machine, driving license, swimming pool<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\u00a0verb + adverb<\/td>\n<td>\u00a0lookout, take-off, drawback<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\u00a0adverb + noun<\/td>\n<td>\u00a0onlooker, bystander<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\u00a0adjective + verb<\/td>\n<td>\u00a0dry-cleaning, public speaking<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\u00a0adjective + noun<\/td>\n<td>\u00a0greenhouse, software, redhead<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\u00a0adverb + verb<\/td>\n<td>\u00a0output, overthrow, upturn, input<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>PRONUNCIATION<\/p>\n<p>Stress is important in pronunciation, as it distinguishes between a compound noun and an adjective with a noun. In compound nouns, the stress usually falls on the first syllable.<\/p>\n<p>EXAMPLES<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>a &#8216;greenhouse = place where we grow plants (compound noun)<\/li>\n<li>a green &#8216;house = house painted green (adjective and noun)<\/li>\n<li>a &#8216;bluebird = type of bird (compound noun)<\/li>\n<li>a blue &#8216;bird = any bird with blue feathers (adjectives and noun)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>English Grammar &gt; Nouns Words can be combined to form compound nouns. These are very common, and new combinations are invented almost daily. They normally have two parts. The first part tells us what&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-564","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.teachenglishworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.teachenglishworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.teachenglishworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.teachenglishworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.teachenglishworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=564"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.teachenglishworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":570,"href":"http:\/\/www.teachenglishworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/564\/revisions\/570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.teachenglishworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}