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Compound Words - our list contains over 500 words

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What are Compound Words?

Compound words are made by joining two or more words; the combination creates a new word. They can be formed using two nouns, e.g. basketball, two non-nouns, e.g. blowup, or a noun and non-noun, e.g. sunrise. It is important to note that the words do not always keep their original meaning, e.g. breakfast. Our list of compound words contains 500 words.

There are three types of compound words:

• Closed compound words, e.g., football, peanut,
• Open compound words, e.g., cell phone, high school, and
• Hyphenated compound words, e.g., in-depth, runner-up.

List of Compound Words

To determine if a compound word is one word, two words or hyphenated, use a dictionary to look up the word or our lists below. The list below excludes both fractions and compound numbers from 21 to 91. These words are hyphenated, e.g., two-thirds, one-half, thirty-nine and ninety-one.

Closed Words

These words have no spaces. Our list contains hundreds of words, so we organized them in alphabetical order. Click on a letter below to obtain a list of those compound words.

Open Words

Open compound words have a space between the words. The following are open compound words:

Hyphenated Words

The list below excludes spelled out fractions and compound numbers from 21 to 91. Please note you hyphenate all spelled out fractions, e.g., two-thirds, one-half, and compound numbers from 21 to 91, e.g., thirty-nine, ninety-one. The following are hyphenated compound words:

Source: Fry, E. B., Ph.D. & Kress, J.E., Ed.D. (2006). The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists 5th Edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.

Merriam-Webster Children’s Dictionary, 3rd Edition 2008.

Reader Interactions

Compound words in English

Compound words ( Compo and Word s ) in English make up a considerable layer of everyday vocabulary.

They are formed from two words that are completely different in meaning and often belong to different parts of speech, for example, the word notebook = note (verb "write") + book (noun "book").

Today we will get acquainted with the concept of compound words in English and learn many examples, thus significantly replenishing our English vocabulary. nine0003

The formation of compound words in English

I repeat once again that compound words are formed from two words and eventually give a new lexical unit. Very often compound words mean compound nouns ( Compound Nouns ).

But this is not entirely true, because among the compound words there are also adjectives, for example: fire-resistant (fire-resistant), high-speed (high-speed), etc.

As for the spelling of English compound words, there are several options: together, separately and through a hyphen.

If there is a question of choosing how to write this or that compound word - through a hyphen or separately, the variant of separate writing will be preferable.

Article in the topic:
The difference between an adverb and an adjective in English: how to distinguish them?

English Compound Examples

• Brainstorm - Brainstorm
• Scapegoat Scapegoat
• Aftermath - Aftermath
• Backfire - reciprocal of
• Daredevil Daredevil
• Frostbite - Frostbite
• Iron cl ad - unbreakable rules
• Lighthearted - carefree, happy
• Milestone - progress
nine0050 Outlaw - bandit, fugitive
• Panhandle - beg
• Wholesale
• Sunflower
• Backbone - Backbone
• Sweetmeat
• Lifeboat Lifeboat
• Horseshoe - horseshoe
• Greenhouse
• Lighthouse - Lighthouse
• Jellyfish
• Traffic jam
• Grown-up - adult
• Also-ran - loser
• Headache Headache
• Toothbrush

Article in the topic:
Degrees of comparison of adjectives in English

Stress in compound words

As a rule, the stress in compound words is placed on the first syllable. This allows you to distinguish compound words from phrases, for example, gr ee nhouse and green h ou se.

In fact, there are a lot of compound words in the English language, perhaps you just never paid attention to them.

And every day there are more and more of them, because people involuntarily invent them, merging two words into one.

What compound English words do you know?

Compound nouns in English ‹ engblog.ru

Paradoxically, but the phobia of long words is called in English a very long term hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia . This vast word is a clear example of what is called a compound noun ( a compound noun ). It was formed by merging several words: hippopotamine means something incredibly large, the Greek word monstr is used to describe something terrible, sesquippedali is half the length, and phobia is known to be an obsessive fear of something -or.

Fortunately, not all compound nouns in English are so intimidating. Most of them include two short words, sometimes connected by a preposition. So while reading this article, you are unlikely to be threatened with hippopotamusmonstrosesquipedaliophobia. nine0003

What are compound nouns

From the very name it is clear that compound nouns are words that include two or more components. In many modern languages, including English, such words are quite common, and their number is constantly growing. This is due to the dynamic development of our world and the constant emergence of new terms, professions, services, etc. A closer look at some of the most commonly used English compound nouns shows that one of the components describes or refines the second, giving a more complete picture of the subject. nine0003

• An air + a plane = an airplane
• A police (police) + a man (person) = a policeman (police).
• A boy (boy) + a friend (friend) = a boyfriend (young man, lover).

Ways of forming compound nouns in English

The table shows the main combinations of parts of speech from which compound nouns can be formed. Please note that some words in English can be several parts of speech at the same time. For example, word work is the noun “work”, and to work is already the verb “work”. And words like in , off , under , by and over can be both prepositions and adverbs.

Forming the plural of compound nouns

The plural of compound nouns is formed by adding the letter s to the main design word:

• A green house (greenhouse) – green houses (greenhouses).
• A car park (parking) - car parks (parking).
• A mother -in-law - mothers -in-law

How to determine the main word in a compound noun? It is usually placed second. However, there are also compound nouns in which both components are equal. In such cases, the letter s is added to the second word:

• A table spoon
• An ash tray (ashtray) - ash trays (ashtrays).
• An also- ran (outsider) – also- rans (outsiders).
• A go- between (intermediary) – go- betweens (intermediaries).
• A grown- up / grown up (adult) – grown- ups (adult).

If one of the words that make up the compound noun has a special form in the plural, both words change: a m a nservant (servant) - m e nservant s (servant).

How to write compound nouns in English

Compound nouns in English can be written in three ways: together, hyphenated and separately.

• A firefly
• X-ray X-ray.
• A sergeant major - sergeant major, foreman.

There is no clear rule regarding the spelling of compound nouns in English. Therefore, the surest way to check the spelling of a word is to look it up in a dictionary. Interestingly, the use of the hyphen in modern English is reduced to a minimum. And those words that were originally written with a hyphen, over time, begin to be written together (for example, email and online ).

How to pronounce compound nouns in English

Usually, each of the words that make up a compound noun retains its stress, and when pronounced, the first component of the compound word is emphasized.

• A páper knife / páperknife - paper knife.
• A reading test - reading test.
• A sínging lesson - a singing lesson. nine0053

However, this is a general recommendation and may not apply to all compound nouns. Each case is different, and it is best to check the stress in a dictionary.

Clear rules can be followed only in two cases:

1. If a compound noun contains a proper name or the name of something, the stress is most often placed on the first syllable of the second word:
   • Mount Éverest - Mount Everest.
   • Prime Minister - prime minister.
   • New York - New York.
2. If a compound noun is formed from a phrasal verb, the stress falls on the first syllable of the first word:
   • A gétaway - escape.
   • A comeback - return.
   • A bréakdown - breakdown, failure.

Learning how to pronounce compound nouns in English is easy. You already know the theory of how this is done, and a practical lesson will be given to you by a native speaker Emma in this video:

The topic of compound nouns in English is simple. In order to use them correctly, it is enough to remember a few simple basic rules. And to check how you learned the topic, take our test.

Test

Compound nouns in English

Connect the words from the left column with the words from the right to get compound nouns

Test not available for mobile devices.

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