We know a name as the name of any person, place, thing, concept or idea. We also learned about classes such as proper nouns, common nouns, possessive nouns, singular nouns, plural nouns, abstract nouns, and collective nouns. There are more nouns in the English Language than some other words. Do you have compound names? to be Compound nouns are simply formed by combining two simple nouns. Now that’s it. You must remember this. It is a noun phrase in which another attributive noun is modified. So you are free to replace the name ‘Male’ with another attributive name ‘Nux’ and identify the health staff as Male Nurse without any ambiguity. (Wikipedia)
Compound words (British Council), (Commnet) there are three forms Closed form In this form you can join two suitable nouns to form one word. Consider examples of better understanding: Barmaid, Bathroom, Shipwreck, Buttermilk, and Butterscotch
Hyphenated form, In this form you are free to combine the appropriate noun conjunction with a hyphen inserted between each word. (Here the words are separated by a hyphen) Consider examples: Air-bit, Baby-sitting
Open form, In this form it is necessary to leave one space between suitable names. No need for high school. Consider examples: Attorney General, Fish tank, Half Sister, Post Office, Real Estate, and Middle Class.
I have just given a review of compound nouns and their conventional forms. While we are able to identify these three forms, the method of using these forms to combine and create compound names is not explained in any known reference source ie. dictionaries or grammar books. As regards hyphenation, no uniform practice prevails. Others prefer to insert it by a hyphen, in this way: The full moon; and some do not prefer and simply write with a space, the full moon.
I collected 150 compound nouns under three different forms from the dictionaries mentioned above. I have enumerated them under each form, as will appear below;
1. Closed form (one word)
I collected and reviewed 55 closed forms with compound names from standard dictionaries.
1 Appeal
2) Barmaid
3) Bartender
4) Bathroom
5) Room
6) Table
7) Shipwrecks
8) Breakwater
9) Browbeat
X) Glory
11) Buttermilk
12) Butterscotch
13) Chairman
14 Childish
15
16) The eyebrow
17) Fingerprint
18) Fisherman
19 Flashlight,
20)
21) Footbrake
22) Footprint
23) Lobster
24) Handbag
25) Handbill
26) Handkerchief
27) Hardware
28) the road
29) Hyperactive
30) Hypothermia
31 Compendia
32) Lifelong
33) Rutrum
34) Milkmaid
35) Newspaper
36 Codicillus
37) Output
38) above the head
39 Redhead
40) Salesman
41) Sandbag
42) Sandpaper
43) Sandstone
44) Saucepan
45) Seafood
46)
47) Algae
48 Secondhand
49 Shoelac
50 Softball
51) Software
52) Supermarket
53) Underhand
54) Watergate
55)
2. The hyphenated form
I collected and reviewed 37 hyphenated compound nouns from standard dictionaries.
1) Air-tight
2) Air-break
3) Air-chamber
4) Air-cushion-vehicle
5) Air-port
6) Arm-chair
7 Baby-sitter
8) Blue-green
9) born again
10 boy-friend
11) Brother in law
12 daughter-in-law
13
14 Chief Editor
15) Father-in-law
16) Leaf Vol
17) Fly wheel
18) Freeze-dried
19 grandfather
20) Hyper-acidic
21) Hypo-thyr
22) Love in
23 Mass-produced
24 master in arms
25) mother-in-law
26) Multi-solar
27) New Year’s Day
28) Over-ripe
29
30) Sister-in-law
31
32 six years old
33 Heaven is crying out
34) Sub urban
35) Twelve years
36) Wall paper
37) White-wash
3. Open form (Two or more words)
I collected and reviewed 58 open-form (two or more words) compound nouns from standard dictionaries.
1) Attorney General
2) Bath tub
3) There is no beauty
4) birthday
5) birth name
6) The bottom line
7) broad gauge
8) Capital letters
9) Castor oil
10) Christian name
11) Curriculum
13) Dish washer
15) Surname
16) cousins
17) Fish tank
18) Fish tank
19 full moon
20) Gray matter
21 half sister
22 Great studies
23) Ice land
24) Independence Day
25) Indoor games
26) Indoor plant
29) Laptop computer
30) Living Room
31 lower middle class
32) Mineral
37) Office assistant
38) stationary office
39) Outdoor games
40) Paper clip
41) Petrol gauge
42 Pony tail
44 After office
46) Registration service
47) Resting place
48) Scotch whisky
49 Seat belt
50) Tea cup
51) Trade name
52) Under cut
53) Under the dog
54) Under the way
55) Under the world
57) The wedding day
Source:
1) Airtech – Quizzes http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/quizzes/vm/m-cm.html
2) British Council – Learn -central-grammatic-nouns-compound.htm
3) Edufind – Grammar – Noun
NOUNS4.cfm
4) Esl DESK Nouns – Grammar – Nouns
http://www.esldesk.com/grammatic/nouns.htm
5) Grammar 300 – Commnet – Grammar – Exercise in Compound Nouns and Modifiers
6) Because
7) Wikipaedia – Composite English http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latina_composita
