COMPOUNDS

Exercise 

Look at 1-4 in the list below. How many words are in each? 

1. ice cream 

2. nice-looking 

3. dry clean 

4. homework 

     New words can be formed by combining two or more words, for example ice cream. Both ice and cream have their own meaning but a new word with a new meaning is created by combining them. We call this a compound. 

     

     Combining words (compounding) to make new words (compounds) is very common in English. All the compounds in the list above are made by combining two words. The new word is regarded as having one unit of meaning, which is different from the meanings of the words that make it. It is sometimes regarded as a single word. So, the answers for the above list could be 1 or 2. Notice that compounds can be written as one single word, as two separate words or by joining the two words with a hyphen. At times, a compound can be written in different ways; for example, ice cream may sometimes be written with a hyphen. How a compound is written is sometimes because of personal choice and sometimes because of generally accepted forms. For example, homework is always written as one word but in dry clean you can choose to use a hyphen or not. A dictionary will provide you with this information. 

COMPOUND PATTERNS 

● noun + noun e.g. ice cream, homework 

● noun + adjective e.g. homesick, oven ready 

● verb + particle e.g. wake up, find out 

● adjective + verb e.g. wet shave, dry clean

● adjective/adverb + past/present particle e.g. good-tempered, nice-looking, well-spoken, hard working 

● preposition + preposition e.g. into, onto, upon 

     Compounds can be different part of speech. For example, ice cream is a noun, homesick is an adjective and into is a compound preposition.