Help Forming Compound Nouns

Posted: May 22, 2015

There are only three types of compound nouns, but they can cause a ton of confusion. Hyphenated nouns on their own – whether to hyphenate, not to hyphenate, to use multiple hyphens – can be mind boggling. Toss in open and closed compound nouns, and forming them properly might seem impossible. It is possible, and here are some tips to help. Maeve Maddox, Editor of Daily Writing Tips, shares 10 ways to form compound nouns. Compound nouns are of three kinds: open, hyphenated, and closed. As the names imply, “open compounds” are written as separate words, “hyphenated compounds” are written with one or more hyphens, and “closed compounds” are written as a single word. Many compounds begin as open, progress to hyphenated, and finish as closed. Because of the modern preference to avoid hyphenating words as much as possible, newly created compounds tend to develop closed forms earlier than they might have in the past. Some compounds written as one word in US usage are hyphenated in British usage. Compound nouns are formed by combining different parts of speech. This list of ten is not exhaustive. 1. noun + noun wheeler-dealer bedroom shoelace 2. noun + preposition/adverb hanger-on voice-over passerby (Br. passer-by) Read the entire article 10 Ways To Form a Compound Noun, on Daily Writing Tips.