Compound words

Compound words are individual words (or phrases that act as individual words) made from two or more words working together. They can be most parts of speech, including nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and even prepositions like inside, outside, within, and without. Compound words have their own distinct meanings that are different from the meanings of the words they’re made of.

The 3 types of compound words There are three types of compound words in grammar, determined by how the words are separated. Open compound words: spaces between the words Closed compound words: no spaces between the words Hyphenated compound words: hyphens between the words

Open compound words have spaces in between the words, which can make them hard to identify. But despite how they look, open compound words always act like single words. They always appear together, in the same order, and they each have their own unique meanings. Open compound words are mostly nouns, and they’re used the same as regular nouns. If you want to make an open compound word plural, you usually pluralize only the final word in the group, not all the words.

When open compound words are verbs, they’re more commonly known as phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs have their own special rules, but in general only one of the words in the group is conjugated while the others remain untouched. Sometimes open compound words take a hyphen if they are used as a different part of speech. For example, the compound word test drive is open when used as a noun but hyphenated as test-drive when used as a verb. Test drives are important. I always test-drive a new car before purchasing.

1. black eye cell phone close call common sense 2. cotton candy dining room first aid full moon 3. French fry heart attack high school hot dog 4. ice cream life jacket living room no one 5. peanut butter post office prime minister real estate

6. remote control report card rib cage role model 7. roller coaster salad dressing search engine slam dunk 8. sleeping bag time capsule vacuum cleaner vending machine 9. video game waiting room washing machine web page

Compared to open compound words, closed compound words are much easier to remember and to use. There are no spaces between the words, so closed compound words both look and act like individual words. You can find closed compound words in almost all parts of speech. Adverbs like sometimes or anyday are closed compound words, as are the prepositions inside, outside,within, and without. Even the word cannot, a shortened form of the phrase “can not,” is a closed compound word.

airport anybody, everybody, nobody, somebody anyone, everyone, someone (but not no one) anything, everything, nothing, something anywhere, everywhere, nowhere, somewhere babysit

background barefoot baseball, basketball, football,etc. bathroom bedroom blackberry, blueberry,etc. breakfast cannot checkout cowboy

daylight desktop fingerprint firefly forever gentleman grandmother, grandfather, granddaughter, etc. grapefruit grasshopper headquarters handshake inside keyboard

lipstick mailbox nevertheless nonetheless notebook outside payday railroad rainbow raincoat skateboard smartphone

snowball sometimes sunflower toothbrush turntable undercover upstream waterfall watermelon weekend within without

Last are hyphenated compound words, which have hyphens between the words. These can be tricky to spell if you’re unsure whether there’s a hyphen or a space, so it’s best to familiarize yourself with a compound word list to help you learn the individual spellings. Otherwise you can quickly look up the correct spelling with a spell checker.

When hyphenated compound words are nouns, it’s important that you pluralize the right part. Unlike with open compound words, you don’t always pluralize the final word in the group. For example, with the hyphenated compound word mother-in-law, you pluralize mother instead of law. However, each hyphenated compound word is different, and sometimes the s comes at the end. For example, the plural of merry-go-round is merry-go-rounds.

check-in clean-cut editor-in-chief empty-handed far-fetched father-in-law, mother-in-law, sister-in-law,etc. free-for-all know-how know-it-all life-size merry-go-round long-distance

long-term mind-blowing nitty-gritty one-sided one-dimensional, two-dimensional, etc. over-the-counter run-in runner-up strong-arm topsy-turvy toss-up up-to-date well-being

Compound words are often confused with blended words, also known as portmanteaus, but the two are very different. In compound words, each individual word remains unchanged. However, in portmanteaus, or blended words, only parts of each word are used. For example, the word internet is a portmanteau; it’s a combination of the words interconnected and network. If it were a compound word, it would be something like interconnected-network, with both words remaining whole and uncut.