Compound nouns
We form compound nouns by joining together two words.
Sometimes we keep these words separate.
Examples:
- coffee cup
- fairy tale
- washing machine
Sometimes we hyphenate them (join them together by a hyphen).
Examples:
- holiday-maker
- hold-up
- passer-by
Sometimes we use the words to make a new word.
Examples:
- teapot
- doorstep
- bedroom
There is no particular rule to determine which format should be used so the best advice is to check in a dictionary – although dictionaries will often disagree with each other!
