Compound nouns are nouns made up of two or more words, including nouns paired with adverbs, prepositions, or adjectives. They can be closed, open, or hyphenated, and the type determines pluralization rules. Exceptions exist based on word meaning and existing pluralization.
Compound nouns are grammatical nouns—that is, a person, place, or thing—that contain at least two words joined together for the best definition. They can include nouns only or a noun paired with another part of speech, such as an adverb, preposition, or adjective. Referred to as open, closed, or hyphenated, the type of compound noun plays an important role in determining the plural form of the compound.
In its most basic form, a noun represents a person, place, or thing. The words boy, church, and cup are all examples of nouns. A compound noun must contain at least one noun, but can be matched to any other part of speech. When paired with another part of speech, the noun need not appear as the first word in the compound.
A compound noun can be formed with two nouns, or one noun with another part of speech. The words alone each have their own meaning, but, when joined together in a compound noun, they create another meaning. For example, the two nouns tooth and paste can be compounded to form the word toothpaste. Another example is the word sunrise, which contains the noun sun and the verb to rise. Finally, by moving the noun to the second position, the word underground has the preposition under in front of the noun ground.
There are three different types of compound nouns: closed, open, and hyphenated. The three examples given in the previous paragraph are all closed compound nouns because there is no space between the words. An example of an open compound noun is deputy sheriff because the two words stay separate. The last category is hyphenated compound names, such as sister-in-law, which also demonstrates a compound name that uses more than two words.
Knowing the type of a compound noun is important in determining pluralization, which often includes identifying which word is most significant: the base word or the main word, i.e. the word that does not describe or modify. The last word in a closed compound becomes plural, so dawn becomes dawn. In open and hyphenated compound nouns, the most significant word is pluralized. For example, in the open compound noun deputy sheriff, the word sheriff is the most significant word since deputy describes the rank of sheriff: become deputy sheriff. However, in the hyphenated noun cognate, the sister word is the more significant and the other two modify it, so the plural version is cognate.
There are, however, special exceptions to these pluralization rules for compound nouns. The meaning of the words can make a difference. For example, sales clerks are used instead of sales clerks, for example because sale means sale while sale means a discount on price.
Nouns that exist only as plural nouns will remain plural in a compound. For example, coat hangers become coat hangers, as the first term was already plural. When it is not clear how a compound should be pluralised, a dictionary should be consulted.
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