A compound noun may be one word, two words, or a hyphenated word. They may be formed by joining a noun with a noun, adjective, verb, preposition, prepositional phrase, or even a verb and a preposition.
- Adjective & Noun: back yard, blackboard, front door, greenhouse, orange juice
- Noun & Adjective: mouthful, seaside
- Noun & Noun: baseball, golf ball, laundry basket, peanut butter, Web page, website
- Noun & Prepositional Phase: brother-in-law, jack-in-the-box, sergeant-in-arms
- Noun & Verb: haircut, manmade, mouse trap, sunset
- Preposition & Noun: overcoat, undertow
- Verb & Noun: swimming pool
- Verb & Preposition: check-in, go-between, pickup, passerby
Spelling with one word, two words, or a hyphenated word is important, especially when the meaning changes. Obviously, a green house is much different from a greenhouse.
Many two-word nouns become a single-word or hyphenated word when used as an adjective. We need a hyphen when referring to an orange-juice salesman, or we may wonder if our juice salesman has his face painted orange and is selling drinks at a Syracuse football game. We have a backyard (one word adjective) barbeque in the back yard (two-word noun).
Spell Check isn’t much help in this area, so pay attention and keep your dictionary handy.
