Vocabulary

Concept: Compound Words

Definition

• Compound words are those that are formed by joining two words together.
• These words might have their own meaning and at times they might have more than one meaning as well.

Examples:

• In the first example, ‘Light’ and ‘House’ are two words. We have combined both the words to make one word ‘Lighthouse’.
• In the second example, ‘Ice’ and ‘Cream’ are two words. We have combined both the words to make one word ‘Ice cream’.
• Here are some of the examples of mostly used compound words.

Types of Compound Words

There are three types of Compound words.

• Closed Compounds
• Hyphenated Compounds
• Open Compounds

Closed Compounds

Closed compounds are a combination of two words that don’t have a hyphen in between the words.

Examples :

• I love to eat cupcakes.
• My mother bought some strawberry from the market.

Hyphenated Compounds

Hyphenated compounds are a combination of two words that have a hyphen in between both the words.

Examples :

• He is a broad-minded person.
• Your parents care for your well-being.

Open Compounds

Open Compounds are a combination of two words which are separated by a space.

Examples :

• Ram is eating an ice cream.
• He is in the high school.

Common Errors

• Don’t get confused between the types of compound words. It is important to recognize which words take hyphens and which words don’t.

Incorrect and Correct Usage :

✔ Life-long

❌ Life long

• In the first example, there are two words “life” and “long”. After combining both the words, we get the word “life-long” and a hyphen in between.