GRAMMAR COMPOUNDS A Compound is a combination of two or more words. In English most Compounds are formed by nouns modified by other nouns. The defining/modifying word(s) may also be adjectives, prepositions, adverbs or verbs. Sometimes Compounds are written joined together (glass + ware = glassware, green + house = greenhouse), sometimes they are joined using a hyphen (Earth-sciences), sometimes they are two separate words (heart diseases). Remember that, in such sequences, the most important word always comes last (rubber boots are boots, not rubber !). The words which come before it just define the main word in more detail. Only the last word of the group can be made plural (test tubes). The other words function as adjectives, so they are invariable. A Compound can be used to indicate: what someone does (English teacher), what something is for (heating equipment), what the qualities of something are (worldwide), how something works (settling tank), when something happens (everyday life), where something is (milk casein), what something is made of (cloth sneakers) and so on. The word sequence may be quite long. For example, as you have seen in Unit 3, a revolutionary new whey protein based film coating is a coating in the form of a thin film which is new and revolutionary being based on proteins derived from whey . Compound adjectives are made up of a noun + an adjective (sugar-free), a noun + a participle (computer-aided), or an adjective + a participle (quick-thinking). It is important to use hyphens in some compound adjectives to avoid an ambiguous meaning. For example: rock-forming minerals are minerals that form rock , while rock forming minerals could refer to rock that forms minerals . Other combinations include: adjective + verb (whitewash), noun + verb (landmark), preposition/adverb + verb (output), verb + preposition / adverb (check-in), verb + verb (freeze-dry). 256 Module 6 ATOMS