Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 1K views

    Plural Forms of Compound Nouns

    Uploaded by

    Anthony Pineda
    The document discusses plural forms of compound nouns. It states that generally the plural is formed by adding -s to the base or most significant word. It provides examples like tennis shoes and assistant headmasters. There are some variations, like the old style plurals of spoonfuls being spoonsful. For compound nouns without an obvious base word, a dictionary should be consulted. With noun-noun compounds, the first noun acts as an adjective and does not take an -s, while the second noun is pluralized, like apple trees or telephone cables.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Plural Forms of Compound Nouns

    Uploaded by

    Anthony Pineda
    1K views3 pages
    The document discusses plural forms of compound nouns. It states that generally the plural is formed by adding -s to the base or most significant word. It provides examples like tennis shoes and assistant headmasters. There are some variations, like the old style plurals of spoonfuls being spoonsful. For compound nouns without an obvious base word, a dictionary should be consulted. With noun-noun compounds, the first noun acts as an adjective and does not take an -s, while the second noun is pluralized, like apple trees or telephone cables.

    Original Description:

    nouns

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The document discusses plural forms of compound nouns. It states that generally the plural is formed by adding -s to the base or most significant word. It provides examples like tennis shoes and assistant headmasters. There are some variations, like the old style plurals of spoonfuls being spoonsful. For compound nouns without an obvious base word, a dictionary should be consulted. With noun-noun compounds, the first noun acts as an adjective and does not take an -s, while the second noun is pluralized, like apple trees or telephone cables.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    1K views3 pages

    Plural Forms of Compound Nouns

    Uploaded by

    Anthony Pineda
    The document discusses plural forms of compound nouns. It states that generally the plural is formed by adding -s to the base or most significant word. It provides examples like tennis shoes and assistant headmasters. There are some variations, like the old style plurals of spoonfuls being spoonsful. For compound nouns without an obvious base word, a dictionary should be consulted. With noun-noun compounds, the first noun acts as an adjective and does not take an -s, while the second noun is pluralized, like apple trees or telephone cables.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    You are on page 1of 3

    Plural Forms of Compound Nouns

    In general we make the plural of a compound noun by adding -s to the "base


    word" (the most "significant" word). Look at these examples:

    singular

    plural

    a tennis shoe

    three tennis shoes

    one assistant headmaster

    five assistant headmasters

    the sergeant major

    some sergeants major

    a mother-in-law

    two mothers-in-law

    an assistant secretary of state

    three assistant secretaries of state

    my toothbrush

    our toothbrushes

    a woman-doctor

    four women-doctors

    a doctor of philosophy

    two doctors of philosophy

    a passerby, a passer-by

    two passersby, two passers-by

    Note that there is some variation with words like spoonful or truckful. The old
    style was to say spoonsful or trucksful for the plural. Today it is more usual to
    say spoonfuls or truckfuls. Both the old style (spoonsful) and the new style
    (spoonfuls) are normally acceptable, but you should be consistent in your
    choice. Here are some examples:

    old style plural (very formal)

    new style plural

    teaspoonful

    3 teaspoonsful of sugar

    3 teaspoonfuls of sugar

    truckful

    5 trucksful of sand

    5 truckfuls of sand

    bucketful

    2 bucketsful of water

    2 bucketfuls of water

    cupful

    4 cupsful of rice

    4 cupfuls of rice

    Some compound nouns have no obvious base word and you may need to
    consult a dictionary to find the plural:

    higher-ups

    also-rans

    go-betweens

    has-beens

    good-for-nothings

    grown-ups

    Note that with compound nouns made of [noun + noun] the first noun is like an
    adjective and therefore does not usually take an -s. A tree that has apples has
    many apples, but we say an apple tree, notapples
    tree; matchbox not matchesbox; toothbrush not teethbrush.

    With compound nouns made of [noun + noun] the second noun takes an -s for
    plural. The first noun acts like an adjective and as you know, adjectives in
    English are invariable. Look at these examples:

    long plural form becomes

    plural compound noun


    [noun + noun]

    100 trees with apples

    100 apple trees

    1,000 cables for telephones

    1,000 telephone cables

    20 boxes for tools

    20 tool boxes

    10 stops for buses

    10 bus stops

    4,000 wheels for cars

    4,000 car wheels

    You might also like