There are 9 parts of speech or word classes in English language:
– nouns
– pronouns
– determiners
– verbs
– prepositions
– adjectives
– adverbs
– conjunctions
– interjections

Nouns are a group of words that we use to name:
– people: man, woman, teacher, John, Mary
– animals: cat, rabbit, horse, elephant
– plants: palm tree, coconut trees, grass, wheat, corn
– places: home, office, town, village, England
– concrete objects: chair, table, ball, water, money, sugar
– abstract objects: truth, lies, happiness, sorrow, time, friendship

A noun functions as a subject or an object in a sentence.

Subject:
– John likes coffee.
(‘John’ is a noun.)
– Diamonds are expensive.
(‘Diamonds’ is a noun.)
– Cats are cute.
(‘Cats’ is a noun.)

Object:
– John likes coffee.
(‘Coffee’ is a noun.)
– Jane bought a table.
(‘Table’ is a noun.)
– Tom is a teacher.
(‘Teacher’ is a noun.)

There are 2 types of nouns:

1. Countable nouns (you can count the object individually)
– people
– book
– table
– building
– cat

You can count 1 book, 2 books, 10 books, etc.
You can count 1 person, 2 people, 10 people, etc.

2. Uncountable nouns (you cannot count the object individually)
– sugar
– salt
– water
– friendship
– health

You CANNOT count 1 sugar, 2 sugar, 10 sugar, etc.
You CANNOT count 1 water, 2 water, 10 water, etc.

Compound nouns are nouns that are made up of two words or more.

Example:
bus stop
washing machine
bathroom

Parts of Compound Nouns

Usually compound nouns have 2 parts:
– part 1: type or purpose
– part 2: object or person

washing machine
– part 1: washing -> purpose
– part 2: object -> machine
– washing machine: a machine for washing

rainforest
– part 1: type -> rain
– part 2: object -> rain
– rainforest: a type of forest found in areas with heavy rainfall

Types of Compound Nouns

There are 3 types of compound nouns:

1. open / spaced compound nouns (separated by space)
– tennis shoe
– bus stop

2. hypenated compound nouns (separated by hyphen)
– check-in
– mother-in-law

3. closed / solid compound nouns (combined; not separated)
– bathroom
– toothpaste

Examples of Compound Nouns

Noun + Noun

bus stop
car park
fish tank

toothpaste
football
shopkeeper
bedroom
motorcycle

Adjective + Noun

full moon
small talk

blackboard
greenhouse
software
hardware

Verb + Noun

washing machine
swimming pool
driving licence

breakfast
chopstick
swimsuit

Noun + Verb

rainfall
snowfall
haircut
sunrise
sunset
photoshoot

Other forms

mother-in-law
check-in
passer-by
take-off
dry-cleaning
self-esteem

Plural Forms of Compound Nouns

The plural forms of compound nouns are created by adding ‘s’ at the of the main noun only.

1 bus stop
2 bus stops
2 buses stop (wrong)
2 buses stops (wrong)

1 toothbrush
2 toothbrushes
2 teethbrushes (wrong)
2 teethbrush (wrong)

1 son-in-law
2 sons-in-law
2 sons-in-laws (wrong)
2 son-in-laws (wrong)

If a compound noun is an uncountable noun:
– it doesn’t have a plural form
– it cannot be used directly with a/an/numbers
– it can be used with quantity expressions
– the quantity expressions can be in singular or plural forms

a tube of toothpaste
two tubes of toothpaste
two tubes of teethpastes (wrong)
two tubes of teethpaste (wrong)

Possessive ‘s for Compound Nouns

Possessive ‘s can be used at the end of compound nouns following the rules of regular nouns.

my father’s car
my father-in-law’s car
my father’s-in-law car (wrong)