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Compound Nouns

  • In English we can use nouns as adjectives. For examples: water sports, adventure holiday, caravan park.

  • The first word is an adjective and answers the question: What kind of? The relationship between the two nouns can be of many kinds: a) Place: mountain slopes; city centre; b) Time: summer holiday; week break; c) Function: golf course; swimming pool; d) Material: paper bag; iron bridge.

  • Sometimes three or more words are combined: Tourist Information Centre; business travel expenditure; air traffic control; winter sports holiday premium.

  • Apostrophe ‘s or s’ can be used in expressions of time with numbers: an hour’s drive from the airport; two day’s journey; a month’s holiday in Hungary; five minutes’ walk.

  • But in expressions beginning with V, The’, or a possessive and followed by a number, the first noun is singular:

  • The tour includes a two-day expedition to the caves.

  • The three-day train journey was boring.

  • His

    1. thirty-mile hike over the mountains left him exhausted.

    2. Task 3. Match the nouns.

    1. theme

    2. hotel

    3. boat

    4. incentive

    5. guide

    6. water

    7. capital

    8. health

    9. e.g. theme park

    1. city

    2. book

    3. sports

    4. resort

    5. travel

    6. trip

    7. accommodation

    8. park

    1. Use the compound nouns in your sentences.

    2. Task 4. Rewrite the sentences without changing the meaning.

    3. Model: It takes five minutes to walk from the hotel to the beach. It’s a five- minute walk from the hotel to the beach. A specialist lecturer accompanies each cruise which lasts seventeen days. A specialist lecturer accompanies each seventeen-day cruise.

    1. It takes two hours to drive to the airport.

    2. The journey to the centre of London takes forty-five minutes.

    3. The excursion includes a meal with three courses at a gourmet restaurant.

    4. You can visit the vineyard, which extends over two hundred hectares.

    5. We stayed in a hotel with three stars.

    6. From Santiago to San Francisco there’s a freeway with four lanes.

    7. A guide accompanies all tours scheduled for five days.

    8. They have produced a film, which lasts twenty minutes, on the natural wonders of the lake Baikal.

    9. Their expedition, which took six months, nearly met with disaster.