Noun + noun: a bus driver, a car door, a shopping list

Two nouns together

Use two nouns together to show that one thing is a part of something else. The first noun is called a noun modifier. It works like an adjective.

• I can't open the kitchen window.
• She hurt her leg on the chair leg.
• He put the keys in his coat pocket.

For a part of a thing, a noun + noun is the usual choice: the car door, the shop window.

What the first noun can tell you

Sometimes you have to work out the meaning.

Measurements, ages and values

You can use a measurement, an age or a value before a noun. The unit word stays singular, with a hyphen.

• We took a two-hour break. The break was two hours long.
• He paid with a ten-pound note. The note was worth ten pounds.
• It is a fifty-kilometre journey.

The unit is singular in this pattern: a ten-minute break, not a ten-minutes break.

Adjectives and more than two nouns

An adjective goes before the noun modifier: the old newspaper seller, a tiring fifty-kilometre journey. You can also put more than two nouns together: London office workers, a home office chair.

Compound nouns

A compound noun is two or more words that make one noun with a new meaning. The most usual type is noun + noun. Other types are adjective + noun and verb + noun.

In a compound noun you can sometimes see the meaning in the parts: earache is an ear that aches, and rainfall is rain that falls. For some, the meaning is a new one: a know-all is a person who thinks they know everything.

How to write them

Many compound nouns are one word: bathroom, sheepdog, windscreen. Some have a hyphen: check-in, fire-fighter, son-in-law. Some have a space: bottle opener, Prime Minister. Hyphens are less usual now than in the past. A good learner's dictionary shows how to write each one.

Plurals

Add the plural ending to the last part: car parks, greenhouses. The words mother-in-law, brother-in-law and so on take the plural on the first noun.

• They are building two new bus stations in the city.
• She has one father-in-law and two brothers-in-law.

Singular modifier

The first noun is usually singular, even when it has a plural meaning: a shoe shop, a city bus, a film night. Some plural first nouns are standard: words with no singular form (a clothes shop), words not used in the singular with the same meaning (a customs officer), and words more often used in the plural (a savings account, a sports car).

With man and woman, use the plural form before a plural noun when the first noun is the doer: men drivers, women doctors. Compare man-eater and woman-hater, where the first noun is the object of the action.

Stress

In most compound nouns, the spoken stress is on the first part: CAR park, BATHroom, WEBsite. Some compound nouns, especially names and titles, have the stress on the second part: Prime MINister, New YORK. A learner's dictionary shows the stress.

's or a noun + noun?

Use 's for people and animals: Maria's bike, the dog's bowl. For things, of or a noun + noun is the usual choice: the door of the house, the door handle. A possessive 's with a thing is not always wrong (see below), but for a part of a thing, a noun + noun is more natural.

There are exceptions, such as places and groups of people (the government's plans) and some time words (today's news). See Possessive 's and of: a neighbour's garden, the end of the road.

What comes next

For 's and of, see Possessive 's and of: a neighbour's garden, the end of the road. For two nouns with an adjective before them, see Adjective order and position. For plural endings, see Singular and plural nouns: one cup, two cups.