3. COMPOUND NOUNS CHECK YOUR ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR FCE

CHECK YOUR ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR FCE

3. COMPOUND NOUNS

A compound noun is a combination of two words which function as a single noun. Ø  Some compound nouns can be written as one word. e.g., headache (head + ache). Ø  Some compound nouns can be joined using a hyphen (-). e.g., half-brother. Ø  Some compound nouns must be written as two words. e.g., television set. There are no rules to tell us how a compound noun should be written. We have to learn each one individually.

Task 1. Join one word on A with one word on the B to make compound nouns. In some cases, more than one combination is possible.

A

air	airline	book	fairy	food	football
hair	home	income	moon	parking	police
question	race	shoe	stamp	sun	table
traffic	time	tooth	water

B

basin	boots	case	collection	dryer	glasses
laces	light	lights	mark	meter	paste
pilot	poisoning	pollution	relations	station	story
table	tax	tennis	work

Task 2. Use the compound nouns above to complete the following sentences. You may need to change the forms of some of the words.

1	When I was young, my parents used to tell me ________ about witches and giants and other strange creatures.
2	We had to wait for the ________ to turn green before we were able to continue.
3	Don't leave this plant in the shade; it needs lots of ________.
4	In my home city, there is a lot of bad ________ as a result of the large number of cars and industrial factories.
5	________ in my city are very bad. There are often fights between black and white youths.
6	The more money you earn, the more ________ you have to pay to the government.
7	On my last holiday, I had terrible ________ as a consequence of eating some bad fish.
8	I tripped over my ________ and ended up with a broken arm.
9	Don't forget to put some money in the ________ or the traffic wardens will give you a ticket.
10	When does our train leave? Why don't you check the ________ .
11	I enjoy playing all ball games, but my favourite must be ________.
12	When you write a question, don't forget to put a ________ at the end of the sentence.
13	I enjoy my English lessons, but sometimes our teacher gives us too much ________.
14	I've got a huge ________. I started it when I was six. My favourite comes from an island in the South Pacific.
15	We could see the path in front of us clearly in the ________, although everything else around us was dark.

ANSWER KEY