Vocabulary 08 - Compound Words formed from 'Head'
The English language has eight parts of speech, two of which - nouns and verbs - play important roles, as they are always found in sentences. Other parts of speech, such as adjectives and adverbs, are almost as important if you want to communicate effectively.
We have learnt that nouns are classified into different types, such as single nouns, abstract nouns, collective nouns and compound nouns. While the other types of nouns are by and large stand-alone words, compound nouns are formed by making use of two other words. Compound words are made without changing the original words in any way. Usually, two base words are placed side by side and a new word is formed.
The words news, stand and paper are stand alone words and from these three words two new words can be formed - newsstand and newspaper. You will notice that there is no change in the original words and they are simply placed side by side to form the new words.
It is not the case that any two words can be used together to form compound words. From the words flower, petal, bud and pot only one compound word can be formed - flowerpot.
Over time words were continuously being added to the English language and new words were introduced. This is still going on today. Many of these new words are compound words.
There are many compound words that are formed with one main word to which other words are added to give many new compound words. One such word is HEAD. Play this quiz and expand your knowledge of compound words that can be formed with head as the primary word.