Compound nouns

Compound nouns

Teacher: Silence, you, naughty children! Do you hear me? Hey, small mean hooligans! …

Magician: No, no, no. It`s not the way you should speak to your students! … Think of your way of teaching and treating your pupils. Подумай над тем, как ты преподаешь и относишься к своим ученикам.

But you have to think of your behaviour otherwise the same will happen to you! А вы подумайте над своим поведением, иначе то же самое произойдет и с вами!

So, today I`ll be your teacher. I will help you to make your new grammar topic easier.

So, the first thing to deal with is to understand what ‘compound nouns’ mean. Первым делом мы с вами разберемся, что же такое ‘составные существительные’. ‘Compound nouns’ means that such nouns are built from two separate words. ‘Составные существительные’ значит, что такие существительные образованы из двух отдельных слов. Today I`ll show you what happens if we join two nouns. А сегодня я покажу вам, что происходит, если мы объединим два существительных.

Look: we`ve got two separate words (у нас есть два отдельных слова): coffee and shop. If we join them we`ll get to a coffee shop.

One more example: post and office. If we join these words we`ll find ourselves (если мы объединим эти два слова, то мы окажемся) … in the post office. 

If you want to do some shopping you can join city and centre (а если мы хотим заняться покупками, то мы объединяем ‘city’ и ‘centre’ … and you`ll get into the city centre. There are lots of different shops. В центре города всегда много разнообразных магазинов.

Do you feel tired after shopping? Устали от шоппинга? You can join ‘bed’ and ‘room’ and now you can have a rest in your ‘bedroom’. И сейчас можете отдохнуть в своей спальне ‘bedroom’.

And if you want to learn English you have to join class and room. Wow! We are in our classroom again.

Now, please, pay attention to the blackboard. Look at the mentioned words: coffee shop, post office, city centre, bedroom and classroom. How do we write compound nouns? Посмотрите: как мы пишем составные существительные?

Some of them are written separately from each other (некоторые из них мы пишем раздельно). Some of them are written as one word (а некоторые пишем слитно, то есть одним словом).

There`s no rule on this point, you just have to be very attentive and remember the words. Никакого правила, которое бы помогло нам писать их слитно или раздельно нет. Вам нужно быть внимательными и запоминать, как правильно писать те или иные составные существительные.

Now, look at some words and guess the compound noun which we can build from them (посмотрите следующие слова и отгадайте, какое составное существительное мы можем из них образовать): ‘tomato’ and ‘soup’. What can we build from these words? ...

Pupil 1: Tomato soup, of course. From tomatoes we can cook tomato soup.

Look at the following pictures: ‘sun’ and ‘flower’. Have you got any ideas about this compound noun? …

Pupil 2: Sunflower! … Yes. We see a nice big sunflower.

And the last pair of words for now: ‘book’ and ‘shop’. What noun is hidden this time? Какое существительное спрятано на этот раз?

Pupil  3: Bookshop, of course. I often buy books at the bookshop in my street.

Magician: Now I ask you to be very attentive and turn on your imagination. Look at the following pictures and try to guess the compound noun they can mean.

The first pair: (a car and a park). Any ideas?

Pupil 1:  Car park! We leave our car at the car park next to our house.

Let`s check your answer. Well done! … So, the following pair of pictures: rain + coat.  

What will we get if we join these two words?

Pupil 2: I know, I know! It`s a raincoat!

Magician: Let`s see… Excellent, young man! Oh, look: more pictures. (news and an agent).

Who is quick-witted? Кто же самый догадливый?

Pupil 3:  May I try? I think these words transform into ‘newsagent’.

Magician:  Let`s have a look: right you are. Wonderful! Well done! You are very smart!

And there is one more point to discuss: your behavior. Good Behaviour can cover a Lack of Beauty but a Good Beauty can never cover a Lack of Behaviour!...

Teacher: Good morning, dear students. Glad to see you. How are you doing today?