Compound words with numerals in their structure

—   Hello, guys! My name is James Wilson. This is my best friend Martin Green.

—   Welcome to our lesson!

—   Today our friend Nathaniel will join us.

—   He wants to tell you something.

—   Hello, my friends! Yesterday I read some breaking news on the Internet. Listen to the story.

Date: November 2, 2018

A lucky man.

David Jones is a fifty-year-old man. He has a beautiful wife and two kids: a five-year-old boy and a twelve-year-old girl. The man won $10 million in a lottery yesterday. He is a five-time lottery winner. When he won a lottery for the first time in 2009, he could manage to buy a four-storeyed house. One of the times he took all of his family on a fifteen-day cruise. They spent eight days in the Indian ocean. The family had a one-hour flight to the Socotra Island. They spent a great time there. David is such a lucky man.

—   Nathaniel, we are so happy for this stranger, but … why are you telling us this news? Do you want us to be jealous?

—   No, James, of course, not! I found it specially for this lesson. Look at the following highlighted words: fifty-year-old, five-year-old, twelve-year-old, five-time, four-storeyed, fifteen-day and one-hour. All of these words are compound adjectives with numerals in their structure. Today I’m going to tell you about them.

—   Oh, sounds interesting!

Today in the lesson Nathaniel will:

·        Tell us how to form compound words with numerals in their structure;

And

·        Tell us when we can use these words.

First of all, before we start talking about compound adjectives, let’s revise what an adjective is.

Adjective is a describing word, which we use to give more information about different objects.

For example:

The bookshelf is so stylish.

This is a red car.

This butterfly is so beautiful.

The glasses are round.

These books are interesting.

This is a purple scarf.

—   Now, guys, tell me, do you know what a compound adjective is?

—   No, Nathaniel, we don’t!

A compound adjective is a describing word, which consists of two or more adjectives. We form it by joining these words together to describe the same noun. These words need to be hyphenated. This will help to avoid confusion or ambiguity.

Now let’s look at the following two example and compare them.

The first example:

Mary saw a man-eating bear.

(Here we are describing the bear. We say that this is the type of the bear that eats different people.)

And the second example:

Mary saw a man eating bear.

(We didn’t put the hyphen in this sentence, that’s why it seems like the man is eating the bear.)

—   Nathaniel, as I can see, we need to be very attentive and put the hyphen where it’s necessary. This is very important, because the meaning of the sentence depends on it.  

—   Yes, Martin, you’re right! Now I’ll tell you how to form compound adjectives with numerals in their structure.

To form these adjectives, we can use two major types of numerals: cardinal and ordinal.

Let’s start with the first ones.

Cardinal numerals indicate number, quantity or amount. We can use them when we need to count something. 

For example:

This is a twenty-four-hour grocery store.

Or

My sister wrote a sixty-page book.

Compound adjectives with cardinal numerals in their structure can express different things:

One. Age.

For instance:

Look at this two-year-old building. It looks so old.

Or

John, let me introduce my twenty-year-old son to you.

Two. Duration.

For instance: We had a five-day trip to Canada.

Or

My parents had a thirty-minute walk yesterday. They needed to get some fresh air.

Three. Distance.

For instance: A two-metre-long stage was made for the concert of this world-famous band.

Or

It was a five-kilometre road, so we got very tired.

Four. Price.

For instance: Alice bought a seventy-dollar dress.

Or We signed a million-dollar contract yesterday.

Five. Weight.

For instance: My little sister asked me to take her six-kilo bag to school. It was heavy.

Or Ed bought a five-ton table three years ago. We could barely bring it home.

We can also form compound adjectives with ordinal numerals in their structure.

Ordinal numerals are used to indicate order, that is, the order of things in a series. These numerals are usually preceded by the definite article "the".

For example:

Last week my mom bought a second-hand car.

Or

“The Picture of Dorian Gray” is a nineteenth-century novel. It was written by Oscar Wilde.

Nathaniel, this is so interesting!

Now we know that we can form compound adjectives with the help of numerals.

I’m glad to hear that, but I would like to know whether you understood everything I said or not.

Match these compound adjectives with the words they express.

Check yourselves.

Age: five-year-old.

Duration: six-week, two-hour, four-minute.

Distance: six-kilometre, five-metre.

Price: ninety-dollar, ten-euro.

Weight: twelve-kilo, sixteen-ton.

Now listen to the dialogues and fill in the gaps with the words from the boxes.

One.

—   Hey, Jacob! How is your school?

—   Hi, Dan! Everything is great! I’ll have a three-week holiday.

—   Great, Jacob! It means that you’ll be free next week. Let’s go to the cinema and watch a two-hour film “Monster Party”.

—   Sure, let’s go... Oh, no! I lost my fifty-dollar wallet and I don’t have money.

—   Jacob, don’t you worry. I’ll buy us two three-dollar tickets. They are not expensive at all.

—   Ok, thank you. See you next week, then.

Check yourselves.

Two.

—   Hi, Cody. What’s up?

—   Hi, Larry. Everything is fine. Tomorrow I’m going on a six-week trip to Brazil.

—   How will you get there?

—   I’ll go by car. It will be a long nine-thousand-kilometre way there.

—   Where will you stay?

—   I’ll stay in a five-star hotel. It’s a nineteen-storeyed building. The hotel is so beautiful!

—   Will you go there alone?

—   No, I’ll take my twelve-year-old daughter with me.

—   Have fun there!

—   Thanks, Larry. See you later.

 Check yourselves.

Write the same sentences differently.

For example:

Jessica was sixteen-years old.

Jessica was a sixteen-year-old girl.

One. The café “Victory” is open twenty-four hours.

Two. They went on a trip to Italy for ten days.

Three. Mrs. Milles was a wonderful woman who was thirty-two years old.

Four. Amanda will live in a hostel. It has twelve storeys.

Five. Bobby wrote an article about healthy lifestyle. It contains ninety pages.

Let’s check.

One.

“Victory” is a twenty-four-hour café.

Two.

They went on a ten-day trip to Italy.

Three.

Mrs. Milles was a wonderful thirty-two-year-old woman.

Four.

Amanda will live in a twelve-storeyed hostel.

Five.

Bobby wrote a ninety-page article about healthy lifestyle.

The following sentences:

Six. Alex drives a huge truck. It weighs two tons.

Seven. Allison bought a beautiful dress. She paid fifty dollars for it.

Eight. Robin saw an earthworm yesterday. It was four inches long.

Nine. Patrick is a sumo champion. He weighs two hundred kilograms.

Ten. Kate’s new work contract is for one year.

Let’s check.

Six.

Alex drives a huge two-ton truck.

Seven.

Allison bought a beautiful fifty-dollar dress.

Eight.

Robin saw a four-inch-long earthworm yesterday.

Nine.

Patrick is a two-hundred-kilogram sumo champion.

Ten.

Kate got a one-year work contract.

—   Now I see that you understood everything I said about compound adjectives with numerals in their structure.

—   You’re right, Nathaniel! We understood all the information you said.

—   Now we’ll use these adjectives in our speech and make it more beautiful and expressive. Thank you, Nathaniel!

—   You’re welcome, guys.

—   That’s all for today. We hope you liked the lesson. See you soon!