COMPOUND WORDS IN ENGLISH

by picosito 1 Replies latest jw friends

  • picosito
    picosito

    I thought that people whose second language is English were most guilty of dividing up well-established English compound words into parts, but now I'm beginning to see the same phenomenon from people like Americans, Australians and English. Seems like it's some kind of degeneration or fad or misunderstanding of the real nature, the real personality, of English. Just because we see that a particular word is made up of more than one particle understandable as a word in its own right does not mean we have the duty to be splitting them up into parts. They are COMPOUND words, whole words in their own right, not to be split up.

    For example, the following are COMPOUND words and do not need to be split up:

    THEREFORE -- INTO -- INDEED -- TOOTHPICK -- TOOTHPASTE -- WEBSITE -- SKYWALKER -- WINDMILL -- LAUNDROMAT -- DISHWASHER -- INJUSTICE -- WHEELBARROW -- CARWASH -- HANGNAIL -- AFTERSHAVE -- HANGMAN -- ANTIFREEZE -- AIRPLANE -- SAILPLANE -- HYDROELECTRIC -- RAILROAD -- AIRLINE -- AIRPORT.....

    Some concepts do NOT make compound words (at this time in the evolution of English anyway) even if it seems they COULD be:

    CLOTHES DRYER -- CAR REPAIR -- ELECTRIC CHAIR -- WATER HEATER.....

    Some compounds typically have their parts not run together but connected by a hyphen. Whenever you see a hyphenated word it's one of these, such as MEXICAN-AMERICAN. Some were or are in flux from hyphenated form to solid form: ELECTRO-PLATING or ELECTROPLATING.

    So when you are tempted to start separating compounds, look in the dictionary first or use spell-checker (or spell checker)(this one is in flux too).

    Next time I'll comment on what's correct, BEAN BURRITO or BEANS BURRITO, if I haven't already bored everyone to death.

  • logical
    logical

    i dont sea the point of moaning at peoples poor english, after all its a dis cuss ion board and not a dissertation.

    their are surely plenty board's for your type, I know your keen to discuss the nature of english languages, but it's pointless here.

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