In English, words, particularly adjectives and nouns, are combined into compound structures in a variety of ways.

And
once they are formed, they sometimes metamorphose over time. A common pattern is that two words fire fly, say will be
joined by a hyphen for a time fire-fly and then be joined into one word firefly. In this respect, a language like German,
in which words are happily and immediately linked one to the other, might seem to have an advantage. There is only one sure
way to know how to spell compounds in English: use an authoritative dictionary.
There are three forms of compound words:
the closed form, in which the words are melded together, such as firefly, secondhand, softball, childlike, crosstown,
redhead, keyboard, makeup, notebook;
the hyphenated form, such as daughter-in-law, master-at-arms, over-the-counter, six-pack, six-year-old, massproduced;
and the open form, such as post office, real estate, middle class, full moon, half sister, attorney general.
How a word modified by an adjective "a little school," "the yellow butter" is different from a compound word " a high
school," "the peanut butter" is a nice and philosophical question. It clearly has something to do with the degree to which the
preceding word changes the essential character of the noun, the degree to which the modifier and the noun are inseparable. If
you were diagramming a sentence with a compound word, you would probably keep the words together, on the same
horizontal line.
Modifying compounds are often hyphenated to avoid confusion. The New York Public Library's Writer's Guide points out
that an old-furniture salesman clearly deals in old furniture, but an old furniture salesman would be an old man. We probably
would not have the same ambiguity, however, about a used car dealer. When compounded modifiers precede a noun, they are
often hyphenated: part-time teacher, fifty-yard-wide field, fire-resistant curtains, high-speed chase. When those same
modifying words come after the noun, however, they are not hyphenated: a field fifty yards wide, curtains that are fire
resistant, etc. The second-rate opera company gave a performance that was first rate.
Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives are hyphenated when compounded with other modifiers: the highestpriced car, the shorter-term loan. But this is not always the case: the most talented youngster. Adverbs, words ending in -ly, are
not hyphenated when compounded with other modifiers: a highly rated bank, a partially refunded ticket, publicly held
securities.
Sometimes hyphenated modifiers lose their hyphens when they become compound nouns: A clear decision-making
process was evident in their decision making. The bluish grey was slowly disappearing from the bluish-grey sky. This is not
always so, however: your high-rise apartment building is also known as a high-rise.
When modifying a person with his or her age, the compounded phrase is hyphenated: my six-year-old son. However,
when the age comes after the person, we don't use a hyphen. My son is six years old. He is, however, a six-year-old.

Plurals and Possessives

Most dictionaries will give variant spellings of compound plurals. When you have more than one truck filled with sand,
do you have several truckfuls or trucksful? The dictionary will give you both, with the first spelling usually preferred. (And the
same is true of teaspoonfuls, cupfuls, etc.) The dictionary will help you discover that only one spelling is acceptable for some
compounds like passersby.
For hyphenated forms, the pluralizing -s is usually attached to the element that is actually being pluralized: daughters-inlaw, half-moons, mayors-elect. The Chicago Manual of Style says that "hyphenated and open compounds are regularly made
plural by the addition of the plural inflection to the element that is subject to the change in number" and gives as examples
"fathers-in-law," "sergeants-in-arms," "doctors of philosophy," "and courts-martial" (196). The NYPL Writer's Guide puts it this

way: "the most significant word generally the noun takes the plural form. The significant word may be at the beginning,
middle, or end of the term" (396). And then we get examples such as "attorneys at law," "bills of fare," chiefs of staff," notaries
public," assistant attorneys general," "higher-ups," "also-rans," and "go-betweens."
Note: some dictionaries will list "attorney generals" along with "attorneys general" as acceptable plurals of that office.
Whether that's a matter of caving in to popular usage or an inability to determine the "significant word" is unknown.
As a general rule, then, the plural form of an element in a hierarchical term belongs to the base element in the term,
regardless of the base element's placement:

first sergeants
sergeants major
sergeants first class
colonel generals [Russian]
lieutenant generals
lieutenant colonels
apprentice, journeyman, and master mechanics
deputy librarians
deputy assistant secretaries of state

The possessive of a hyphenated compound is created by attaching an apostrophe -s to the end of the compound itself:
my daughter-in-law's car, a friend of mine's car. To create the possessive of pluralized and compounded forms, a writer is wise
to avoid the apostrophe -s form and use an "of" phrase (the "post genitive") instead: the meeting of the daughters-in-law, the
schedule of half-moons. Otherwise, the possessive form becomes downright weird: the daughters-in-law's meeting, friends of
mine's cars.
One of the most difficult decisions to make about possessives and plurals of compound words occurs when you can't
decide whether the first noun in a compound structure is acting as a noun that ought to be showing possession or as what is
called an attributive noun, essentially an adjective. In other words, do we write that I am going to a writers conference or to a
writers' conference? The Chicago Style Manual suggests that if singular nouns can act as attributive nouns
city government, tax relief then plural nouns should be able to act as attributive nouns: consumers group, teachers union.
This principle is not universally endorsed, however, and writers must remember to be consistent within a document.
This section does not speak to the matter of compounded nouns such as "Professor Villa's and Professor Darling's classes
have been filled." See the section on Possessives for additional help.

Compounds with Prefixes

With a handful of exceptions, compounds created by the addition of a prefix are not hyphenated:
anteroom, antisocial, binomial, biochemistry, coordinate, counterclockwise, extraordinary, infrastructure, interrelated,
intramural, macroeconomics, metaphysical, microeconomics, midtown, minibike, multicultural, neoromantic, nonviolent,
overanxious, postwar, preconference, pseudointellectual, reunify, semiconductor, socioeconomic, subpar, supertanker,
transatlantic, unnatural, underdeveloped
Exceptions include
compounds in which the second element is capitalized or a number:
anti-Semitic, pre-1998, post-Freudian
compounds which need hyphens to avoid confusion
un-ionized (as distinguished from unionized), co-op
compounds in which a vowel would be repeated (especially to avoid confusion)
co-op, semi-independent, anti-intellectual (but reestablish, reedit)

compounds consisting of more than one word

non-English-speaking, pre-Civil War
compounds that would be difficult to read without a hyphen
pro-life, pro-choice, co-edited
Also, when we combine compound nouns, we would use a hyphen with the first, but not the last: when under- and
overdeveloped nations get together. . . .

Spelling
The following table presents a mini-dictionary of compound modifiers and nouns. Perhaps the best use of a very partial
inventory like this is to suggest the kinds of words that a writer would be wise either to memorize or to be at least wary of. It is
sometimes enough to know when we should get the dictionary off the shelf.

2-year education
one-week vacation
A-frame
African American
Air Force
all-city tournament
attorney general
blood pressure
blue-green dress
bull's-eye
database
daughter-in-law
English-speaking person
ex-wife
first-rate accommodations
football
grandmother
grant-in-aid
great-aunt

half sister
high-level officials
I-beam
Italian-American
Italian-American club
jack-in-the-box
lifelike
light year
mayor-elect
salesperson
secretary-treasurer
stockbroker
T-square
threefold
up-to-the-minute
V-formation
vice president
well-made clothes
worldwide inflation
X-ray

Notice that African American contains no hyphen, but Italian-American does. There are no hard and fast rules about this,
and social conventions change. (There is no hyphen in French Canadian.) Some groups have insisted that they do not want to be
known as "hyphenated Americans" and resist, therefore, the use of a hyphen, preferring that the word "American" be used as
an adjective. Some resources even suggest that a term like Italian-American should be used only when the individual thus
referred to has parents of two different nationalities. That's probably a stretch, but a writer must be aware that sensibilities can
be aroused when using nationalities of any description. Consistency within a document is also important.

Suspended Compounds*
With a series of nearly identical compounds, we sometimes delay the final term of the final term until the last instance,
allowing the hyphen to act as a kind of place holder, as in

The third- and fourth-grade teachers met with the parents.

Both full- and part-time employees will get raises this year.
We don't see many 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children around here.

Be careful not to overuse this feature of the hyphen; readers have to wait until that final instance to know what you're talking
about, and that can be annoying.

English Compounds
I. There is no clear upper limit in number of roots allowed in English compounds (for
example, three-time loser, man about town, mother of pearl, four-dimensional space
time continuum).
II. Some compounds are written as one word: blackbird. Some are written with hyphens: motherin-law. Some are written as separate words: smoke screen. Typically not spelling, but stress and
word-internal sound rules distinguish compounds from non-compounds: Compare white
house with White House.
III. Two-root compounds come with a number of different structures:
A. Nouns Noun-Noun
apron string
hubcap
bedroom
schoolteacher

Adjective-Noun
high school
smallpox
poorhouse
bluebird

B. Adjectives Noun-Adjective
headstrong
skin-deep
nationwide
earthbound
C. Verbs

Noun-Verb
spoonfeed
aircondition
window-shop

Preposition-Noun
overdose
underdog
uptone
afterthought

Adjective-Adjective
white-hot
widespread
bittersweet
hardworking

Adjective-Verb
dry-clean
whitewash
broadcast

Verb-Noun
swearword
whetstone
scrubwoman
rattlesnake

Preposition-Adjective
overwide
ingrown
underripe
above-mentioned

Preposition-Verb
outlive
overdo
uproot

Verb-Verb
sleepwalk

In each of these cases, the syntactic class of the compound is the same as the syntactic
class of the final element of the compound. The compound itself can serve as the form for
derivation or inflection. Thus, sunshine + -y gives the adjective sunshiny; overdo + -er gives
the noun overdoer.
One thing is clear, these compounds (like other derived forms) are internally complex
and have a hierarchical structure. Consider hard-working: it is clear
that hard and work cannot form a compound first to which the suffix -ing is applied. Why is
that clear? Because there is no verb hard-work. Note
*He hard-works. *They hard-worked. *I will hard-work.
Instead, first the adjective working must be derived from the verb work, only then
can hard be compounded with it. So that the internal structure of this word must

be