Stop! Grammar time.

 

You can find this resource here.

Today we will be looking at two different kinds of nouns ... and they are fun ones too!

First up is:

Visual guide to grammar and punctuation. (2019). Melbourne, Victoria: DK Australia, 18.

As the book suggests for this type of noun, two other nouns are combined to make a new one. The reason it is therefore called a compound noun, is because two words are compounded (or combined) together.

However, it is the whole word. So, for example, superrific is not a real compound word. That is because even though it comes from superb + terrific, it isn't each whole word combined. 

Another thing to note about compound nouns is that you might join the words together without a hyphen (sunrise), but you may also use a hyphen between them (dry-cleaning). Surprisingly, they could also be neither ...

Take for example the noun Christmas tree. This is a compound word that refers to one object, even though the words are not squished together or connected by a hyphen, but when read or spoken is done so more quickly.

This makes it slightly more confusing, but also more fun! It means that a lot of the time we may be using compound nouns without realising what they are. Fascinating!

Secondly:

Visual guide to grammar and punctuation. (2019). Melbourne, Victoria: DK Australia, 19.

You can't stop the fun just yet! Collective nouns refer to a group of animals, people or things (as the description says). So, for example, if you have ten elephants, they become a herd. What I would also like to point out about this book, is that though they use the collective noun flock for geese, it's ... wait for it ... actually gaggle when they are on the ground or in the water! 

Other collective nouns that highlight the group are things like team, family and even police! See, when you say "The police are coming" it is more than one person in the car (or even multiple cars) which shows the collective group. This is the same for family, which is made up of you and however many other members.

So, start watching out for these two types of nouns. Either find them in your everyday language or look up. For example, you might know that it's a swarm of bees, but did you also know it could be a bike of bees? What about a murder of crows? 

Grammar is way too fun!