What are compound nouns?

A compound noun is when you take two words and squish them together to make one new word that means something special.

Imagine you have a toy box full of blocks. Each block has a letter on it, like "car" or "house." If you put the "car" block next to the "house" block, you get carhouse, a place where cars live! That’s a compound noun.

Compound nouns are made by combining two words:

• The first word usually tells what kind of thing it is.
• The second word tells what it is.

For example:

• "sun" + "flower" = sunflower, a flower that loves the sun!
• "ice" + "cream" = ice cream, a cold, tasty treat you eat on a cone.

You can even make compound nouns with people and places:

• "book" + "store" = bookstore
• "foot" + "ball" = football

Sometimes they’re written together, sometimes with a space, it all depends on how the word is used. Either way, they're like building blocks you can play with every day!