DG05 – Compound Nouns

We form compound nouns by putting two separate words together.

The first word in a compound noun is used to give more information about the second, main word. 

Most compound nouns are made up of two nouns (e.g. computer software)

or

an adjective plus a noun (e.g. personal computer).

some are made into one word: home + work = homework,
web + site = website

many remain two separate words: school hall, soft drink, personal computer. 

Like ordinary nouns, some compound nouns are countable (e.g. a personal computer, computer games)

and

some are uncountable (e.g. homework, computer software).

Compound nouns need a hyphen between the two words.

This spelling is mostly used with some compound nouns that contain
suffixes or more than two words:
e.g.
dry-cleaning
speech-writer
mother-in-low