Understanding and Teaching the Pronunciation of English.pdf

• ˈhot dog^ (a kind of sausage sandwich)

Adjective + Noun Phrases:

• ˈblack^ ˈboard^ (a board that’s black)


• ˈwhite^ ˈhouse^ (a house that’s painted white)


• ˈhot^ ˈdog^ (a dog that feels^ hot)

If you don’t already know, how can you tell if a combination
of words is a compound noun or an adjective plus a noun?
Here are some guidelines, although they don’t always work:

• If it’s written as one word or as two words with a hyphen,
  it’s a compound noun.


• If it’s written as two words, the more common, well-
  established phrases are more likely to be compounds.
  More unusual or unpredictable phrases are probably not,
  but sometimes it’s hard to tell.

For example, the following box lists some compound nouns
beginning with the word school and some phrases that use
school to modify a noun.

Compound nouns

(Stress on first part)

Not compound nouns

(Stress on both parts)

School age

School board

School book

School boy

School bus

School child

School day

School district

School girl

School hours

Schoolhouse

Schoolroom

School teacher

School work

School year

School administrator

School classroom

School colors

School counselor

School diploma

School festival

School library

School lunch

School nurse

School principal

School project

School psychologist

School transportation

School trip

School violence

Overall, the !rst group has more common combinations that

have been in use for a long time, like schoolhouse and

schoolteacher, and the second group has less common or

more recent phrases, like school psychologist or school trip.

Still, it’s often hard to predict whether a particular phrase is a

compound noun or an adjective plus noun.

So what can students do? When they learn a new compound

word, they should learn its stress pattern along with its

pronunciation. Listen to it when it’s modeled, practice saying

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