Word Compounding

Compound nouns

Compound nouns are very common in German.

They are the combination of two or more words (or parts of words) to form a single semantic unit. There are no fixed rules for determining when to use a linking element between the parts of a compound noun. The best way to learn how to combine words is through examples. All the examples below, like those in the previous lesson, are taken from the first part of our excerpt.  

All the dreams chosen for the Traumleser project are between 200 and 600 words long. The extract from Pirandello's text has exactly 600 words. Since 600 can be divided by three, the text is divided into three sections of exactly 200 words each. Examples of the first 200 words:

noun + noun (N+ N)

noun + -es- + noun (N+ es + N)

noun + -s- + noun (N+ s + N)

noun + -n- + noun (N+ n + N)

adjective + noun + noun

In compounds nouns like Engelsgesicht the first noun acts as a modifier for the second noun. The element Engel specifies the type of face (Gesicht). Some nouns, such as Engel require a -s to act as a modifier for another noun. For example: Engelslächeln → angel's smile. 

Engelslächeln [tooltip]angel's smile[/tooltip]

Good to know!

There are two exercises following this lesson.