Compound Adjectives
Compound adjectives are used as one single adjective. They function as the head of the sentence. In this lesson, we will learn all about them.
What Are Compound Adjectives?
Compound adjectives are made up of multiple individual words that are used as one single adjective. The words are most commonly connected by a hyphen when used as adjectives.
Compound Adjectives: Function
Like other adjectives, compound adjectives are used to modify nouns and pronouns, and they often appear directly before the word they modify or after a linking verb.
She used
They were
Compound Adjectives: Structure
Compound adjectives can have different structures, some of the most common ones are:
- Noun + Adjective
- Adverb + Past Participle
- Noun + Present Participle
- Adjective + Past Participle
- Noun + Past Participle
- Noun + Noun
Noun + Adjective
Sometimes a noun is added before an adjective to form a compound adjective. Check out the examples:
I was
Sometimes if you add a noun to an adjective, a new word is created that can be used as a compound adjective to modify another noun. In this case, the compound adjective is usually hyphenated. For example:
The water is
She had
'seasick' is a compound adjective
Adverb + Past Participle
Adding any adverb to a past participle does not create a compound adjective. A compound adjective should be able to function as a subject complement or be modified by an adverb. If a group of words meets these criteria, then it is a compound adjective. Otherwise, it is another type of phrase. Pay attention to the examples:
✓ Always
This is a compound adjective modified by an adverb.
✓ The model was
This is a compound adjective functioning as subject complement.
almost
This is not a compound adjective because it cannot be modified by an adverb
really
This is not a compound adjective because it cannot be modified by an adverb
Tip!
Sometimes there is a space between the adverb and the past participle, in which case the phrase is not a compound adjective. Check out the example:
She
Sometimes there is no space between the adverb and the past participle and they function as an adjective, but the adjective is derived from a verb. Thus, in this case too, the words do not form a compound adjective. Here are the examples:
The meat is
Here, the adjective 'undercooked' is derived from the verb 'undercook', so, it is not a compound adjective.
The city was
Here, the adjective overpopulated is derived from the compound verb 'overpopulate.'
Noun + Present Participle
Sometimes adding a noun to a present participle can make a compound adjective which is always hyphenated. Check out the following examples:
The food was really
His behavior was
Adjective + Past Participle
When you add an adjective to the past participle of a verb, it often creates a compound adjective. It is recommended to use a hyphen between the adjective and past participle to indicate that they function as a single unit modifying the noun or pronoun. Here are a few examples:
The chicken is
The
Noun + Past Participle
Sometimes adding a noun to the past participle of the verb can form a compound adjective. Here are a few examples:
She's a
Noun + Noun
Sometimes we can create compound adjectives by combining two nouns together:
Punctuation Rules
Compound adjectives are mostly hyphenated. For example:
Some compound adjectives are used with no space in between. They are called closed compound adjectives. Here are the examples:
They were
I was
Adjectives of Compound Verbs
Some adjectives are formed from past participle forms of compound verbs, which are used as adjectives. These adjectives are written as single words, but they are not considered compound adjectives. Here are the examples:
The steak was
She was
Compound Adjectives vs. Compound Noun Modifiers
There are two subtle differences between compound adjectives and compound noun modifiers :
- Compound adjectives can be used as subject complements while compound noun modifiers cannot
- Compound adjectives can also be modified by an adverb while compound noun modifiers cannot
Check out the examples:
He is
The Adjective 'open-minded' is used as the subject complement of the sentence; so it is a compound adjective.
Her dad is really
In this example, the adverb 'really' is used to describe the adjective open-minded, thus it is a compound adjective.
He is
You cannot use 'thirty-year-old' as the subject complement, therefore the phrase is a noun modifier.
He is
The adverb 'really' cannot modify 'thirty-year-old,' so, it is a noun modifier.
Usually, noun modifiers that consist of numbers (post determiners) are hyphenated but are not considered compound adjectives. Here are the examples.
✗ This journey is
In this example, you cannot use 5-day as a subject complement, so, it is not a compound adjective.
✗ Really
Tip!
Most compound adjectives consist of two words; however, they can consist of more:
Some
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Descriptive Adjectives
Descriptive adjectives are adjectives that modify a noun or pronoun by showing its quality. In this lesson, we will learn more about them.
Comparative and Superlative Adjectives
Comparative adjectives are used to compare one noun to another noun. Superlative adjectives are used to compare three or more nouns.
Attributive and Predicative Adjectives
An attributive adjective is an adjective that appears before the noun or pronoun it describes. In this lesson, we will learn more about them.
Proper Adjectives
Proper adjectives are commonly used in English. They tend to modify nouns and pronouns. in this lesson, we will learn more about them.
