Editing English compound (section)

====Native English compound====
Since English is a mostly [[analytic language]], unlike most other [[Germanic language]]s, it creates compounds by concatenating words without [[case marker]]s. 

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Examples by word class
! Modifier !! Head !! Compound
|-
| noun || noun || football
|-
| adjective || noun || blackboard
|-
| verb || noun || breakwater
|-
| preposition || noun || underworld
|-
| noun || adjective || snow white
|-
| adjective || adjective || blue-green
|-
| verb || adverb || tumbledown
|-
| preposition || adjective || over-ripe
|-
| noun || verb || browbeat
|-
| adjective || verb || highlight
|-
| verb || verb || freeze-dry
|-
| preposition || verb || undercut
|-
| noun || preposition || love-in
|-
| adverb || preposition || forthwith
|-
| verb || adverb || takeout
|-
| preposition || adverb || without
|}

Most noun-verb compounds denoting people are of the form ''noun + verb + -er'', where the noun is the object of the verb, for example ''fire-fighter''. {{Anchor|cutthroat compound}} Ḥowever, there are a few dozen common verb-object compounds – mostly dating from the 16th century and mostly with negative connotations – which have the opposite French order and which do not have a suffix ''-er''. These have been labeled ''cutthroat compounds'' because 'cutthroat' is a typical example.<ref>see [[wiktionary:Category:English exocentric verb-noun compounds]]</ref> 

As in other Germanic languages, the compounds may be arbitrarily long.{{efn|"There is no structural limitation on the recursivity of compounding, but the longer a compound becomes the more difficult it is for the speakers/listeners to process, i.e. produce and understand correctly. Extremely long compounds are therefore disfavored not for structural but for processing reasons." - Plag}} However, this is obscured by the fact that the written representation of long compounds always contains spaces. Short compounds may be written in three different forms, which do not correspond to different pronunciations, though:

*The {{em|spaced}} or {{em|open}} form<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Chicago manual of style |date=2017 |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-28705-8 |editor-last=University of Chicago press |edition=17th |location=Chicago |pages=443–444 |quote=Compounds defined.  An open compound is spelled as two or more words (''high school'', ''lowest common denominoator'').  A hyphenated compound is spelled with one or more hyphens (''mass-produced'', ''kilowatt-hour'', ''non-English-speaking''). A closed (or solid) compound is spelled as a single word (''birthrate'', ''smartphone'').}}</ref> usually consisting of newer combinations or longer words,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=McArthur |first1=Thomas Burns |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QMsWFsI0YkIC&dq=%22open+compounds%22+%22linguistics%22&pg=PT237 |title=Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language |last2=McArthur |first2=Roshan |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-280637-6 |pages=237 |language=en}}</ref> such as "distance learning", "player piano", "ice cream".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nagarajan |first=Hemalatha |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nKWTEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22open+compound%22+%22linguistics%22&pg=PT103 |title=The Routledge Companion to Linguistics in India |date=2022-10-20 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-77574-7 |language=en |quote=The compound can be a closed compound, where the two words are written together (e.g., ''blackboard''), an open compound, where they are written separate (e.g., ''ice cream''), or hyphenated, with a hyphen in between (e.g., ''short-term'').}}</ref>
*The {{em|hyphenated}} form in which two or more words are connected by a [[hyphen]]. Are often hyphenated:
** Compounds that contain [[affix]]es: "house-build(er)" and "single-mind(ed)(ness)",
** Adjective–adjective compounds: "blue-green",
** Verb–verb compounds: "freeze-dried",
** Compounds that contain [[Article (grammar)|articles]], [[English prepositions|prepositions]] or [[Grammatical conjunction|conjunctions]]: "rent-a-cop", "mother-of-pearl" and "salt-and-pepper".
*The {{em|solid}} or {{em|closed}} form in which two usually moderately short words appear together as one. Solid compounds most likely consist of short ([[syllable|monosyllabic]]) units that often have been established in the language for a long time. Examples are "housewife", "lawsuit", "wallpaper", "basketball".

Usage in the US and in the UK differs and often depends on the individual choice of the writer rather than on a hard-and-fast rule; therefore, spaced, hyphenated, and solid forms may be encountered for the same compound noun, such as the triplets ''[[wikt:place name|place name]]''/''[[wikt:place-name|place-name]]''/''[[wikt:placename|placename]]'' and ''[[wikt:particle board|particle board]]''/''[[wikt:particle-board|particle-board]]''/''[[wikt:particleboard|particleboard]]''.