Astridhasday  +  455970 Sat, 22 Dec 07 01:34 PM Can anyone prove that the word "car accident" is a compound noun? Thanks, Astrid Astridhasday Joined on Sat, Dec 22 2007 New Member 03 Nouns

	Doll  +  456046 Sat, 22 Dec 07 06:11 PM My try:  Both car and accident are nouns and they have different meanings. When they come together, car accident, they give us the informationa bout the type of the accident. This is an endocentric compound, that is, the rightmost componenet of the compund identifies the general class to which the meaning of the entire word belongs.   Car accident. What kind of an accident? A car accident. Doll Joined on Sat, Mar 10 2007 Senior Member 2,813 Nouns

	Maple  +  456047 Sat, 22 Dec 07 06:16 PM My try:  Astridhasday wrote: Can anyone prove that the word "car accident" is a compound noun? No, no one can. Because it isn't. Maple Joined on Tue, Jul 11 2006 An ESL student in China Contributing Member 1,110 Nouns

	Maple  +  456252 Sun, 23 Dec 07 11:39 AM  Astridhasday wrote: Why not? When is a noun made up of two or more words called a compound noun? To me, it's when the collocation is RATHER fixed. And to me car accident is not THAT fixed, so I'd rather not call it a compound noun. But at this point, only a native speaker's judgement is reliable.  We have to wait to see what the teachers would say. Maple Maple Nouns

	Doll  +  456346 Sun, 23 Dec 07 03:53 PM http://www.englishforums.com/English/CompoundNouns/zhnmk/Post.htm   Here is what a native speaker told about this. Doll Nouns

	Grammar Geek  +  456360 Sun, 23 Dec 07 04:24 PM How do you define "compound noun"? English is full of "open compounds" - words that are not joined by a hyphen, but two seperate words that work together to be one idea. Car accident can be one of them. Grammar Geek Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006 Veteran Member 19,683 Barbara, who answers in American English. My housekeeping skills attest to the truth of the second law of thermodynamics: Left to themselves, things get more and more random! Nouns, Hyphens

	CalifJim  +  456478 Mon, 24 Dec 07 12:09 AM It's a compound noun.  It's pronounced car accident, not car accident. Compare:  blackboard, White House (compounds), black board, white house (not compounds). CJ CalifJim Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004 California Veteran Member 22,467 "There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche Nouns

	Maple  +  456533 Mon, 24 Dec 07 04:06 AM I stand corrected, and I've learned sth I didn't know before. Thank you CJ, Barbara and Doll.  And thank you Astridhasday for posting this question which came out to let us both learn. Maple Maple