Lesson 32 ª

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

Word Construction (Wortbildung)

Composition (Zusammenstzung)

Complex words are made up of two or more words.
 
a) Compound nouns: noun + noun

Examples:


Einkaufszettel / Maschinenfabrik / Flötenspieler / Frühstücksgeschirr / Kugelschreiber / Bushaltestelle


The complementary word goes at the start of the compound word and the base word at the end.  The base word determines the gender.

Some compound words are joined by the particles "en" or "s". 

Neuhahrstag (1st day of the year): Neujahr + s + Tag
Taschenabteilung: Tasche + en + Abteilung
There are also words that are made up of more than two words:
Tiergartenpersonal (zoo employees) / Federdeckenfabrik (feather duster factory)
b) Adjective + noun
The adjective is placed at the beginning and the noun at the end:
Blaubeere (blau + beere) / Neubau (neu + bau)
c) Adjective + noun + noun
Dreitagebart
d) Verb + noun
You place the root of the present infinitive (without the last two letters "-en") at the beginning and the noun at the end. 
Singvogel / Waschmaschine / Kochtopf
e) Advice for looking up compound words in the dictionary
If you can not find the compound word in the dictionary, then you can look up the words that the compound word is made from:
Example: we are looking for Lateinunterricht (Latin classes). If in the dictionary this word does not appear, we will have to look for Latein (Latin) and Unterricht (class).

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Exercises

What are the following words made from? Break the compound words down.

(Click in the box to see the answers; double click to return to the original position)