LEVEL: B1

PRESENTATION

Compound nouns are two or three words working as one. These are very common, and new combinations are invented almost daily. The first noun tells us more about the second noun
(e.g.: The organizer of a festival is a festival organizer).

Compounds can be written as one word, two words joined by a hyphen, or two separate words. As there are no rules for this, you need to check in a dictionary!

PRACTICE

Form compound nouns using a word from A and a word from B. Then use them to complete the sentences.

Example: They called room service and a waiter brought them a sandwich.

1. John and Carol were pleased to find a hotel with…………… for their car.
2. Emma had to pay for the meal in cash because the restaurant didn’t take ……………… .
3. Ben can’t go to Australia because the ……..……. is too expensive.
4. You can get …….……. in banks or bureau de change.
5. The …………….. was always polite and friendly to the guests.
6. I contacted the ………… and booked a single room for two nights.
7. It is always a good idea to buy ……..…… before you go on holiday.
8. Rod couldn’t rent a car because he had not brought his ……….. .
9. Simon travelled by luxury …….… through Austria and Germany.
10. Cars are not allowed into the town centre because it is a …………………

PRODUCTION

1. Write down the first part of the compound nouns from the exercise above. Then ask a partner to complete them.
2. Work in pairs. Write definitions for three compound nouns from the exercise above. Read your definitions to another pair and see if they can guess the compound.

References: PTE Skills Booster Level 2.- Pearson, 2010.

Key: 1). free parking, 2). credit cards, 3). air fare, 4). foreign currency, 5). hotel receptionist, 6). reservations department, 7). travel insurance, 8). driving licence, 9). tour bus, 10). pedestrian area.