Both the old style (spoonsful) and the new style (spoonfuls) are normally acceptable, but you should be consistent in your choice. Today it is more usual to say spoonfuls or truckfuls. The old style was to say spoonsful or trucksful for the plural. Note that there is some variation with words like spoonful or truckful. In general we make the plural of a compound noun by adding -s to the "base word" (the most "significant" word). If you are not sure which form to use, please check in a good dictionary. British/American differencesĭifferent varieties of English, and even different writers, may use the open, hyphenated or closed form for the same compound noun. For example, it helps us know if somebody said "a GREEN HOUSE" (a house which is painted green) or "a GREENhouse" (a building made of glass for growing plants inside). Since "golf ball" is a compound noun we consider it as a single noun and so it has a single main stress - on the first word. In the compound noun "golf ball", the first word is stressed more (even though both words are nouns, and nouns are always stressed). In the phrase "pink ball", both words are equally stressed (as you know, adjectives and nouns are always stressed). Please remember that check-out is at 12 noon.ĭo you think the police accept money from the underworld?Ĭompound nouns tend to have more stress on the first word. Put the clothes in the red washing machine. In the tropics you can see fire-flies at night. Is this the bus stop for the number 12 bus?
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