Compound noun
As mentioned under 2.4, German does not hyphenate compound nouns but is happy to join the words together, even though this may lead to what seem like ridiculously long words, e.g. Balkonsonnenbader (balcony sunbather), Hupverbotsbeachter (someone who observes the prohibition on tooting). When nouns are joined together in this way, they take the gender of the i nal element, e.g. die Küche (kitchen), der Tisch (table), der Küchentisch (kitchen table).
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The above examples also illustrate a complication in forming such compounds for which it is unfortunately not possible to formulate prescriptive rules. Balkonsonnenbader is formed from the nouns Balkon Sonne Bader, Küchentisch from Küche Tisch and Hupverbotsbeachter from Hup Verbot Beachter. Note the medial n in the first two and the medial s in the last example. These sounds are inserted in countless such compounds. Native speakers can hear where they are required but it is very difi cult to formulate rules that will be of help to non-native speakers. About the only thing that can be said with a reasonable degree of certainty is that if a word ends in -e, it will take an n when another word is joined to it, as illustrated in the two examples above. |
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As for where s is required in compounds, only this can be said: when a noun ends in -heit/-keit or -ung, an s must be inserted, e.g. Gelegenheitsarbeit (casual work), Zeitungszar (media baron). On rare occasions it is -es- that is inserted, e.g. Jahreszeit (season), Meeresspiegel (sea level). Otherwise, as far as s is concerned, you will simply have to observe and copy. For compounds like der Rotwein (red wine), where German preifxes the adjective to the noun rather than inflecting it as an attributive adjective. |
