Compound words

What is this skill?

A compound word is made of two smaller words joined into one: sun and flower make sunflower, back and pack make backpack, pop and corn make popcorn. Each part is a real word by itself, and together they usually hint at the new meaning. A raincoat is a coat for the rain, and a doghouse is a small house for a dog. Second graders learn to build these words, split them, and use the two parts to work out what the word means.

In this practice, a child joins two words to make a new one, picks the two words inside rainbow or bedroom, and finds what is missing in sentences such as ___ + time = bedtime. Sorting questions ask which words are compound and which are not, using words that are tricky because they seem to have a word inside them: carrot has car in it, and button has but, but the leftover parts are not words with any useful meaning here.

Why it matters

Compound words are often the first long words a child can read confidently, because a long word stops being scary when it breaks into two short ones. Toothbrush and playground are ten-letter challenges on the surface and easy once a child looks for the words inside. That habit of hunting for known parts is exactly what helps with longer words in later grades.

They are also a child's first lesson in how meaning is built from word parts, which grows into prefixes, suffixes and Greek and Latin roots in the years ahead. Asking "what do the two parts tell you?" is a question a child will keep using, because word meanings do not have to be looked up if you can work them out.

Common mistakes

• Calling any long word a compound. Window, yellow and happen are long words, but they do not split into two real words. Ask your child to cover half of the word and check whether both halves are words.
• Treating words with an ending as compounds. Sandy and boxes each hold a word, but y and es are endings and not words. Sandbox is the compound, since sand and box both stand alone.
• Taking a meaning too literally. A raincoat is not a coat made of rain. Children enjoy a joke here, so laugh together at the silly meaning and then ask what the word really means.

How to help at home

• Write word parts on cards, such as sun, rain, foot, bow, ball and shine. See how many real compounds your child can build, and which silly ones make them laugh.
• Go on a compound hunt around the house: bedroom, toothbrush, doorbell, bathtub, cupboard. The one who finds the most gets to name the next hunt.
• Ask your child to draw a compound word literally, such as a butter fly or a hot dog, then write what it really means.
• When a long word stops your child in a book, cover part of it with a finger and ask if there are two words hiding in it.

Worked examples

These are real questions from the Tutorsaurus compound words practice, with the answers worked out.

1. Example 1

   Which two words make bedroom?

   bedroom

   Choices: bad + room, bed + roam, bed + room

   Answer: bed + room. Bedroom is bed plus room.

2. Example 2

   Is 'happy' a compound word?

   happy

   Answer: No. Happy is just one word. You cannot split it into two real words.

3. Example 3

   Can you split it into two words?

   To sort: homework, carrot, playground, happen, mailbox, button

   Answer: Compound word: homework, playground, mailbox · Not a compound: carrot, happen, button. Homework, playground and mailbox are two words joined. Carrot, happen and button are not.

Printable worksheet (PDF) — one page of questions from this practice that work on paper, easier ones first, with an answer key on page 2. Free to print, no sign-up.