In one of my posts, I have explained adjectives that these are the words that are used to describe or modify nouns or pronouns. An adjective can specify your writing by giving more information and more meaning to nouns or pronouns.

Compound adjectives are, actually, adjectives that are used to modify nouns. Compound means consisting of two or more separate parts. It means that a compound adjective, as the name implies, consist of two or more than two words. These separate words make up a compound adjective to modify nouns.

The following list has a few examples of compound adjectives.

• Well-known author
• Part-time job
• Under-developed town
• Two-year-old child
• One-letter apart
• Cold-blooded animals
• Well-behaved student
• Close-ended questions
• 4-metre-long rope
• Absent-minded person

Rules to form Compound Adjectives

1. Use Hyphens:

As you can see in the above examples, hyphens are used to link the words to make up a compound adjective. For example,

• At the end of the session, the instructor will ask a few close-ended questions from each one of us.
• Accent and ascent are just one-letter apart.
• I can see an absent-minded person in my classroom.

2. Do not use hyphens:

You do not need to use hyphens when there are proper nouns that are used to form up a compound adjective. For example,

• I so wanted to download 8 Ball Pool game but didn’t get time.

In the above example, 8 Ball Pool is a compound adjective which is made up of a proper noun. This is the reason for not using hyphens to link these words together. This compound adjective ‘8 Ball Pool’ is describing the game.

Note: You do not need to use hyphens when the compound adjective comes after the noun. For example, the student is well behaved.

Trick to use a Hyphen

This trick is very famous to get to know whether to use hyphens between words to form a compound adjective or not.

> You do not need to use hyphens when you can use the word ‘and’ between the words. For example,

1. She is wearing a pretty bright dress. (Correct)

In the above example, the adjectives are ‘pretty bright.’ Now, use the word ‘and’ between these adjectives and see if it is making sense or not.

• She is wearing a pretty and bright dress. (Correct)

You can see that after using the word ‘and’, the sentence is still making sense. It means that there is no need to use a hyphen to join ‘pretty’ and ‘bright.’

> In the same way, you would need a hyphen if the sentence will not make sense after using ‘and’ between the adjectives. For instance,

1. I feel very bad when I think about cold blooded animals. 

In the above example, the adjectives are ‘cold blooded.’ Now, use the word ‘and’ between these adjectives and see if it is making sense or not.

• I feel very bad when I think about cold and blooded animals. (Wrong)

No, it is not making sense. We truly need a hyphen to join the adjectives to make it grammatically correct. So, the correct sentence would be,

• I feel very bad when I think about cold-blooded animals. (Correct)

Conclusion

Compound adjectives are adjectives that are used to modify nouns; usually hyphenated; and may consist of more than one word.

A simple subject simply tells about a sentence without any modifiers. It means that a simple subject can be a main word that tells about the action (verb) which is going on in a sentence.

For example,

1. The children ate the whole box full of chocolates.
In the above example, ‘the children’ is the simple subject. The simple subject ‘the children’ is doing the action (verb), ‘ate.’

2. Sarah sings very sweetly.
In the above example, ‘Sarah’ is the simple subject, who is doing the action (verb), ‘sings.’

Note: You can see in the above examples that there are no modifiers attached to the simple subjects, ‘the children’ and ‘Sarah.’

Do not confuse yourself with a Simple Subject and a Complete Subject

Simple subject vs. complete subject is always a discussion. Think about a complete subject as the opposite of a simple subject.

A complete subject is a subject that tells what is going on in a sentence with modifiers attached to it. It means that a complete subject does not stand alone in a sentence. Let us see in the examples below.

1. Five cute little angels stayed at my place for one month.
In the above example, ‘five cute little angels’ is the complete subject that is doing the verb. In this complete subject, ‘angels’ is the simple subject.

2. The shiny golden dress made her look much better.
In the above example, ‘the shiny golden dress’ is the complete subject; whereas, ‘dress’ is the simple subject.

You have seen in the above examples that the simple subject is only a single word however; the complete subject may consist of more than two words that are called ‘the modifiers.’

Note: Prepositional phrases do not include a simple or a complete subject. So, never try to find out subjects in such phrases.

Test Yourself

Find out the simple subject in the following examples. Remember one thing, a simple subject is the only word who will perform an action and does not include any modifier.

1. My lovely friends will definitely come this week.
2. The glittery pencils made your assignment so attractive.
3. Red velvet cake is one of my favorite cakes.
4. The long and hard ways will not harm you.
5. In the movie, the super hero saves the whole town.

*Answers at the end.

Conclusion

To conclude, a simple and a complete subject refer to the main word or words but there is a slight difference between them. A simple subject is the word who performs the action and does not include any modifiers. A complete subject, on the other hand, is the word or words that perform the action and it does include modifiers to modify the simple subject.

Answers: 1) friends 2) pencils 3) cake 4) ways 5) hero