Compound Words

Palabras Compuestas

Introduction

Introducción

A compound word is a single word formed by combining two other words together.

Spanish does not employ compound words as much as English, and it has specific rules for their construction. They can only be formed by combining the third-person singular conjugation of a verb with the plural form of a noun.

For example, lavaplatos, which means "the dishwasher", is a combination of lava, the third person conjugation of the verb lavar, which means "to wash", and plato the word for "dish" or "plate".

The plural and single version are the same, distinguished only my the preceding article - el lavaplatos (the dishwasher) and los lavaplatos (the dishwashers), and all compound words are considered masculine.

Vocabulary

Vocabulario

Play guardarropas
clothes closet masculine singular wardrobe
Play matafuegos
fire extinguisher masculine singular
Play matamoscas
fly swatter masculine singular
Play paracaídas
parachute masculine singular

Ask the Polly Ambassadors a question

Haz una pregunta a los Embajadores Polly

Have questions about this lesson? Get a video answer from a Polly Ambassador, if your question is relevant and interesting.

Comments

Comentarios

Change language Flag fr French Flag en English Flag it Italian Flag de German Flag pt Portuguese