How to use nouns to describe other nouns in English?

In English, we will often use a noun to describe the type, purpose, or material of another noun. In other words, we can use a noun (a word for a person, place, thing) like an adjective (a word that describes a noun). For example:

noun

coffee cup

→ a cup for coffee

adjectivenoun

full cup

noun

tea cup

→ a cup for tea

adjectivenoun

blue cup

In this post, we’ll talk about how to use nouns like adjectives. We’ll talk about what form of the noun to use, when and why you should use a noun to describe another noun, and we’ll talk about compound words in English.

Are you ready for some grammar fun? Do you think your English brain is ready for this? Let’s get a learning session going here!

To use a noun to describe another, put it right before the noun it modifies. Just like an adjective! The noun that acts like an adjective is called the modifying noun, and the noun that is being described is the head noun.

modifying nounhead noun

We made an apple pie.

→ a pie made of apples

modifying nounhead noun

I fixed the table with a nail gun.

→ a gun for shooting nails

Let’s talk about a few more details!

• The modifying noun is usually singular, even if the head noun is plural:

  

  modifying nounhead noun

  They bought two picture frames at the store.

  

  modifying nounhead noun

  There are six blueberry pancakes in the stack.

  Exception!

  When the modifying noun is almost always plural, it will be plural when used as a modifying noun, even when the head noun is singular.

  • sports day

    → a day for playing sports

  • arms race

    → a race to develop weapons (=arms)

  There are also a few other exceptions, but these are rare. For example, when person is the modifying noun it is always plural:

  • people person

    → a person who gets along with other people

• If there are other descriptive words before the head noun, the modifying noun will usually come after them.

  

  other descriptive wordmodifying noun

  I put the photo in an ancient, gold picture frame.

  

  other descriptive wordmodifying noun

  We have several cold, blue water bottles.

• You can use more than one modifying noun before the head noun:

  

  modifying noun

  I bought five wool army blankets.

  → blankets made of wool that are of the type used by the army

  

  modifying noun

  She made these with a blueberry pancake mix.

  → a mix for blueberry-flavored pancakes

  Keep reading to learn more about how to choose the right order for your modifying nouns!

• A pronunciation note!

  In a neutral situation, when a noun is described by an adjective, the noun is stressed in English:

  • a blue cup, an incredible journey, an amazing party…

  But if the modifying word is a noun, the stress is usually on the modifying noun instead:

  • washing machine, home loan, birthday party, history book, English class, summer school, truck driver...

  However, occasionally the head noun still receives stress. This is usually when the modifying noun tells you about what the head noun is made of or when the combination of two nouns is very common, but this is not a strict rule.

  • apple pie, cotton shirt, wool blanket, blueberry pancakes...

  When there are many modifiers, generally the last modifying noun is stressed:

  • student loan help center, wool army blankets, summer heat index...

  Tip

  The rules above describe a neutral situation (like reading a list of items), but in a larger conversation you can still stress any part of the noun phrase that is surprising or important!

  • No, I want an apple pie, not a pumpkin one!

  • No, I want a birthday party, not a birthday dinner!

We use a modifying noun to describe a head noun when we want to specify what type of noun the head noun is by stating it has a relationship to the modifying noun.

Here are some of the relationships that often exist between the modifying noun and the head noun:

• Something and its purpose:

  water bottle

  → a bottle for water

  coffee table

  → a table designed for drinking coffee around

  pancake mix

  → a mix for making pancakes

  birthday party

  → a party for a birthday

  home loan

  → a loan for a home

  student government

  → a government for students

  washing machine

  → a machine for washing clothes

  pain pills

  → pills for treating pain

  tree bark

  → bark for/of a tree

• An object and what it is made out of:

  cotton shirt

  → a shirt made of cotton

  blueberry pancakes

  → pancakes made with blueberries

  snakeskin boots

  → boots made out of the skin of a snake

  clover honey

  → honey made from clover flowers

  Tip

  When you do this, the material must tell us what type of head noun it is. So we would not say a flour cake or a sugar cake, because all cakes have flour and sugar, but a chocolate cake is a special kind of cake.

• A thing and its topic:

  history book

  → a book about history

  cat video

  → a video of cats

  English class

  → a class about English

  family photos

  → photos of a family

  English homework

  → homework about English

  math problem

  → a problem about math

• A noun for an action or an agentNo definition set for agentLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. and the objectNo definition set for objectLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. of the action. This is particularly common when the head nouns that end in -er (an agent nounNo definition set for agent nounLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.) or -ing (a gerundNo definition set for gerundLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.):

  truck driver

  → someone who drives trucks

  fireplace poker

  → a tool for poking the fireplace

  window washing

  → an action where someone washes windows

  potato planting

  → an action where someone plants potatoes

  Learn more about noun phrases like these in our post on action nouns in English!

• Something and when it happens:

  summer school

  → school that happens in the summer

  midday meal

  → a meal that happens at midday (noon)

• Something and where it is/happens:

  street hockey

  → hockey played in the street

  neighborhood park

  → a park in a neighborhood

  corner store

  → a store at the corner of the street

When a head noun has more than one modifying noun, you can often figure out the meaning by starting with the pair of nouns on the left and working to the right, one noun at a time. What does that mean? Let’s look!

Here is a noun with a lot of modifying nouns: the student loan help center.

To break this down, we start with the first two nouns:

Then use that as the modifying noun for the next noun:

And so on!

With nouns like this, every noun except the first is, at some point, described by another noun:

• loan is the head noun of student loan

• help is the head noun of student loan help

• center is the head noun of student loan help center

Let’s look at one more very unlikely and very difficult example:

If you can read that one, you can do anything!

A compound noun is a single noun that is created by combining multiple words. For example…

rainstorm

→ a storm that includes rain

daydream

→ a dream you have during the day, when you are awake

footprint

→ a print you make with your foot

fingerprint

→ a print you make with your finger

Notice that the examples above look just like noun + noun phrases except that there is no space! Over time, noun + noun phrases that we use very often often become “compound words.”

Compound nouns are more likely to have an unpredictable or idiomatic meaning than noun + noun sequences, because we use them together so often. For example:

pancake

✅ a round cake made from flour that is cooked in a pan and usually served with butter, syrup, and sometimes fruit (at least this is the meaning in the USA!)

❌ any cake made in a pan

rainbow

✅ a colored arc you see in the sky after rain

❌ a bow made of rain

Therefore, it is best to look up these words in a dictionary if you aren’t sure of their meaning!

We mentioned above that, in English, it is also possible to turn a noun into an adjective by adding a special ending. In this section, we’ll look at the difference between these adjectives that come from nouns (also known as denominal adjectives) and nouns that are used to describe other nouns.

• Difference 1: Adjectives have a fixed meaning

  When we use an adjective that comes from a noun, the meaning is fixed. But when we use a noun to describe another noun, the meaning can change more with context:

  Adjective	Noun
  woolen scarf → a scarf made of wool woolen factory → a factory made of wool woolen farmer → a farmer made of wool	wool scarf → a scarf made of wool wool factory → a factory for making wool wool farmer → a person who farms wool (= sheep farmer)

• Difference 2: Order

  A noun being used to describe another noun will always come after all of the adjectives:

  adjectivemodifying noun

  ❌ a dirt blue bike
  ✅ a blue dirt bike

  → a blue motorcycle for riding in the dirt

  Adjectives can come before or after other adjectives, as long as they follow the correct adjective order for English.

  adjective

  ✅ a dirty blue bike

  → a blue bicycle covered in dirt

  ✅ a big dirty bike

  → a big bicycle covered in dirt

Have a look at this list of suffixes to make adjectives in English!

In this post we’ve taken a look at how you can use nouns to describe other nouns. Here are some things to remember about how to form noun + noun phrases:

• The modifying noun comes before the head noun (just like an adjective).

• Use the singular form of the modifying noun.

• Put any adjectives before the modifying noun.

• Usually the last modifying noun gets the stress.

We also talked a bit about the meaning of noun + noun phrases:

• The noun and its modifier have some kind of relationship. This can be:

  • Something and its purpose (student loan)

  • Something and what it is made of (cotton shirt)

  • Something and its topic (history book)

  • An action and its object (hockey practice)

  • Something and when it happens (winter break)

  • Something and where it is (school auditorium)

  • And more!

• When reading phrases with more than one modifying noun (student loan help center), it can help to start with the pair on the left and work to the right!

Now, you’re ready to practice! Have a look at these activities on using English nouns as adjectives. Happy learning!