'False friends' are words in one language that look like words in another language, but which have very different meanings. There are a number of false friends in German, where the words look ...

Let's talk about the plurals of compound nouns. I submit to you: passers-by, hangers-on, attorneys general, brothers-in-law, and culs-de-sac. What about "month end" how would that be pluralized?

One of the regular features we do on Twitter is "Why we need hyphens": phrases that have different meanings depending on whether there's a hyphen. These usually occur when a noun has a compound ...

Compound words are sprinkled throughout the English language—endless combinations of little words that partner up to form new, bigger words. How they come together in the written language can vary, ...

Sign up for the daily CJR newsletter. Forming a plural is pretty easy, right? You just add an “s” to something. Unless, of course, it’s a word that already ends ...

A scarecrow, otherwise known as an agentive and instrumental exocentric verb-noun compound, guards a London garden in 2003. Photo by Cate Gillon/Getty Images The following post was excerpted from ...

Bruce Duncan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their ...