Predicting Compound Words Worksheets

Related ELA Standard: L.2.4.D

Core Standard
Answer Keys Here

You can create new words by compounding words together. In many cases, the two separate words don’t mean anything close to the compound word that formed between them. There are three varieties of compound words. Closed compound words are words that contain no spaces between the words that are compounded. Open compound words, obviously, have a space between the words. Compounded words can also be hyphenated this is done to avoid confusion. The worksheets on this page will help students become more comfortable with deciphering the use of compound words.

Predicting Compounds Worksheets To Print:

Packing Fun! – Make and define as many compound words as you can.

Fill In The Chart – air + plane = airplane, snow + man = snowman.

Making Magic! – Help the frog create word magic.

The Fourth of July – Create preset compound words by completing a paragraph.

Around the House – This time we break down compound words into their parts.

Defining Compound Words – Create a mixture of meaning with these words.

Matching Game – Color the circles containing short words one color. Color the circles containing a word's meaning another color.

Compound Words in Sports – Each sports-related compound word below is missing one part. Circle the correct word to fill in each blank.

Name that Compound Word! – Each line below is the definition of a compound word. Read each definition. Then fill in the correct compound word.

Compound Words – The first two columns below contain short words. Do they go together to create a compound word?

Matching Compounds – Match each compound word with its meaning.

Pictured Compound Words – A compound word is the result of two smaller words being joined to create a new word. Use the picture clues to fill in the compound word.

Filling In Compound Words – Fill in the blanks below. Use the pictures for clues.

Let's Create Art! – The picture below contains six compound words with the word "back" in them. Put each compound word back together by coloring both parts of each one the same color.

Puppy Rescue! – Help reunite these pups with their owners! Match the words inside the pups with the words inside their owners to create compound words.

Defining Compound Words – Try this one on for size! We define each word and the compound word that they create.

How to Predict Compound Words?


When a child reaches a certain age, he or she should be taught all the ways of word formation. One way of word formation is to through the use of affixes. You add prefixes at the beginning or suffixes at the end or both to a word. This changes the meaning of the word and a completely new word is formed. Another such technique of word formation is the joining of two root words. When you join two different root words together, and they form a new word with a unique meaning, then that word is called a compound word. A root word is the most original form of a word. It cannot be broken down further and has a particular meaning. You will often notice in texts or speech that some words are spoken together. They are assumed as one single word, but if you break that word down, you will have two different root words. You can also guess the meaning of the compound word by using the meanings of both the root words. Here are the three types of compound words.


Closed


A closed compound word is formed by joining two root words without giving space in between them. They both join together to form a unique word with a different meaning. You can easily predict a closed compound word in a sentence by identifying two different words in a single word. For example,
moonlight
sunflower
classroom


Open


The open compound words are formed by joining two root words but with space. An open compound word might not seem like one word but when you pronounce it, it has a unique meaning. For example, full moon.


Hyphenated


Hyphenated compound words are two root words separated by a hyphen. For example, sixty-two, forty-three, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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