Why is there a word for some compound words and not others?
When you say classroom in spanish, you are really saying the room of class. La sala de clase. Classroom is a compound word, so I would think that you say all compound words like this. Chalkboard is also a compound word, but it has a word for it. So if I said the board of chalk in spanish instead of pizarro, would it be correct? If not, how do you know which words to say like classroom and which words not to?
4 Answers
If not, how do you know which words to say like classroom and which words not to?
You know the same way you know in English --- You learn them on a case-by-case basis. There are no general rules for how nor when such compounds exist nor what form they will take. You cannot make assumptions about the (grammatical) relationship of the words (which would be needed for a reasonable translation). for example, your "board of chalk" suggest that that is the material of which it is made, where, in fact, the "chalk" refers to the purpose for which it is used. On the other hand, in the USA it's usually called a blackboard because of its color (even if it's green). In the distant past I've heard them called "slate boards" because they used to be made of slate.
German (which seems to love to make compounds) has the word "augenblich" which means "eye-blink" (second/short interval of time) but in English we would say "the blink of an eye" (no compound word).
Typically, these compounds develop in a language over a (long) period of time, starting out as normal phrases which gradually get shortened/compressed until they are accepted as single words (albeit, compound). People are, basically, lazy speakers and so this shortening process most affects very commonly used phrases. Ah, but which phrases are very commonly used and undergo this process? That depends on the language and the culture. Japanese has a compound word that means "moon-viewing" (generally understood to mean the full moon) and another compound (similarly constructed) that means "flower-viewing" (generally understood to mean cherry blossoms) because these are (and have long been) important activities in Japan. We have no corresponding compounds in English (but, then, they are not culturally important activities for us).
This is an interesting theory that I had never thought about before seeing this question. I would say there are a lot of compound words in English that are also compound words in Spanish, but there is not a perfect correlation. The only way you can really try to learn all the differences is by continuing to study Spanish for many, many years. By the way the word for chalkboard in Spanish is "pizarra", and I have definitely never heard anyone say anything other than this and "encerado"
Why? Every language has its own peculiarities. Samdie mentioned German, a language famous ( or notorious) for its so-called Schlangenworte or snake words.
An example of what is possible in the way of German compound words:
Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänsuniform =
Uniform of a captain of the Danube steamboat company
This may be a bit exaggerated, though possible. But compounds such as Langhaarkatze ( long haired cat) or Nebelschlussleuchte ( rear fog lamp) are quite common.
There are 1000s of compound noun + noun words in English and very few in Spanish
Have a look here Click here
