Popular grammar of the Russian language: spelling of complex words

It is common to call words based on more than one root. Such words can refer to different parts of speech, especially often they are nouns and adjectives. In this article, we will consider the general rules for spelling complex words.

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The spelling of these grammatical constructions is subject to the following rules:

• Nouns and adjectives that begin with auto, air, aerial, moto, bicycle, tele-, radio-, photo-, cine-, stereo-, multi-, background-, electro-, micro-, , Mono-, quasi-, macro-, helio-, thermo-, agro-, bio-, zoo-, pseudo-, graph-, meteo-.
• Words are also combined that include two or more of these elements: an air-weather station, photo-kinochronics, micro-cinematography. However, if you skip the second part of the word, you need to use the so-called hanging hyphen: cinema, photo and television cameras.
• Nouns are combined and adjectives formed from them, if they are joined by two or more roots with vowels o and e. For example, pandemonium, mud bath, reinforced concrete, miner, fish pump.

Spelling of complex words: remember exceptions

Through the hyphen it is necessary to write the sides of the world: north-east, south-west; The name of complex units of measure: bed-day, ton-kilometer. If the second part of the word is represented by its own name, then the correct hyphenation will be correct. For example, a false Dmitry, quasi-Daly.

When a hyphen is not needed

• The spelling must be spelling of complex words, in the first part of which there are numerals: hexahedron, quatrain three-kopeck, twenty-five kilometer, three hundred and fifty millimeters.
• The numeral "one and a half" when entering a compound word has the form of one and a half. For example, a one-and-a-half, one and a half year.
• Numerical "two", "three" in complex constructions, in addition to the form of two-, three-, may have the forms of two-, three-, three-: two-digit, three-storey, double-barreled, shamrock, triangle. In a number of words, along with the form of two-, it is possible to write two-. For example, bivalent and bivalent, two-shift and two-shift, bicarbonate and two-voiced.

Spelling of complex words with some numerals is possible not in the genitive case. In particular, the numerals "billion", "million", "one thousand", "one" in the compound word enter the nominative case and are associated with another root with vowels o or e. For example, million-star, thousand-headed, single-member (root alternation). Remember: the word "half" in complex constructions is written separately: five and a half kilometer road, ten and a half million population.

Spelling of complex words that begin with a semicolon, except forms, where the second part begins with a vowel, with the letter "l" or with a capital letter: half a bottle, half a lifetime, half a point, half a liter, half of Paris, half of Italy . However, if the sex is separated by a definition from the noun, then the compound word is written separately: the floor of a tablespoon, the floor of free France.
There are many words beginning with semi-. All of them are written together: a half-turn, a peninsula, half-lying, half-closed, half-joking.

Slozhno are written complex words, beginning with the deputy, For example, the deputy minister, head of department, death. However, if such parts are separated by adjectives, the spelling of complex words is accepted as a merged: zavrajonnoy newspaper, deputy ministerial portfolio.

Spelling of complex words: the rule of using a hyphen

• These words are written through a hyphen if they are formed without a connecting vowel and have a single meaning. For example, friends-buddies, buying and selling, sadness, melancholy. There is another semantic nuance: words like factory-automatic, hut-reading, house-museum, prime minister, press attaché, fellow-rake, cobbler-drunkard.
• A hyphen should be written in two-syllable geographic names. For example, Gus-Khrustalny, Alma-Ata, Rostov-on-Don, Pas-de-Calais, La Rochelle.

Remember! Adjectives are spelled, if one of the parts is not separately used. For example, omnivorous, fleeting, empty-headed. But if the adjectives used clarification of the semantic nuances, they are written through a hyphen: salty-sour, tender pink.

We hope that our article helped you to understand such a difficult and rather contradictory section of the grammar of the Russian language as the spelling of complex words.