Compound Words: Everyday Words

Each puzzle shows two groups of three words. You need to choose one word from each group that together make one correctly spelt word. The instruction says that the word from the first group always comes first. So if the groups are ( sun cat big ) and ( dog flower tall ), you try sun, cat and big at the front, joined to dog, flower or tall at the end. Sun + flower = sunflower. You must not swap the order. A word from the second group can never go at the front.

With three words in each group, there are nine possible pairings. The quickest way to find the answer is to work through them in order. Take the first word of the first group and join it to each word of the second group in turn. Say each joined word aloud: often your ear spots a real word before your eye does. Then do the same for the second and third words of the first group. Most pairings will sound like nonsense, such as catflower or bigdog. One will sound like a word you know.

When you find a pairing that sounds right, check it is a real word that is spelt correctly when the two parts are joined. Write it out in full: sun + flower is s-u-n-f-l-o-w-e-r. Some real words are made from parts that do not keep their meaning. For example, car + pet = carpet, even though a carpet has nothing to do with cars or pets. These still count, because the joined letters make a real word. The wrong options join words that make no real word, so if you have found a genuine word, you can be confident.