Spanish and English generally do not create compound nouns in the same way. Examples of compound nouns in English include: open-heart, breakwater, basketball. English features adjective + noun (blackboard), verb + noun (breakwater) or noun + noun (football) combinations. English also frequently hyphenates words. The Spanish language has few hyphenated words as generally they are only used in cases of adjective + adjective or noun + noun combinations in which both elements are of equal importance, as in relaciones sino-estadounidenses (Chinese-US relations).
Read more 18 Apr 2013