ENGLISH. What is the rule? or of course there is no rule , right ?

Question

Why are the words 'bathroom', 'classroom', written as one word but 'living room' is written as two. Is it something about the amount of syllables ?

Answer 1

II think there is a rule that says something like "one syllable words paired together are written as a single compound word" and any multi-syllabic words stand separately.
But it also wouldn't surprise me if your other suggestion was right: that there is no rule, and it's just one of those arbitrary things.

Answer 2

I'm sure there was a reason back in the day when the spellings of these words were invented.

Words like "bathroom" and "classroom" are compound nouns. A compound noun is a noun that is made of two nouns, but is now one unit. You can tell the difference between a compound noun and two nouns by listening to the stress on the two parts. A compound noun has stress only on the first part, while two separate nouns will be stressed equally. A good example is the difference between "white house" and "White House". A white house is just any house that you see that happens to be painted white. This phrase is stressed equally on the two words: WHITE HOUSE. The White House is the place where the president of the United States lives, and it is a compound noun. It's stressed only on the first part: WHITE house. So "bathroom" and "classroom", since they are only stressed on the first part, are considered compound nouns. My guess is that they were written as one word originally because of this.

However, if you followed my example closely, you will see that some compound nouns are not written as one word, such as "White House" in my example. I suspect that this is because we are inventing new compound nouns all the time. For example, when I say the phrase "paper towel", for me, it's a compound noun because I stress it like this: PAPER towel. Other people might say PAPER TOWEL, demonstrating that for them it's not a compound.

So, perhaps, back in the day, living room was not a compound but it is now. That's my best guess.

Answer 3

This is all about the COMPOUND WORDS. If one is clear about them & the general grammatical rules governing them, it is not a big deal. Generally, the rules are for making our expressions clear & unambiguous. So, we need not approach this topic doubting as if it were for confusing one or made out of one's
whims & fancies.

As we all know there are 3 types of Compounds:

1. Open compounds, 2.Closed Compounds, & 3.Hyphenated Compounds.

Eg: 1. Open Compound: School Bus, Chocolate chips, high school.

2. Closed Compounds: Eg. Flowerpot, bathroom, toothpaste, playground, football

3. Hyphenated compounds: Eg: High-risk group, a well-mentioned idea, a horse-shoe-shaped bar.

Compounds can function as different parts of speech. So, they can change.

Eg: Attitudes learned at home carry over into the playground. (open compound - Verb Form)

2.The carriedover amount has been used for meeting the immediate expenses.(closed compound -- When used as a noun / adj)

How to judge whether a compound is open, closed or hyphenated.?

Many of them are listed in the Dictionary. They're not subject to our interpretation, our judgment or our whims. There are well defined rules for the use of them. By understanding & applying them, we may be clear about them. If there are some doubts in the usage, what are we here for in Yahoo Answers.

So 'Living Room' is an OPEN COMPOUND & BATHROOM is a CLOSED Compound. there can be no ambiguity or confusion when 'Living Room' is expressed as an open compound, can there be? So we have living room, dining room, dining room furniture, kitchen furniture etc etc

Hope, it is clear.

Source: Get It Write!

Answer 4

There is no rule as such in this language.
Apart from the syllables look at this:-
Cut and put -- both pronounced differently
Caught and cot -- both having different spellings and meanings
Knife - Why is 'k' silent
Island - same why?
Teach but taught, speak but spoke, cheat why not 'chaut'?
Physiology and Physics but Psychology, why not cykology or Kemistry instead it is Chemistry ?

So you see its a 'phunny' language.

Answer 5

Why is it called a bathroom if there is no bath tub or shower? It was just the way things were done and over time it became the custom or rule. Thank you very much!

Answer 6

It's the ING - if it was liferoom it would probaby be one word but the state of Living, implies that living is done in that Room, whereas Bathroom, in current would be two words: Bathing Room...

Answer 7

english is a strange language to understand.i has got no rules to write or to speak.so you need not have to worry about things

Answer 8

Right...there is NO rule. that's why we park on the driveway and drive on the parkway. Take care.

Answer 9

I believe "living" contains a suffix "ing" Bath and Class do not.

Answer 10

yes, it looks like there is no rule, but am sure there is rule when driving a car.