Gramatically speaking, why do we say BLUE-EYED GIRL, BROAD-SHOULDERED MAN? Why do peopple add the?

Question

"ed" in such cases? I can not find this in any books. I know they are called compound words but what excatly do they mean? Are they adjectives, or what? When to use them? How to explain this to the students? I teach ESL and never found this in books. Thanks a lot.
Sorry about the word people. Typed it wrong.

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Answer 1

The "ed" is a particle that is added to certain nouns to make them into adjectives meaning roughly "having the attributes of ." So where "blue eyes" is the noun, you add "ed" and you get someone with blue eyes. There was a popular movie and song in 1955 called "Love is a many splendored thing." This meant that "love" had the aspects of "splendor," which is conveyed by adding the "ed".

Answer 2

The suffix "ed", apart from its other functions, is also used as an adjective suffix, conveying the meaning "having the quality of". These are compound words, adjectives, and you use them to describe something or somebody's quality. If you teach ESL you don't need to go too deep into linguistic explanation, just tell your students that you add "-ed" to the noun to change it into an adjective in make it suitable to become a part of a compound adjective. I'm sure you can find lots of information on what a compound word is in books.