I. The primary stress on the first element.

In the majority of compound nouns the primary stress is on the first element: suitcase.

But if the second element is disyllabic or polysyllabic it may get a secondary stress: grass-hopper, post-office, oil-company.

1. There are a number of words in English which hardly ever get stressed in compounds:

company	oil-company		service	bus service
party	birthday party		station	railway station
tree	apple tree		system	heating system
player	football-player		case	briefcase
match	football-match		man	postman
cake	almond cake		office	post-office
juice	lemon juice		street	oxford street
water	mineral water

2. The primary stress on the first element differentiates compound nouns from free word combination, in which every word has a primary stress: blackshirt фашист (compound noun); a black shirt черная рубашка (free collocation).

3. When two nouns make up a unit that can be explained as ‘something made of something’ both nouns have primary stresses: a paper bag (a bag made of a paper).

4. When two nouns make up a unit that can be described as ‘something used for function, purpose of something’ the primary stress is on the first element: a tea cup (a cup of tea).

5. When two words make up a unit where ‘the first element is a kind of direct object to the second element’, the primary stress is on the first element: a hair drier (to dry hair).

6. When a noun is qualified by a Gerund, it has one primary stress on the latter ‘for’ relations: a writing desk (a desk for writing), a bathing-suit (a suit for bathing), a dressing-room (a room for bating) in comparison with participial adjectives where both elements are stressed: a dying man a galloping horse.

7. Nouns formed from phrasal verbs, as a rule, have one primary stress on the first element: make up – a make-up; set up – a set up.

8. Compounds of three elements show instability: a hot-‘water-bottle, but ‘crime prevention,officer.

9. “Even-stressed” compounds are comparatively rare. In such compounds both elements are equally important: top hat, headmaster.

II. The primary stress on the second element.

The primary stress on the second element in nouns is very rare: country house.

1. The primary stress falls on the second element in compounds with an adjectival first element and the -ed morpheme at the end: bad-tempered.

2. Compounds in which the first element is a number in some form also tend to have final stress: second-class.

3. Compounds functioning as adverbs are usually final-stressed: North-East.

4. Compounds which function as verbs and have adverbial first element take final stress: to ill-treat.

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