We often use two nouns together to show that one thing is a part of something else:
the village church
the car door
the kitchen window
the chair leg
my coat pocket
London residents
In these examples, the first noun is called a noun modifier.
We do not use a possessive form for these things. We do not talk about:
the car's door ✖
the kitchen's window ✖
the chair's leg ✖
We can use noun modifiers to show what something is made of:
a gold watch
a leather purse
a metal box
We often use noun modifiers with nouns ending in –er:
an office worker
a jewellery maker
a potato peeler
We use measurements · age · value as noun modifiers:
a thirty-kilogram suitcase
a two-minute rest
a five-thousand-euro platinum watch
a fifty-kilometre journey
We often use nouns ending in -ing as noun modifiers:
a shopping list
a swimming lesson
a walking holiday
a washing machine
We often put two nouns together and readers · listeners have to work out what they mean:
an ice bucket
a bucket to keep ice in
an ice cube
a cube made of ice
an ice breaker
a ship which breaks ice
the ice age
the time when much of the Earth was covered in ice
Sometimes we find more than two nouns together:
London office workers
grammar practice exercises
Noun modifiers come after adjectives:
the old newspaper seller
a tiring fifty-kilometre journey