# Word categories

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-categories/990049>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 13, 2023, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-categories/990049 "2023-09-13T14:02:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2023, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-categories/990049/21 "2023-09-20T23:21:30Z")

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As I pointed there is a phonetic difference between Adj Noun and Noun Noun.

There is a similar split between verbs and modals. A modal can govern a verb, but not another modal. In this it differs from both French and German where you can say “il doit pouvoir …” and “er muss können …” but in English you have to say “he must be able to…” and not “he must can…”.

In German attributive structures exist but the two nouns are run together into one. So water meter in English becomes Wasseruhr (literally water clock) in German and compteur d’eau in French. NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization consists of three attributives in a row (actually North modifies Atlantic, North Atlantic modifies Treaty and North Atlantic Treaty modifies Organization) becomes OTAN (Organization du Traité de l’Atlantique du Nord) in French. I would not hazard a guess what it is in German, maybe a single word.

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**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-categories/990049/22 "2023-09-21T08:36:50Z")

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> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> I would not hazard a guess what it is in German, maybe a single word.

Predominant German usage in the media is to simply use the English acronym NATO. I’ve heard it broken down to “Organisation des Nordatlantikvertrags” (_Organisation of the North Atlantic Treaty_), which combines three of the four stems into one word; combining all of them, along the lines of “Nordatlantikvertragsorganisation”, would be valid under the rules of the language but I haven’t actually seen it used. I’ve also seen “Nordatlantikpakt” (_North Atlantic Pact_), but I find it wrong because it omits the existence of an institutionalised organisation.

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