BACKYARD

            I’m writing this on the 4th of July, a day of many backyard barbecues. But where are these barbecues held? In the back yard!

            And where does the backseat driver drive? In the back seat.   

            In both cases, the two-word version is a noun phrase and the combined word is an adjective, and, in both cases, the noun phrase is accented on the second word while the adjective is accented on the first syllable.

            There is no backyard or backseat – or frontyard or sideyard or frontseat. These words should be kept separated when used as nouns.

            The same thing happens when a verb phrase is changed into a noun. We had to bail out the banks, an action that is referred to as a bailout. When used as a verb, it should always be two words.

            There was an ad on my website yesterday, presumably targeted at politicians. “How do I find & turnout my voters?” it asked. People turn out to vote. The total of those who do is the voter turnout.