Stress in Compounds: blue, green, red

English has a lot of compound nouns where the first element is the name of a colour. Here are some examples of compounds with blue, green, or red as the first element. All of these have the main stress on the colour term:

bluebeard bluebell blueberry bluebird bluebottle bluejay blueprint bluestocking bluetit

greenback greenbelt greenfinch greenfly greengage greengrocer greenhorn greenhouse greenroom greenstick greenwood

redbreast redcoat redeye redhead redneck redshank redskin redstart redwing redwood

Notice that compound colour adjectives have the main stress on the final element, so skyblue, seagreen and bloodred, for example, all have the stress pattern

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