Noun strings are groups of nouns or adjectives mashed together to create a single term. Every word in the string adds to the meaning of the final noun.

Some noun strings are straightforward. For example:

• high school diploma
• body mass index
• unidentified flying object
• health maintenance organization

You probably understood those terms without any problems. At just three words each, they’re not too long. They’re familiar, and they’re convenient shorthand for well-known concepts. 

Where we get into trouble is when noun strings start stretching out beyond three words. For example: 

• Heart disease risk-reduction protocols
• Low-income neighborhood preschool scholarship fund
• Emerald Ash Borer elimination trunk injection method (Wow!)

When all of these nouns get clustered together, it’s hard to tell which one is most important – or even what the phrase is supposed to mean.

Luckily, there are two simple ways to fix these brain-numbing noun strings.

Method 1: Reorder the string, then add prepositions and articles

The first way to fix noun strings is by reordering the string, starting with the last word, and then adding prepositions and articles for clarity.

You see, one thing that makes noun strings confusing is that the most important word is at the end! Let’s take our first example: heart disease risk reduction protocols. What are we talking about here? A protocol… a series of steps a patient would take to get more healthy. So let’s reorder the phrase to start with “protocol”:

• A protocol

Then we’ll add prepositions and articles to clarify the meaning. That gives us:

• A protocol for reducing the risk of heart disease.

That’s a little bit longer than our original noun string, but much easier to understand.

Let’s look at our next example: low-income neighborhood preschool scholarship fund.

We’ll reorder the phrase and pull the words at the end up to the beginning. We’ll start with:

• A scholarship fund

Then we’ll add prepositions and articles:

• A scholarship fund for preschools in low-income neighborhoods

Again, much easier to understand!

Method 2: Change nouns to verbs

A second way to fix noun strings is to convert words that are in a noun form into a verb form. That clarifies meaning and adds some action to your phrase. 

Let’s see how to do it with this mouthful: Emerald Ash Borer elimination tree trunk injection method.

Yuck. OK.

In this phrase, “elimination” and “injection” are the clunky noun forms of the verbs “to eliminate” and “to inject.” Let’s fix that. We’ll again start by grabbing the word at the end of this phrase – “method” – and moving it to the beginning.

Then, let’s turn those bloated nouns into verbs. That gives us:

• A method for injecting tree trunks to eliminate the Emerald Ash Borer

Now we can see the action that’s going on. 

(By the way, in case you don’t know, the Emerald Ash Borer is an invasive insect that’s been destroying ash trees across the United States for years. It’s one bug we do want to eliminate!)

And here’s one final example: animal rights promotion rally.

In this phrase, the verb “to promote” is hidden in the noun “promotion.” Changing that gives us:

• A rally to promote animal rights

That’s one rally we could probably all get behind … unless, of course, the animals in question were Emerald Ash Borers.

In any case, that’s your tidbit for today. You can fix a noun string in three easy steps: reorder it starting with the last word, add prepositions and articles to clarify meaning, and turn clunky nouns into active verbs.