What do you call a noun that precedes and describes another noun? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What is the word that denotes the words preceding these nouns?
Would it still be a noun, an adjective, or something else?
Example:
A stone fortress
In most cases, I believe, the 'other things' are themselves going to be some kind of nouns, in that case:
Nouns can sometimes describe other nouns (such as a soccer ball). When they do this, they are called modifiers.
Quoted from and refer for more details: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noun