Here are 3 examples:
Fried egg, fried rice, fried chicken
All these “fry” are different. If you were to use the “fry” in fried rice to fry an egg, you’d get scrambled egg. Fried chicken is done by submerging it in oil, which you won’t do with fried egg or fried rice.
This post is made from the perspective of a Cantonese/Chinese speaker. We have different words for these different types of “fry” (煎, 炒, 炸 respectively)
Yeah but pan and fry can be names. If you say “hey pan fry me an egg” you might be asking someone to pan fry you an egg or maybe you are specifically asking Pan to fry you an egg or maybe you are informing both Pan and Fry that you are an egg.
That’s what commas are for