Hi,
I sometimes have difficulty using a long phrase or clause in front a noun as an adjective. Can you help me? How do we know when to hyphenate a certain phrase or clause, or not to hyphenate it because I think some clauses get hyphenated sometimes and some clauses not when used as an adjective?
Yours: I don't like I-know-better-than-thou gals.
On your sentence, words are hyphenated but for the case below, why are the words not hyhenated?
How to respond to certain "How are you?" greetings
OK, 'How are you?' is a fixed expression but I cannot convince myself of finding some possible reasons that will justify this type (style?) of usage. Would you hyphenated the words below? Are there any guidelines I can follow?
1. ... follow the following "How to do" instructions.
2. ... follow the following how-to-do instructions.