not good/of no good

1 2

Share on Facebook

Kajjo

#206793 Thu, 16 Mar 06 05:53 PM

Davkett wrote:

I may be wrong, but it seems to me that in this instance a hyphen also belongs between already and fed-up.

Dear Davkett,
you might be right! I am never really sure about hyphenation of phrases with words like "already". However, we agree that "fed-up" requires the hyphen in any case. Maybe it depends on how you pronounce the phrase: "an (already-fed-up) husband" or "an already ... fed-up husband". How would you write "an entirely fed-up husband"? I can't imagine using a hyphen in the latter example and I figure the same reasoning could be applied to the phrase in question.

On the other hand, I can imagine a "fed-up husband" and such a guy can be already fed-up when we meet him. But how do you imagine an already-fed-up husband in contrast to a fed-up-husband? I feel the "already" is more explaining the circumstances of the remaining sentence rather than creating a special species of husbands.A different case would be a "continuously-smiling husband" which surely is a strange and rare species...

Anyway, are there any strict rules to obey? I know the quite concise explanation at Hyphenation, which unfortunately does not shed any light on our problem.

Cheers,
Kajjo

Kajjo

Joined on Sun, Dec 18 2005

Full Member (150)

Hyphens, Hyphenation

davkett

#206796 Thu, 16 Mar 06 06:05 PM

I've not researched the rule. The special circumstance here that may be complicating things is that the adjective (fed-up) is already hyphenated. Wouldn't we want to hyphenate these?--

an already-aggravated husband

an always-grumpy husband

a never-nagging wife?

davkett

Joined on Tue, Jun 7 2005

Pennsylvania, USA

Senior Member (2,788)

"The rose stays fresh in its name..." -Bernard of Morlay

Kajjo

#206803 Thu, 16 Mar 06 06:27 PM

Hi Davkett,
well, I sure would hyphenate an always-grumpy husband (a pretty common species of husbands, I'm afraid) and naturally a never-nagging wife (where do you find that species?). However, again I would decide against the already-aggravated husband, because he appears to me to belong to the species of aggravated husbands and it is just the case that he is already aggravated when we meet him, but does it make him already-aggravated?

"Please, could everyone who is [...] stand up?"
currently unemployed ---- currently-unemployed
already pregnant ---- already-pregnant
already hungry ---- already-hungry

Kajjo

Kajjo

davkett

#206827 Thu, 16 Mar 06 08:20 PM

From Wikipedia-- "A definitive collection of hyphen rules does not exist", then this-- "hyphens are generally not used in ... adverb-adjective compound modifiers".

I don't know how rigid the rule is, because I'm still tempted to think that word order can be relevant:

"How many already-pregnant girls will be attending the birth-control lecture?"

I believe, however, that I will stand corrected on the point here-- already fed-up husbands.

davkett

Verbs, Adverbs, Hyphens, Word order

Grammar Geek

#206830 Thu, 16 Mar 06 08:28 PM

In one of those bizarre twists, you generally don't hyphenate a word that ends in -LY. Perhaps because you don't generally hyphenate adjectives. But it seems to carry over to things like "friendly looking face." Some rules just don't make sense.

Grammar Geek

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006

Pennsylvania, USA

Veteran Member (15,964)

Barbara, who answers in American English.

davkett

#206844 Thu, 16 Mar 06 09:28 PM

Grammar Geek wrote:

In one of those bizarre twists, you generally don't hyphenate a word that ends in -LY. Perhaps because you don't generally hyphenate adjectives. But it seems to carry over to things like "friendly looking face." Some rules just don't make sense.

I take it you'd recommend hyphenating friendly-looking.

davkett

Grammar

Kajjo

#206849 Thu, 16 Mar 06 10:11 PM

Davkett wrote:

It take it you'd recommend hyphenating friendly-looking.

And I agree, it would make sense in this case.

Kajjo

Antonija

#208029 Tue, 21 Mar 06 08:07 AM

Thank you all for your suggestions and comments.

Kajjo, I know there are some things in the book that are strange even wrong, but it is fun to read and perhaps it is closer to a Croatian reader than it would be to an, let say, Anglo-Saxon reader.

Antonija

Joined on Sun, Mar 5 2006

Croatia

Contributing Member (1,059)

Anonymous

#368553 Mon, 21 May 07 06:04 PM

I don't know what to write

Anonymous

1 2