ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: hyphen?

Mister Micawber — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:57:57 GMT

.
1. the genitive-equals-possessive misunderstanding -- Yes
2. the University of Florida curriculum designer -- Yes

But what about these?-- These are hard to deal with, since the adjective cluster has been extended unnaturally. I suggest:
Afternoon return buses back to Seoul
Early morning departures back to Seoul

Re: hyphen?

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:46:21 GMT

Thank you very much.

I think these two are properly punctuated:
1. the genitive-equals-possessive misunderstanding
2. the University of *** curriculum designer -- no hyphen since "University of ***" is a proper name and linking with hyphens woud be inappropriate, if not wrong.
But what about these?
Afternoon return bus rides back to Seoul
Early morning departure rides back to Seoul

Re: hyphen?

Mister Micawber — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 08:41:38 GMT

.
If I had to, I would do this:

1) ... submitted a featured-speaker nomination. But preferable: 'a nomination for featured speaker'.
2) ... submitting the updated treasurer's/president's report.
3) ... talk about national election constraints.
4) ... give out a raffle-prize certificate.
5) ... organize a room-decorating team.

Would you say these hyphenation examples are good for all types of writing, be it an email, formal researching writing, etc.? -- I would suggest that you have hyphenated appropriately, but that careful formal writing would have you reconsider the advantages of rephrasing, as I did with your #1.

hyphen?

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 06:20:13 GMT

Hi,
Please tell me if you would use hyphens for these.
1) ... submitted a featured-speaker nomination. -- I would use a hyphen since I feel both 'featured' and 'speaker' do not describe the main noun 'nomination'
2) ... submitting the updated treasury/president's report.-- I wouldnot use a hyphen since 'updated' describe 'treasury' or "president's" and 'report'.
3) ... talk about national election constraints. -- don't know what it means but for the same reason as no.2, I would not hyphenate.
4) ... give out raffle-prize certificate. -- for the same reason as no.1, I would hyphenate.
5) ... organize a room-decorating team. -- for the same reason as no. 1, I would hyphenate.

Would you say these hyphenation examples are good for all types of writing, be it an email, formal researching writing, etc.?