ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: Do compound adjectives need to be hyphenated when they act as object complements?

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:28:23 GMT

"year round" is correct.

In "We should have school year round", "year round" is a compound adverb, which generally are not hyphenated when they follow a noun.

Re: Do compound adjectives need to be hyphenated when they act as object complements?

Mr Wordy — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:57:31 GMT

dtran1119
I know the rule that we're supposed to hyphenate compound adjectives when they appear before a noun and not after a noun.

For example:

"My parents want me to attend a well-known university."
"The school I attend is well known."

Adverb-adjective compounds, as you have here, are often not hyphenated, even when they precede a noun. For example: "clearly defined rule", not "clearly-defined rule".

I've never really thought about it too much before, but off the top of my head it seems that shorter adverbs, especially those not ending "-ly", are more likely to be hyphenated in combination. For example, I think I would use a hyphen in "often-quoted passage" but I definitely wouldn't in "frequently quoted passage". "Well" is normally hyphenated in compounds peceding the noun, as in your example.

I would always use a hyphen when there is otherwise a risk of ambiguity or misassociation. For example, "fast-talking politician", not "fast talking politician".

dtran1119
Which one is correct?

1) "We should have school year-round."
2) "We should have school year round."

In this case I would definitely use a hyphen. Otherwise there is a real risk of "school year" being read as one unit. However, in "We should leave the building perfectly intact" I would not use a hyphen.

A good rule of thumb in cases of doubt: if the sentence is significantly easier to parse with a hyphen, then use one.

Do compound adjectives need to be hyphenated when they act as object complements?

dtran1119 — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:58:38 GMT

I know the rule that we're supposed to hyphenate compound adjectives when they appear before a noun and not after a noun.

For example:

"My parents want me to attend a well-known university."
"The school I attend is well known."

However, do we hyphenate compound adjectives that act as object complements? Since they appear after a noun, does that mean that they should not be hyphenated?

Which one is correct?

1) "We should have school year-round."
2) "We should have school year round."

Thanks for your help!