Search results for 'tag:Adverbs tag:Hyphens' matching tags 'Adverbs' and 'Hyphens'

Re: when to hyphenate adjectives and when not

Grammar Geek — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:08:34 GMT

Anonymous
a combination of higher-ed administrations

This is not a comparative: it's short for "higher education"

When you have two words that modify a noun, you often (usually) hyphenate them. Higher-education administrators, full-time students, 30-foot pole.

When they do not modify a noun you usually do NOT hyphenate. He chose a career in higher education, she goes to school full time, the pole measured 30 feet. (Note that it changed to singular when it modified the noun, but that's a different story.). Use a dictionary to see which words take the hyphen all the time, even when not modifying a noun.

(Also, do not use a hyphen with adverbs that end in -ly, like "highly paid job.")

Re: word classes

Clive — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:46:59 GMT

Hi,

When she was 16-years-old a 16-year-old is a noun. 16 years old (ie no hyphens) is an adjectival phrase
she ran away (preposition) from home and moved to London, then (adverb) New York to work as (adverb) a nurse. During (preposition) her time in New York, she kept in contact with (preposition) her sister. She said âI donât know what (pronoun) Iâll do about it, but I donât see why (noun) we should just (adverb) waitâ¦ And I always (adverb) had that picture in my mind, all adverb through this time.â

German (adjective?) inventor (noun) John Smith...

She travelled far, crossing (verb present participle) several army (noun used as an adjective?) checkpoints, until she was expelled from (preposition) the country.

Some of these words are not easy to classify.
Best wishes, Clive

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.

Re: punctuation

Mr Wordy — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:58:51 GMT

I just spotted a couple of typos (probably), one double space, and a couple of places where I'd use commas.

I was expecting your email, Jane; I am glad to receive it. I have one question though: did you decide on your wedding date? Are you marrying the dashing fellow you were with at our high school reunion a few weeks ago? If that's him, you are a lucky girl. He looked so nice and, on top of that, he looked so gentlemanly. Please let me know the details. Bye.

Proper punctuation in emails is to be commended, and you should punctuate them just as you would any other piece of text. For dashes I often use two hyphens (--), as you have. (Not only are proper dashes a pain to enter, but I'm never entirely confident that they will be rendered correctly in whatever system the recipient is using.)

Many "-ly" words are adverbs, but "gentlemanly" is an adjective. The way you've used it is fine -- just as "he looked so handsome" is fine. What you can't say is something like "he looked at me gentlemanly" (intended to mean "in the manner of a gentleman") because this sentence needs an adverb (as in "he looked at me cautiously").

Re: adverbs and hyphens.

Mr Wordy — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 00:50:27 GMT

I would write:

Mr Jones, who will be 45 years old next month, ...

Mr Jones will be 45 years old next month.

Mr Jones will be 45 years old next month; he will then be a 45-year-old man.

The hyphens in the last example prevent the phrase being interpreted as "45 year" + "old man" (unlikely you might say, but to me that's the logic).

In the other examples there is no possibility of misassociation, so there's no need to hyphenate anything.

adverbs and hyphens.

daniel1984 — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 23:24:03 GMT

Hello, I wonder if you could help me a little with adverbs and hyphens? Am I correct in thinking any sentence or phrase used adverbially doesn't require a hyphen? Such as: "Mr Jones, who will be 45-years-old next month." So this would be incorrect and should read "Mr Jones, who will be 45 years old next month"? "Mr Jones will be 45 years old next month" This should be hyphenated as there is no adverb? "Mr Jones will be 45 years old next month; he will then be a 45-year-old man" This is wrong and should be the other way around? for example "Mr Jones will be 45-years-old next month; he will then be a 45 year old man"? Any help on this subject will be much appreciated.

Re: phrasal adjectives, chains of meaning, and hyphenation

Grammar Geek — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:26:12 GMT

Although I previously stated in this forum that well does not take the hyphen, just like -ly ending adverbs, I was 100% wrong. I had been thinking much as you do.

It's a style issue, but most style guides do support hyphenation with well.

See this: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/achenblog/2005/07/reasonably_well_paid_pat.html They say they would hyphenate well-paid writer, but not when there's an adverb before well, like "reasonably well paid."

See this: http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000127.htm - They say that well respected man is incorrect, and that well-respected is correct.

And finally, see this: http://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/adverbs_lessons.htm - Use a hyphen with well.

hyphenate or quote

Believer — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:23:08 GMT

Hi,

I think Mr. M once told me (or us) something to the effect that when you have to put a hyphenated word in the quotation marks, one mark is enough. I think what he meant is you can either choose the hyphen or quotation marks.

Can we use both or should we always use just one?

Adverbs as a "catch-all" category

You can give an "yes", "no" or "so-so" answer.

Sorry, this just came up, "did I place the article correctly? should it be 'an' before 'yes' although it is in quotes?"

an 'yes' answer not a 'yes' answer??

Re: Fully-Fledged Vs. Full-Fledged

Feebs11 — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:38:59 GMT

Edit. Feebs, We use a hyphen on this side. I notice you did not. Is that typical?

As a rule, an adverb is not followed by a hyphen in a phrase of this kind, whereas an adjective is. So full-fledged and fully fledged; full-blown and fully blown, close-knit and closely knit. It is a frequently broken rule these days.

"Full-fledged" is not a term I have met save in descriptions of young birds. The examples in the British National Corpus are all from newspaper reports and most are not particularly good English.

Re: adverb-(hyphen)-adjective

Philip — Wed, 23 May 2007 00:18:47 GMT

Thanks to you all for your excellent research. My original question was answered quite quickly, and I appreciate all the other ensuing discussion.

Philip