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

Re: little by little

Yoong Liat — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:37:23 GMT

If you're more observant, you will notice careful writers use hyphens for such constructions.

more grammar doubts!

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:36:34 GMT

(1) However, after being told she would not be allowed to present the speech herself, that instead it would be read at the assembly by a male student, she turned down the offer. Her future was in public speaking and she would not be denied.

Should it be "instead"? Can "that" be deleted? Please advise.

(2) Although she was determined not to marry, Lucy had not yet met Cincinnati hardware merchant Henry B. Blackwell, brother of Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell, the first women medical practitioners in the country. Seven years younger than she, Blackwell earnestly pursued Lucy for two years, begging for her hand in marriage.

Should it be " Seven years younger than her,"? Please check usage.

(3) Although she, as many of the other women in the movement, stitched shirts for Union soldiers, being domestic was not her calling and during the period, she helped found the Woman's National Loyal League, advocating full emancipation and enfranchisement for African Americans.

Please check comma usage in the above sentence.

(4) Slowly, she moved away from the more extreme positions and the persons supporting them, particularly the free love advocacy of presidential-candidate-to-be Victoria Woodhull and those who opposed all but federal suffrage mandates, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Do we need hyphen in "presidential-candidate-to-be"? Please clarify.

(5) She died at her home of cancer but refused to make her death the end of the firsts on her list. Her final wish was to be first person cremated in New England.

Should it be "was to be the first person"? Please check.

(6) Lack of paid employment was not an issue for Addams was a skilled fundraiser.

Is the sentence construction ok? Please check.

(7) Employing a changing and adaptable approach to organization, Addams established the first public playground in the city, started a post office and a savings bank, initiated the first juvenile court and offered bathing facilities for those who had none.

Do we need serial comma before "and offered bathing facilities"? Please clarify.

(8) Unfortunately, her career was short-lived for she was summoned home to help care for her ailing mother.

Do we need hyphen in "short-lived"? Please clarify.

Re: First come, first served.

Delmobile — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 15:53:22 GMT

The only time I would use the hyphens would be in a playful, somewhat elaborate construction, for example:

You know how it is at the Smith house. Ten children, three or four of them screaming at any given moment, and mother and father dishing out dinner, approval, and smacks alike with a admirably democratic first-come-first-served policy.

But for a more formal notice:

As of May 1, employees will no longer be able to call ahead to the cafeteria to reserve catfish plates on Fridays. They will be available strictly on a "first come, first served" basis.

Re: What grammar parts are they?

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 10:55:05 GMT

Yes, Mr. M. It helps a lot.

It kind of engendered some inquiries, though.

1. In your interview in the English-test.net website, you said:

From there, it didn't take much thought to realize that I could eliminate the middle man and start my own school, lucrative enough to make Japan a good place to stay.

What is this part grammatically?

2. In the nonfinite clause portion of the sentence "heart racing and gasping for air as your body's automatic nervous system tries to figure out why it isn't getting enough oxygen," would you say 'heart' is a noun and it can be replaced with any other contextually appropriate noun? Usually, I think a nonfinite clause should exihibit the pattern of "racing and gasping for air as your body's automatic nervous system tries to figure out why it isn't getting enough oxygen." (without what seems to be the noun part -- 'heart'.)

3. In the same interview, you wrote:

We were presented wtih an inside view of the workings of ETS TOEIC preparation and presentation, and offered an opportunity to try our hand at question-writing.

The word 'question-writing' is linked with a hyphen. What is the reason or rationale for this? I do feel that it is the construction is correct but hoping to get some ideas as to what is required for a noun to be formed like that. Maybe something like this?

an action star-wannabe

4. Sorry to ask so many questions but if you are willing, can you tell me what are some criteria (if there are any) for an adjective in quotation marks? How unusal the usage or use of a word or phrase or clause has to be in order to adorn itself with a pair of quotation marks?

Are these good?

I think Mr. M is an online celebrity.

I don't think Mr. M is an "off-line" celebrity.

Challenging the premise

Anonymous — Sat, 26 May 2007 07:05:23 GMT

Hi,

When we hyphenate the adjectives, the usual reasoning given is that it is done to prevent people from thinking the adjectives modify the noun individually when the adjectives hyphenated should be considered as one word. Fine, but how a person can get confused when taken individually, a modification in individual term would be silly for some obvious cases, if not silly for most of hyphenated adjective cases.

crude-oil production is down.

Here, crude and oil should be thought of as one word so it is linked by a hyphen, but no confusion will arise if left unhyphenated. No one will think 'crude production' would be the right phrasal construction; whereas 'oil production' seems to be the valid construction.

peace-making vows

Again, let us take the hyphenated adjectives individually and apply to the noun: apply peace to the 'vows' seems to produce a good word -- peace vows -- whereas applying 'making' to 'vows', does not.

feeble-minded people

Again, applying 'feeble' to the noun 'people' will produce a good word -- feeble people -- wheareas, applying 'minded' alone to the noun will produce a noun that is not good -- minded peopple.

So, my contention is asserting that hyphenation is necessary for adjectives modifying a noun is necessary, when a person is trying put forth a position that those two (or more) adjectives are linked in content or substance doesn't seem logical, at least to me. Can you help?

Sorry, the content of my inquiry seemed basic in nature and that is why I posted here.

Re: An extending hyphen

khoff — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 15:03:47 GMT

Maybe by "extending hyphen," Believer is thinking of constructions like this:

In the U.S. dog- and cat-loving consumers spend millions of dollars on luxuries for their pets

in place of

dog-loving and cat-loving

Re: An extending hyphen

nona the brit — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 09:56:50 GMT

I'm afraid you are seeing it the wrong way. The hyphen doesn't extend to the following noun.

I can see what you mean though. Sometimes hyphens can lead to some ambiguitiy but I think this tends to happen more when we have hyphenated adjectives followed by nouns, than hyphenation of noun-noun. For example 'fun-loving owners and dogs' - do the dogs love fun as well or not?

However, in this case, it is simple to see that it doesn't extend in that way as seer and medium have their full meaning on their own. We never say fortune-seer or fortune-medium.(in the way that we might say fun-loving dog). Fortune-teller is a noun-noun construction to create the full name of something, not really to modify a noun. So unless that first noun also naturally becomes part of the name of any following nouns, there is no confusion. I'm struggling to think of an example where that might happen.

I would even question whether fortune teller needs a hyphen at all. Noun nouns are not normally hyphenated unless required to avoid confusion. For example American-football player. Without the hyphen we wouldn't if this was a player of American football, or a football player whose nationality was American.

Re: When do numbers stand alone?

Cool Breeze — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 17:22:54 GMT

Yoong Liat wrote:
I've seen such constructions quite often. And if it becomes more and more common, the hyphen may disappear. As you said, a mistake repeated over a long time becomes accepted usage.

It has been customary to omit the hyphens for a very long time and I think contrary to what you say it may be becoming more common especially in AmE to have them. I usually use them since in my view, anyway, it makes it easier to understand such groupings of numbers and words. However, I would hardly think it a mistake to omit the hyphens:

a two-mile walk, a two mile walk, a 2-mile walk, a 2 mile walk

Cheers
CB

Re: When do numbers stand alone?

Yoong Liat — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 17:12:41 GMT

I don't know whether you have seen such constructions without the hyphen. I've seen such constructions quite often. And if it becomes more and more common, the hyphen may disappear. As you said, a mistake repeated over a long time becomes accepted usage.

Re: three questions in a queue

Believer — Wed, 24 May 2006 07:38:28 GMT

Thank you, Nina and Goodman.

As to the first question, I want to ask you whether or not this phrasal construction, "during the-period-after-the- surgery," is a properly contructed phrase? If yes, can you give some simple examples?

Why not just plainly write it out as "during the period that is after the surgery"? Is there any reason to resort to a technique of using multiple hyphens to generate such a word?