In Nouns^x, Hyphens^x, Numbers^x

Instead of "a percent", say "a percentage" if you mean the ratio, or "a percent(age) sign" if you mean the symbol. Instead of "percents", say "percentages" if you mean ratios, or "percent(age) signs" if you mean symbols. I...

Hi, I think I have seen more than enough cases where what people call a verbal noun has the indefinite article 'a' in front of it and at the very least, the sheer number (should it be - sheer numbrs??) of it warrants some good explanations from experts in this forum. I think I can laid...

Hyphens are rather slippery characters, and many nouns appear in all three forms ( bookshop, book-shop, book shop ). In this case, however, we are looking at a premodifying adjective, which according to most on-line dictionaries is a single word, secondhand . Still, a goodly number of similar...

Hi Philip If you google "compound adjectives", you should be able to find a number of sources. Even Wikipedia has a bit of information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_compound Scroll down to "Compound Hyphenated Adjectives" and then down to the part headed with "The following compound...

Anonymous wrote: Hi, thank you for your help with this! A question arose today regarding numbers and when they're hyphenated in text and when they're not. Examples: There are 30 tons of hay being delivered today. or There are 30-tons of hay being delivered today? This 19-acre...

Just want to add a few comments to Paco’s explanation…. When we use nouns like “foot” with numbers, it’s used in it’s singular form; as in“10 - foot” ladder. Typically, there is a hyphen inserted to these “made –up” adjectives. Ex: 4-day holiday (no “s”) 3-page letter ...

When the numerator = 1, the denominator is singular: one-half one-third one-quarter OR one-fourth Note that denominators of 5 or higher are all ordinal numbers: one-fifth one-sixth one-seventh one-eighth one-ninth one-tenth ...and so on When the numerator is greater than one, the...

1. "Worse" is the comparative of "bad" while "worst" is the superlative. bad-worse-the worst His new movie is worse than his last. Your cooking is getting worse! (compared to before) Among his movies, the newest one is the worst. This is the worst of all! 2. I'm reproducing...

Hi Henk, I was wondering dear sir, why you didn't use the word "feet" in the 2 sentences "enter the wreck at a depth of 443" and "usable up to a depth of 1150" Embarrassingly, I don't remember the whole text and did not save a copy. Perhaps I deleted the 'feet' in error; please reinsert...

Hello, Guest. If you want to focus on correctness, you might want to avoid using "eleven year old" (without the hyphens). The reason is that, if you use the three words separately, you need the plural "years" when you talk about "eleven". On the other hand, it is correct to use the noun "year"...