I’ve been so busy with writing and teaching projects that I’ve had little time to nitpick some editorial issue.
In the meantime, here’s a helpful post about using commas properly.
Wordsmithereens
Writing and Editing Advice from Lee Allen Howard
Category Archives: punctuation
Hyphenation 101: Hyphenating Compound Adjectives and Adverbs
Sometimes when more than one adjective is used to modify a noun, the adjectives must be hyphenated to make the meaning clear. But lets start with a case where hyphenation is unnecessary.
- dangerous bacterial infection
- sprawling suburban plan
- polite postal workers
Dangerous, sprawling, and polite are adjectives, and infection, plan, and worker are nouns. The words in the middle are also adjectives, but in these uses they combine with the final nouns to create a compound nouns that express a single concept. In each case, the first word modifies the next two. Dangerous modifies bacterial infection. Whether or not postal workers are polite is beyond the scope of this article.
Compound adjectives
But what about these?
- gay rights advocate
- minor league umpire
- live action directing
These first words are adjectives and the third ones are nouns. However, the middle words are nouns that combine not with the following nouns, but with the adjectives that precede them. These are compound adjectives. The first refers to an advocate for gay rights, not a general advocate for rights who happens to be gay. It’s the league that’s minor, not the umpire. So we need to clarify the meaning and indicate proper compounding by connecting the first two words: gay-rights advocate, minor-league umpire, live-action directing.
We can also have two or more adjectives modifying a final noun:
- short black hair
- sweet young lady
- stout little man
None of these combinations need to be hyphenated because their meanings are clear. The hair is short and black; the lady is both young and sweet; the man is little as well as stout.
Hyphenating multiple adjectives
But what about the following?
- exported vegetable products
- offensive language patterns
- stone carving blade
Are the middle words supposed to combine with their preceding adjectives, or with the final nouns? There’s a difference between products made of exported vegetables and vegetable products that are exported. Are the patterns studied those of offensive language? Or are the language patterns themselves offensive? Is the blade meant for carving stone, or is the carving blade made of stone? You must make the meaning clear by correctly combining the words with a hyphen: stone-carving blade, etc.
Five week old kittens are beginning to get frisky. Are there five kittens only a week old? (Five week-old kittens…) Or an indeterminate number of kittens that are five weeks old? (Five-week-old kittens…)
To indicate how multiple adjectives modify a noun, you must clarify meaning with commas or hyphens. For instance, in the garden you see a red striped lizard and post about it on Facebook. Is it a red lizard that is striped (red, striped lizard), or a lizard with red stripes (red-striped lizard)?
Hyphenate to prevent confusion
You must also hyphenate compound adjectives that precede a noun if, unhyphenated, would lead to ambiguity or confusion. The new student questionnaires will be distributed on the first day of school. Are the questionnaires for new, incoming students? (The new-student questionnaires…) Or are the student questionnaires changed from the old ones? (The new student-questionnaires…)
Hyphenating adverbial compounds
When verbs are modified with adverbs that end in “-ly,” the compound should not be hyphenated.
- Incorrect: The abattoir was run by a highly-skilled team of butchers.
- Correct: The abattoir was run by a highly skilled team of butchers.
- Incorrect: Add a pinch of freshly-chopped basil.
- Correct: Add a pinch of freshly chopped basil.
However, the exception is that, if an “-ly” adverb is used with a preceding compound adjective that has at least two other components, use a hyphen: She rattled off what sounded like a quickly-made-up story. Another exception is to drop hyphens when the same words follow the noun being modified: She rattled off a story that sounded like it was quickly made up.
When a non-“-ly” adverb is used in a compound adjective preceding a noun it modifies, link them with a hyphen: The well-written novel is a bestseller. Drop the hyphen if the modifying words come after the noun: The bestselling novel is well written.
The suspense is hyphenating me
A final use for hyphens is as a shortcut to abbreviate a repeated base word that uses different modifiers. Confused? An example should help.
At times she both undercompensated and overcompensated for her actions. Two fat, repeated words could be trimmed down like this: At times she both under- and overcompensated for her actions.
A suspension hyphen lets readers know that there’s something intentionally missing. The suspension hyphen can also be used to precede a repeated compound word: The secretary took minutes of the Day-1 and -2 proceedings.
Are we done yet?
There are a few more rules and exceptions, but frankly, I’m exhausted. So we’re done with hyphens, okay?
Next up, more about problematic participles and misplaced modifiers. Nothing at all about alliteration.
Source: Anne Stilman’s Grammatically Correct: The Writer’s Essential Guide to Punctuation, Spelling, and Grammar (Writer’s Digest Books, 1997).
Hyphenation 101: Hyphenation with Prefixes and Suffixes
Today’s installment of hyphenation in spelling covers hyphenating words that contain a prefix or suffix.
Most of these cases never take a hyphen (unspoken, discernible). Others may take one, some should be hyphenated, and some must be hyphenated. Some… well, you can take your pick, such as anti-hero or antihero, pre-mixed or premixed, ultra-violet or ultraviolet. As always, check your dictionary, use what it says, and don’t worry about it—just be consistent in the same piece of writing. (The trend as language progresses is to drop hyphens and close the words.)
Don’t be peculiar
No one will stumble over worldwide or clockwise. But when combining a root word with a prefix or suffix makes the word look odd (or pronounce strangely), use a hyphen. For example, preceremony looks funny, and I experience some confusion when trying to subvocalize it. Pre-ceremony works better. “Their house could use an update, windowwise.” Try window-wise.
Anne Stilman lists others that might be hard to read if not hyphenated: antiinflammatory/anti-inflammatory, nonnative/non-native, multititled/multi-titled, shelllike/shell-like.
Don’t change the meaning
Stilman provides some great examples of prefixed words that have entirely different meanings when hyphenated:
- Re-signed/resigned
- Re-creation/recreation
- Un-ionized/unionized
When the root word is capitalized or is a number
- un-American
- post-Civil War era
- Germany-wide
- pre-1700s
- under-21s
With certain prefixes or suffixes
Prefixes: all, ex, self—all-encompassing, all-embracing; ex-member, ex-wife; self-esteem, self-recrimination.
Suffixes: elect, odd, free—president-elect; thirty-odd students; sodium-free.
Hyphenated numbers
When you spell out a number containing two words (from twenty-one to ninety-nine), hyphenate the words. This also applies to fractions. For example: thirty-three, two hundred ninety-seven, one-quarter. For fractions that include a two-word number, hyphenate only the two-word number and not the fraction: four twenty-sixths, three one-hundredths of a degree.
Next up, we’ll learn the rulse of hyphenating compound adjectives.
Source: Anne Stilman’s Grammatically Correct: The Writer’s Essential Guide to Punctuation, Spelling, and Grammar (Writer’s Digest Books, 1997).
Hyphenation 101: Hyphenating Compound Words
Let’s continue with our subject of the uses of hyphenation in spelling and begin with this definition from Anne Stilman:
A compound consists of two or more words that express a single concept. A compound word may act as a noun, a verb or an adjective, or even all three.
There are a few different types of compounds:
| TYPE | DEFINITION | EXAMPLE |
| Open compounds | Words written separately with a space between them | time frame |
| Closed compounds | Words run together with no space separating them | crossbreed |
| Hyphenated compounds | Words linked with a hyphen | hand-feed |
Would that there were predictable rules governing the compounding of words; there aren’t. This means you need a good dictionary to check the proper compounding of words. (I use Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary.)
Note also that language changes constantly. Words often begin as hyphenated compounds and then eventually drop the hyphen, becoming closed. (For example, over the past twenty years, e-mail has become email.)
Compound Nouns
Stilman states, “Compound nouns that comprise more than two words, such as idioms and phrases, usually take hyphens.” For example: He’s a Johnny-come-lately. Check a dictionary or a reliable list of idioms.
If a word is compounded with a single letter, it is either open or hyphenated (not closed): A-frame, B picture, T square, H-bomb, V neck.
Some compound nouns can be closed or hyphenated, such as carry-over/carryover, short-list/shortlist. Again, check the dictionary.
Compound Adjectives
When you use more than one adjective to modify a noun, sometimes they must be linked with a hyphen to ensure clarity. For example, there’s a difference in the meaning of these sentences:
- Seven week old kittens mewled in the cardboard box. (One or more of the adjectives must be hyphenated to make the meaning clear.)
- Seven week–old kittens mewled in the cardboard box. (Seven kittens, all one week old, are mewling in the box.)
- Seven–week–old kittens mewled in the cardboard box. (An indeterminate number of kittens, all seven weeks old, are mewling.)
Compounding adjectives deserves a post of its own, so subscribe and check back later for another lively discussion.
Compound Verbs
Compound verbs are usually open but are sometimes closed or hyphenated. Often, a closed noun compound becomes open when used as a verb compound. For example:
- She experienced a breakthrough. (closed compound noun)
- She wanted to break through her crippling grief. (open compound verb)
Some hyphenated compound nouns become open when used as verbs, for example, show-off/show off.
When verbs are compounded, it is often between the verb and some kind of direction word: back-check, stick up, break down, make up. When verbs are open compounds, the space often comes between the verb and a preposition: break through, stand in.
Commonly Mishyphenated Words
Stilman lists a number of words and phrases that are often hyphenated but shouldn’t be. These include: more or less, ongoing, a priori, ad hoc. Latin phrases should not be hyphenated.
Next time, we’ll take a closer look at hyphenation in prefixes and suffixes. I’ll bet you can’t wait!
Source: Anne Stilman’s Grammatically Correct: The Writer’s Essential Guide to Punctuation, Spelling, and Grammar (Writer’s Digest Books, 1997).
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