10 Types of Hyphenation Errors

10 Types of Hyphenation Errors 10 Types of Hyphenation Errors 10 Types of Hyphenation Errors By Mark Nichol I’ve written more than once about hyphens, including this previous post, but it remains a troublesome topic, so I’ll approach it from this direction, too: the categories of hyphenation errors. 1. Omitting Hyphens in Phrasal Adjectives Some phrasal adjectives (including â€Å"civil rights,† â€Å"stock market,† and â€Å"high school†) don’t require hyphenation when they appear before a noun; they’re so well entrenched in the language that no risk of ambiguity exists, and their status is enshrined by inclusion in dictionaries. But when two words team together to describe a noun, they’re usually hyphenated. (Leave them open after a noun, however.) If you can’t find them in your well-thumbed dictionary, attach them and don’t hesitate to link more than two words: â€Å"The company instituted a pay-as-you-go plan.† 2. Adding Hyphens to Compound Words Compound words come in three forms: open (â€Å"sand dollar†), hyphenated (sand-blind), and closed (sandbag). As you see from these examples, compounds including the same particular word are not necessarily treated the same; compounding is a random process related to usage. (Popular treatment of long-hyphenated compounds changes so rapidly that dictionaries change them in new editions to reflect prevailing usage; pigeonhole formerly pigeon-hole is just one example.) 3. Adding Hyphens to Prefixes Prefixes, on the other hand, are almost always closed up to the root word. Exceptions include when the root word is a proper name (pre-Christian) and when the prefix ends and the root word begins with an i (anti-inflammatory). Note, however, that this is not true in the case of e (preempt). Another exception is words beginning with c preceded by co-, because to many people, terms like co-chair look awkward without a hyphen. 4. Omitting Hyphens from Potential Homographs Sometimes, prefixed words that would otherwise be closed up retain a hyphen to distinguish them from otherwise identical-looking words, such as re-cover as opposed to recover and re-creation as distinct from recreation. 5. Omitting Hyphens in Verb Phrases Compound verbs, those consisting of more than one word, are hyphenated (test-drive) or closed (troubleshoot); the dictionary will let you know which form to employ. Note, however, the difference in nearly identical-looking compound verbs and open compound nouns: â€Å"I’m going to test-drive it tomorrow,† but â€Å"I’m going to take it on a test drive tomorrow.† Also, consider the subtle difference between gerunds formed from a hyphenated compound verb that are followed, or not followed, by an object: â€Å"I was spot-checking the report when I found a serious error,† but â€Å"I’m going to do a little spot checking.† 6. Adding Hyphens to Adverbial Phrases Adverbs are not attached to adjectives when they team up to modify a noun: â€Å"The slowly melting ice rendered the river crossing a perilous enterprise.† However, the presence of an adverb does not negate the need for a hyphen in a phrasal adjective that follows it: â€Å"Hers was an eloquently sharp-tongued response.† 7. Adding Hyphens to Prepositional Phrases Phrases telling the reader to do something in which the first word is a verb and the second is a preposition are not hyphenated: â€Å"Sign in at the registration table.† (The phrase is hyphenated, however, when it modifies a noun: â€Å"Go to the sign-in table.†) 8. Adding or Omitting Hyphens When Referring to Ages or Physical Dimensions When a person is identified by their age with the phrase â€Å"seven-year-old,† for example, the phrase is hyphenated whether it modifies child, boy, girl, and so on or the noun is implied. (Note that two hyphens are necessary and that, for the spelled-out form of a two-digit number, three are required: â€Å"twenty-seven-year-old.†) However, the constituent words are unattached when the phrase follows the noun: â€Å"The child is seven years old. By the same rules, words describing an object’s physical dimensions are similarly linked: â€Å"Cut the eight-foot-long board in half.† Note, again, that all the words describing the length of the board are attached: If the final hyphen is incorrectly omitted, the reference to a board that is eight feet long is erroneously changed to describe a long board with eight feet. 9. Omitting Letter Spaces When Using Hyphens When you see a hyphen followed by a letter space, don’t assume the space is an error. â€Å"The assignment is a 2,000- to 5,000-word essay† is correct; word has been omitted after the first number because it is implied by its presence after the second number. (This usage is called suspensive hyphenation.) 10. Confusing Hyphens and Dashes Many publications, for the sake of simplicity or because the producers don’t know any better, use single hyphens in place of em dashes or double hyphens (the less aesthetically pleasing alternative that is frequently employed online). But they look stubby and ugly, and this crime against aesthetics is compounded when letter spaces around them are omitted, producing abominations such as â€Å"The key-and this is important-is to keep stirring constantly.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Has vs. HadOne Fell SwoopWood vs. Wooden

Hills Like White Elephant essays

Hills Like White Elephant essays In everyone ¡s life, there will always be a time that you have to make an important choice. Whether is for education, business or relationship. In the story  ¡Hills Like White Elephant ¡ by Ernest Hemingway is about making choice in a relationship situation, about a girl who need to make important choice about whether to keep the pregnant child within her, or do abortion so her husband will be happy. In the story  ¡Hills Like White Elephant ¡ Ernest Hemingway introduce two characters to us, a girl named Jig, who is pregnant with a baby, and the American man who sounds like he is a carefree person and who loves to travel. The reason why I say this American man loves to travel is because the story tell us that  ¡there were labels on bags from all the hotels where they had spent night ¡ (208) shows the they traveled a lot. In the story, Jig sounds like she really want to have this baby, but her husband (the American man) didn ¡t want to keep this baby, because in the story the man said  ¡I think is the best thing to do(to have abortion) ¡ (207) and he know if the baby was born, it will effect their carefree life and the all the travels, that ¡s why he say that  ¡That ¡s the only thing that bothers us. It ¡s the only thing that ¡s made us unhappy ¡ (207). So the man try to convince Jig to do the abortion by saying thing such as  ¡It ¡s really an awfu lly simple operation, they just gonna let the air in ¡ (207),  ¡My friend ¡s wife did it, and they were so happy ¡ (207),  ¡We can have the world, we can go everywhere ¡ (208) and  ¡I ¡ll go with you and I ¡ll stay with you all the time ¡ (207). Jig sounds like she really want to have this baby, but she know her husband will be more happy if she did the abortion. And she keep asking him  ¡if I do it you ¡ll be happy me and things will be like they were and you ¡ll love me? ¡ (207). Even thought that the man ...

Mobile Messaging Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Mobile Messaging - Essay Example Studies have shown that currently, about one billion people in the world use mobile messaging services. This has been projected to grow to about two billion users in the next three years (Khalaf, 2014). Some of the mobile messaging platforms that have been widely used in the world include Facebook, Whatsapp, Snapchat, Kik and Messenger. Different users have different preferences when it comes to the choice of platform to be used. However, cases of use of multiple platforms are also common. With the increase in the use of smartphones, mobile messaging has also grown rapidly. Smartphones war has also been caused by the rise and popularity of mobile messaging applications. Handset manufacturing companies such as Samsung and Apple have fought fiercely in popularizing their smartphones basically as a result of the popularity of mobile messaging. Due to this rapid rise in the use of mobile messaging services, a lot of studies have been carried out on this topic. The studies have shown that the growth or increased use of mobile messaging supported by platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat, Messenger and Kik has impacted heavily on the society. The impacts of mobile messaging on the society have been both positive and negative. One of the straight forward advantages of the use of mobile messaging is that it provides a form of communication in the society. Mobile messaging is real time. The messages or data that is sent from one mobile phone handset to another is received in real time. This therefore allow for sharing of information very fast and hence providing a channel of communication. The current world is a world where communication has become an important element in the day today life of an individual. Mobile messaging, unlike calls, is free and therefore allows for communication just by few keystrokes. This has allowed people in various regions of the world to