Correct spelling of "in + ground"

Factual Questions
1

Hi,
I’m proofing someone’s letter of intent for them and the topic expressed in it involved Geotechnical Engineering. I googled, I checked the dictionary, but there seems to not be one true way to spell " in + ground" as in " the neighbor wants to buy an inground swimming pool" . I need the correct spelling for this word (or words) and google results bring up “in ground”, “inground”, and “in-ground”.

If you’re curious the actual sentence is: "

… due to my structural labor experience, my identification with geotechnics tends to focus on structures in ground.

How would I use the two words correctly in this example?

2

As it is, I would think you wouldn’t use a hyphen; “in” is acting as a preposition if it follows the word like that. However, if they change it to “focus on in-ground structures”, then a hyphen would be correct, as it’s acting as an adjective (or an adjectival phrase.) I find the current phrasing to be a little stilted, but I think both are grammatically correct.

“Inground”, BTW, is incorrect, or at least more incorrect than “in ground” or “in-ground.” The OED has an entry for “in-ground” in the sense you’re using, but “inground”, according to them, is an obsolete verb meaning something similar as “to ground”.

3

Both “in-ground” and (presuming it’s even valid) “inground” would be adjectival. So in your example, the correct choice would be “in ground”.

And I’d suggest that “my involvement with geotechnics” or “my experience with geotechnics” might be better than “my identification with geotechnics”.

4

Thanks for the help Mike, btw- you don’t do proof-reading do you? :stuck_out_tongue: LOL… this one is pretty bad, I’m gonna need some more time with it to make it work… but afer th-at?

5

well, all suggestions are welcome xema, thank you.

6

I just wanted to point out that however you connect the two words, I think they belong before the noun they are modifying. So:

“in ground structures”

Alternatively I would say

“structures in the ground”

7

I’ve seen a similar sentence written as “… focusing on in-ground structures” by a civil engineer.

8

Phrases like that progress over time from individual words to hyphenated words to a single compound word.

Working in proofing old books, one of the common ones is:
to day becomes to-day becomes today. In recent years, we have gone from electronic mail to e-mail to email. That one is still in transition; some spellcheckers and language guidelines insist on the hyphenated version.

Like all changes in living languages, the speed & completeness of such changes varies. It seems to depend on such things as the frequency of use, the status of the users of the new form, etc. Some never change completely to compound words, but stay at a hyphenated version.

Seems to resemble rules of etiquette, which change frequently over the years, with serious arguments between generations over what is ‘proper’ etiquette.