# Hyphenation
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyphenation/470231
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [October 30, 2008, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyphenation/470231 "2008-10-30T10:06:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2008, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyphenation/470231/1 "2008-10-30T10:06:44Z")
re: [How to tell if you’re anal retentive - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/876/how-to-tell-if-youre-anal-retentive)
Did anyone else notice that Cecil didn’t answer the implied question:
> [@](#):
>
> I wondered if there should be a hyphen in anal retentive.
If I remember my grammar school lessons correctly, there would not be a hyphen in _anal retentive_, either in that sentence or the original (as one is an unmarked quotation of the other). Multiple word adjectives are usually hyphenated when used adjacent to nouns, but not when used as a predicate adjective. Thus, a person would write, “The poster is anal retentive,” but, “The anal-retentive poster spoke endlessly on hyphens.”
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### Author:  [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2008, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyphenation/470231/2 "2008-10-30T13:58:54Z")
Yes, that is generally correct.
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### Author:  [@mwbrooks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mwbrooks)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2008, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyphenation/470231/3 "2008-10-30T19:01:13Z")
_If a hyphen is required at all_, that general rule is correct.
However, the words “anal” and “retentive” are both adjectives themselves, so the reader is unlikely to mistake “anal retentive” as anything but an adjective, so the hyphen really isn’t necessary.
A hyphen can prevent confusion when a noun is used as part of an adjectival phrase. Examples that come to mind are “bargain-counter tenor” and “big-ass hole punch.”
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyphenation/470231/4 "2008-10-31T04:28:46Z")
> [@mwbrooks](#):
>
> _If a hyphen is required at all_, that general rule is correct.
Yeah, I couldn’t think of a good way to fit that part in, so I left it out. Does that make me no longer qualify as anal retentive?
* * *
If it were up to me, I’d prefer anally retentive, so that _anal_ clearly modifies _retentive_ instead of the subject.