Whenever I type papers for school I will say a two word phrase (or three word like that one) and see the magic green line underneath it, click on the line, and have Word tell me that this needs to be hyphenated. To me it happens kinda randomly with some phrases, and randomly not with some phrases…is there a rule for this?
Using my above example…how come “two word phrase” isn’t hyphenated, yet run-of-the-mill is? Is there some type of English grammar rule that I am missing? Or is it really just as random as I think it is?
The Strunk and White book says that hyphenation is the least agreed upon issue in English punctuation.
Generally, you hyphenate two words when they’re used as a single adjective or adverb, but not if they’re a common phrase normally used that way.
S&W advises against ever adding a third word with a second hyphen, but in practice I’ve done that and found it clearer.
However, beware Word’s suggestions regarding hyphenation. For example, it frequently doesn’t know a compound word, and is happier if you hyphenate it (incorrectly). No doubt English standard usage will change as a result of this.
In any case, you wouldn’t write “use a two-word-phrase”, but you might write “use a two-word prhase”.
Note that “run-of-the-mill” is used as an adjective, thus the suggested hyphens. MS probably considers numbers an exception.
I don’t care what the rules are. I hyphenate to make words more readable, such as ‘re-entry’, and to form a stronger union between the words as a recognizable phrase such as ‘now-a-days’, or to form a compound word such as ‘two-word’ above.
My wife says that two (or more) word adjectives should be hyphenated when they precede the noun they modify, but not when used as predicate adjectives. So: “A two-word phrase has two words”. (Also notice how it got inflected for number at the same time.)
“Now-a-days” strikes me as very old-fashioned (or old fashioned? ), like “to-day” and “to-morrow”. I’d write it as one word.
The general progress in English seems to be two words -> hyphenated word -> one word. Whether computer grammar checkers will halt or reverse that trend remains to be seen.
*Nowadays *is one word. The purpose of the “rules” is to make things more readable, and if you make up your own rules you may end up having the opposite of the intended results.
I find it hard to read and nonsensical as a single word since it’s a phrase. I could be wrong. I’m not recommending a rule for particular words, just the principal that grammar should be used for clarity, not a game of adhering to pointless rules. I will reconsider my use of hyphens in that case though.
The rule I’ve always heard is if you take one of the words out and it doesn’t make sense, the two (or more) words are working as a single adjective to describe the noun, and you should use a hyphen.
So if you had “a two-word phrase,” it wouldn’t make sense to say you have “a two phrase,” or a “a word phrase.” Thus you need the hyphen.
However, if you have “a big, red car” you do have “a big car,” and you do have “a red car.” In this case you do not need a hyhphen.
(Of course, the exception to that rule would be if the first word describes the second one, rather than the noun that follows: with “a very red car,” I do have “a red car,” but not “a very car,” as very is an adverb describing the adjective red.)
:smack:So maybe this isn’t a very good rule to teach someone else, but it works for me. YMMV.
In my class on Modern English Grammar in college, the professor suggested teaching it as follows:
Look at all the adjectives* you have modifying that noun and start lopping them off starting at the one furthest away from the noun. If you find a place where lopping one off makes something ungrammatical, unclear, or mean something different from what is intended, that one should be hyphenated to the next.
), like “to-day” and “to-morrow”. I’d write it as one word.