5 Examples of Insufficient Hyphenation

5 Examples of Insufficient Hyphenation 5 Examples of Insufficient Hyphenation 5 Examples of Insufficient Hyphenation By Mark Nichol Phrasal adjectives that consist of more than two words are often flawed in construction, perhaps because writers are hesitant to complicate a phrase with more than one hyphen. But hyphens are cheap and handy linking devices, and as these sentences show, their proper use enhances clarity. 1. â€Å"The high cost of the multi-million dollar catamarans caused many boats to drop out of the competition.† What, exactly, is a dollar catamaran, and what does it mean to describe it as multi-million? That’s the format of the question anyone who describes the cost of something should ask before considering such a sentence complete and correct. For one thing, the prefix multi-, like most prefixes, is almost invariably attached to another word without a hyphen (exception: if the other word begins with an i), but the resulting compound, multimillion, should be attached to dollar to modify what type of catamaran is under discussion: â€Å"The high cost of the multimillion-dollar catamarans caused many boats to drop out of the competition.† 2. â€Å"He met all the deadlines for the challenging four-week long assignment.† The error here is the same as the second one in the previous example the lack of a hyphen creates the impression that the last word in a phrasal adjective is itself modified by the preceding word or words. This sentence refers to a long assignment that is four weeks in nature. But long belongs with â€Å"four-week,† so it should be hyphenated to week to complete the phrase modifying assignment: â€Å"He met all the deadlines for the challenging four-week-long assignment.† 3. â€Å"The adviser some call the world’s second-most powerful man prefers to work behind the scenes. Second-most is a nonsensical modification of â€Å"powerful man.† Powerful is part of the ranking, so it should be part of the phrasal adjective: â€Å"The adviser some call the world’s second-most-powerful man prefers to work behind the scenes.† 4. â€Å"Listen to any song from our vast collection of twentieth and twenty-first century music.† This invitation refers to music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, not century music of the twentieth and twenty-first. Twentieth is an elided form of twentieth-century, so it should be followed by a suspensive hyphen, and century should be attached to twenty-first with another hyphen: â€Å"Listen to any song from our vast collection of twentieth- and twenty-first-century music.† 5. â€Å"Business must be good for small-businessman John Smith.† Because businessman is a closed compound, this sentence requires a different solution but not â€Å"Business must be good for small-business-man John Smith.† Here, too, an appositive one or more words that rename something is mistaken for a phrasal adjective. For the sentence to work, the appositive must be reworded so that small and business can be hyphenated to modify just what John Smith is an owner of a small business: â€Å"Business must be good for small-business owner John Smith.† 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:Good At, Good In, and Good With8 Writing Tips for BeginnersPreposition Review #1: Chance of vs. Chance for