Uncommon Punctuation

 

Hyphenated Adjectives

The warning on the sign seems to say: "Beware of the man who is eating a tiger." What did the sign maker do wrong?

When two (or more) words act like a single adjective, we join them together with a hyphen, like this:

Generally, you need the hyphen only if the two words are functioning together as an adjective before the noun they’re describing. If the noun comes first, leave the hyphen out.

You can also leave the hyphen out if the first word is "very" or an adverb that end in -ly.

Key Point:

When two (or more) words act like a single adjective, join them together with a hyphen.

This is almost always true when the two-word adjective comes before the noun that it describes.

Instructions for the Quiz

Answer the questions

Quiz