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:
- He’s a very down-to-earth person.
- She is a five-year-old girl.
- I am writing a six-page essay.
- I'm on a low-fat diet.
- I prefer whole-grain bread.
- She is a well-known actress.
- He owed an ever-increasing amount to the loan shark.
- She saw the real-estate ad in the magazine.
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.
- The actress is well known.
- The bread was whole grain.
- She is five years old.
You can also leave the hyphen out if the first word is "very" or an adverb that end in -ly.
- a very elegant watch
- the poorly lit room
- the openly gay mayor
- the scantily clad swimmer
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. |
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