Here, the two adjectives, “top” and “selling” are combined into one to describe the employee. “Top-selling” means “having the most sales.” We use hyphens to create compound adjectives, but there are some important rules for cre...
adjectives befor and after a noun (hyphen) AmE-speakers (use of a hyphen) An Associated Press Style Question on Hyphen Usage best hand-draw-map artist [Adjective with hyphen] Bright coloured lights: hyphen Can hyphen in numbers be omitted?
Twohyphenstogether is a grammatically incorrect substitute for an em dash. People often type twohyphensbecause they don't know how to create an em dash with their keyboard. Sometimes people even use a singlehyphenwhen they should be using an em dash. ...
In terms of the rules we looked at in this lesson, a hyphen is generally used between two adjectives that together form a compound adjective that acts as a single modifier; between a prefix and a root word when the prefix ends with the same letter as the root word begins with; if the...
Hyphen with Compound Modifiers: Two-Word Adjectives Before Nouns A compound modifier is made up of two words that work together to function like one adjective. When you connect words with the hyphen, you make it clear to readers that the words work together as a unit of meaning. ...
X= adjectives, present participles, past participles, nouns, prepositions 1. noun + present participle Job-seeking guide job guide Peace-loving, people, a peace loving person Noise-making boy noisy boy Mouth-watering baby baby with saliva Head-scratching puzzlement let the problem of head ...
Let’s start with compound modifiers, also known as phrasal adjectives. A compound modifier is made up of two or more words that work together to function like one adjective in describing a noun. When you connect words with a hyphen, you make it clear to readers that the words work ...
The time of Gutenberg (whose work with printing occurred in the mid-1400s) seems a possible lower bound The examples in Sven Yargs's answer establish that the practice of hyphenating compound adjectives in English texts arose no later than 1597. It's not clear to me whether we can s...
In grammar, the most common use of a hyphen is if two words function together as an adjective before the noun they modify. These words are called hyphenated adjectives. You may also use it to divide a word with inadequate space in the line for the whole word. ...
The most difficult compound terms to deal with are the compound adjectives. For one thing, most of them will not be found in any dictionary. For another, whether they are hyphenated or not depends on their position within a sentence. Whether to hyphenate or not is often a matter of style...