The clarity and precision of our written sentences are greatly dependent on how well we modify their various elements. Usually, of course, we modify nouns and pronouns with single adjective or adjective phrases (“The
long wait is over.” “It was
worth the trouble.”) and verbs with single adverbs or adverb phrases (The day was
exceedingly bright.” “The fugitive was
summarily brought to justice.”). Such grammatically simple modifications rarely leave room for doubt as to our intended meaning.
Every now and then, however, we need more complicated modifiers to convey precisely what we have in mind, as in this sentence: “Give me a real world example of a nation that was able to lift itself by its bootstraps.” The problem is that while the noun phrase “example of a nation” looks like it’s being modified by another noun phrase, “real world,” the context is so difficult to pin down. Are we referring to a “world example of a nation” that is
real, which sounds nonsensical, or to an “example of a nation” in the
real world, which seems to make sense but only vaguely?
Thankfully, English has a handy grammatical tool for fixing problems caused by the unusual compounding of its words:
the hyphen. When we use the hyphen to form the composite word “real-world,” in particular, the semantic problem with the sentence we examined earlier simply vanishes: “Give me a
real-world example of a nation that was able to lift itself by its bootstraps.” This time, it’s clear that “real-world” is meant to be a compound noun modifying the noun “example.”
Hyphenation can help us achieve clarity in meaning in two major grammatical situations: (1) when we use nouns to modify adjectives, and (2) when we use phrases to modify nouns. There are some generally accepted rules for hyphenating such compound modifiers.
Hyphenating nouns used to modify adjectives. When we use a noun up front to modify an adjective, we need to put a hyphen between them for clarity: “The
insulin-dependent patient lived an otherwise normal life.” “The country promoted
labor-intensive industries instead of
capital-intensive ones.”
Such noun-adjective modifiers, however, typically need to do away with the hyphen when they come after the noun they are meant to modify: “The patient is no longer
insulin dependent.” “The industries the country went into are not
labor intensive.”
Hyphenating phrases used to modify nouns. When a phrase is meant to modify a noun up front, we need to hyphenate the phrase for clarity: “The
big-budget film took five years to finish.” “The astute entrepreneur took advantage of the
once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity.” (See what happens when we knock off those hyphens.)
When adverb-adjective phrases are used to modify a noun up front, we need to hyphenate them if the adverb doesn’t end in “-ly”: “Her
long-ailing husband made a dramatic recovery.” “The
short-tempered boxer got knocked out early in the second round.” But we should never do so when the adverb ends in “-ly”: “The US dollar is the nearest we have to a
globally accepted currency.” “A
hastily organized press conference was called by the beleaguered senatorial candidate.”
When one of the adjectives in a two-adjective modifying phrase is meant to modify the other, we need to place a hyphen between them for clarity: “The man lost his
light-red jacket in the mall.” When both adjectives modify the same noun, however, we need to skip the hyphen: “The man lost his
light red jacket in the mall.” (Figure that one out.)
Using the suspensive hyphen. To streamline sentences, we can use the so-called
suspensive hyphen for a series of two or more hyphenated compound modifiers with the same base element: “
Small- and
medium-scale industries deserve government subsidy.” “We need
five-,
six-, and
nine-meter poles for this project.” Here, the words “scale” and “meter” are base elements of the modifiers that are used only once for conciseness.
With these guidelines, we should now be able to correctly hyphenate our compound modifiers for clarity.
(2007)This essay, 542nd of a series, first appeared in the weekly column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the June 25, 2007 issue of The Manila Times
, © 2007 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
