Our written sentences will be clear and precise depending on how well we modify their various elements. As a rule, of course, we modify nouns and pronouns with single adjective or adjective phrases (“The
long wait is over.” “It was
worth the trouble.”), and modify verbs with single adverbs or adverb phrases (The day was
exceedingly bright.” “The fugitive was
summarily brought to justice.”). Such simple modifications rarely leave room for doubt as to our intended meaning.
Every now and then, though, we need more complicated modifiers to convey our ideas more precisely. Take a look at this sentence: “Give me a real world example of a nation that was able to lift itself by its bootstraps.” Here, while the noun phrase “real world” seems to be modifying the noun phrase “example of a nation,” the sense is so tough to grasp. Are we referring to a “world example of a nation” that is
real, which is downright nonsensical, or to an “example of a nation” in
the real world, which only vaguely makes sense?
IMAGE CREDIT: WOODWARD ENGLISH - WWW.GRAMMAR.CLThankfully, English has a handy grammatical device for fixing problems caused by such vexing complications:
the hyphen. Specifically, when we use the hyphen to form the composite word “real-world,” 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.”
To achieve clarity in meaning, here are the two widely accepted rules for hyphenating compound modifiers:
1. 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.” “The
community-based savings bank was proposed.”
However, such noun-adjective modifiers, however, typically need to drop that hyphen when it comes after the noun it is meant to modify: “The patient is no longer
insulin dependent.” “The industries the country went into are not
labor intensive.” “The savings bank was meant to be
community based.”
2. Hyphenating phrases used to modify nouns. When a phrase is meant to modify a noun up front, we need to hyphenate that 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.” (Imagine those modifying phrases without those hyphens!)
IMAGE CREDIT: WWW.SLIDESHARE.NETWhen 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.)
One last thing: For conciseness, we can use the
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.” In each of the examples, the hyphens allow the base elements “scale” and “meter” to be used only once to avoid tedious repetition.
(Next week:
The perfect tenses as a major grammar challenge) April 19, 2018
This essay appeared in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Campus Press section of the April 12, 2018 issue (print edition only) of The Manila Times
, © 2018 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
