To Hyphenate or Not
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 04/29/2008 - 17:50
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This post was edited on June 2, 2008
The stuff that should be hyphenated is in bold. The stuff that I'm none too sure about is in italics. But, for all I know, even the bold stuff may be wrong, so please leave your comments. It would help if you also cite the rule while commenting.
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I am helping a friend who wanted lessons in English grammar. I find the going rather tough (having slept through grammar classes in school).
Anyways, today, I wanted to send across an exercise in hyphenation and, not being able to lay my hands on real-life techdoc example, I came up with the following:
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It was the twenty fifth of December, in the seventy third year of the reign of Kind Edgar, that the saviour was born. On that star studded night when the gentle shepherds were tending their sheep and when the blue jays had gone to sleep, a child was born to white faced Maria. While the sandal shod husband stood and looked, the hay filled manger lit up with the smile of the child. The smile went a skipping, broke into a thousand pieces and ascended the night sky to burn a golden coloured star. The wise men in the east, who had grown old, bearded and heavy hearted awaiting the birth of the saviour, saw the star and exclaimed, "Here comes the world saviour and the sin redeemer." And they ran towards the west. Little did they know that King Edgar had started a faith based census where every evil doer would be asked the following two questions: Is it self evident that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is the birth right of all human beings? Is it that all passwords to Hell should be case sensitive? All such evil doers who could not submit their responses in the government issued template were to be thrice whipped and twice drowned before being hanged on the cross till death.
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Am posting it here because I too am not too sure about the hyphentaion in a couple of places.
Looking forward to the feedback :)
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Some MSTP Rules on Hyphenation...Just in Case it Helps
# Hyphenate two words that precede and modify a noun as a unit if the two modifiers
are a number or single letter and a noun or participle.
# Avoid suspended compound adjectives. In a suspended compound adjective, part
of the adjective is separated from the rest of the adjective, such as “first-” in “first-and
second-generation computers.”) If you must use suspended compound
adjectives to save space, include a hyphen with both the first and second adjectives
of the compound. Avoid forming suspended compound adjectives from
one-word adjectives.
# Do not hyphenate predicate adjectives (adjectives that complement the subject of
a sentence and follow the verb).
# Hyphenate compound numerals and fractions.
# Do not put a hyphen between an adverb ending in ly and the verb or adjective it
modifies.
# Use an en dash (-) instead of a hyphen in a compound adjective in which at least
one of the elements is an open compound (such as Windows NT-based) or when
two or more of the elements are made up of hyphenated compounds (a rare
occurrence).
# Do not use a hyphen in key combinations; use a plus sign instead, as in “ALT+O.”
Regards,
Shompa
Hyphenate?
When I wrote the above passage, I did not realise that there are so many words in my own composition that I have doubts about. These words are:
The words that I am sure should be hyphenated are:
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Cheers :)
Anindita
(http://writing-technical.blogspot.com)