5 Cases of a Missing Hyphen

5 Cases of a Missing Hyphen 5 Cases of a Missing Hyphen 5 Cases of a Missing Hyphen By Mark Nichol In each of the following sentences, omission of a hyphen hinders comprehension; discussion and a revision follows each example. 1. Two and a half months elapse between when the president elect is declared the winner of the election and when he or she takes office. The noun phrase â€Å"president-elect,† based on French syntax (in which adjectives follow nouns), is hyphenated, which helps the reader identify elect as an adjective rather than a verb: â€Å"Two and a half months elapse between when the president-elect is declared the winner of the election and when he or she takes office.† (Phrases referring to mixed fractions, such as â€Å"two and a half,† are often erroneously hyphenated; hyphens are correct only when such a phrase, accompanied by a word referring to a unit of time or distance, collectively modify a noun, such as in â€Å"two-and-a-half-month period.†) 2. I’m just looking for some good tasting coffee. As written, this sentence refers to a type of beverage known as tasting coffee and describes it as good. However, to express a sentiment about coffee that tastes good, hyphenate the phrasal adjective: â€Å"I’m just looking for some good-tasting coffee.† 3. Such documentation requires a decision-tree type approach, in which someone must decide each path to achieve an appropriate control structure. The type of omission illustrated in the previous example can also occur in a phrasal adjective that consists of more than two words. The sentence refers not to a type approach of a decision-tree nature but to an approach of a decision-tree-type nature: â€Å"Such documentation requires a decision-tree-type approach in which someone must decide each path to achieve an appropriate control structure.† 4. It might be a destination you stumbled across on a must-see list on a travel blog or heard was a can’t miss landmark. The writer of this sentence inexplicably correctly hyphenated the phrase â€Å"must see,† which modifies list, but overlooked the necessity of hyphenating the words â€Å"can’t miss,† which serve the same function in describing a kind of landmark: â€Å"It might be a destination you stumbled across on a must-see list on a travel blog or heard was a can’t-miss landmark.† (These phrases should be hyphenated when employed as nouns as well (as in â€Å"The Parthenon is a must-see for visitors to Greece†). 5. The study distinguishes between high and low-risk activities. This sentence refers not to high activities and low-risk activities but to high-risk and low-risk activities, but it does so elliptically, observing the convention that when a two phrasal adjectives in sequence share the same second word, the first can be omitted- but the hyphen must be retained so that the reader knows to supply the implied word: â€Å"The study distinguishes between high- and low-risk activities.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:16 Substitutes for â€Å"Because† or â€Å"Because Of†26 Feel-Good WordsDouble Possessive