3 Cases of Complicated Hyphenation

3 Cases of Complicated Hyphenation 3 Cases of Complicated Hyphenation 3 Cases of Complicated Hyphenation By Mark Nichol When and where to use a single hyphen is perplexing enough for many writers, but when two or more are required, or one of the terms to be connected with a hyphen consists of more than one word, confusion is rampant. Here are several sentences that illustrate various problems with hyphenation of complex elements. 1. The Medal of Honor winning Navy SEAL described the rescue. Here, the noun to be modified is the noun phrase â€Å"Navy SEAL,† and the adjectival phrase is â€Å"Medal of Honor winning.† There should be a hyphen there somewhere, you think, but where? And because â€Å"Medal of Honor† consists of more than one word, shouldn’t multiple hyphens be deployed? In this case, because that phrase represents a single concept, only one punctuation mark is required to attach it to the adjective winning, but it’s not a hyphen. Here, use an en dash, a superhyphen of sorts: â€Å"The Medal of Honor–winning Navy SEAL described the rescue.† The distinction is obscure, but that’s the right way to do it. Alternatively, relax the syntax of the sentence so that neither a hyphen nor a â€Å"superhyphen† is required: â€Å"The Navy SEAL, who won a Medal of Honor, described the rescue.† 2. What made him leave his comfortable, high-paying position as head of an Asia Pacific-wide sales team? In this sentence, â€Å"high-paying† is correctly hyphenated to modify position, but is â€Å"Asia Pacific-wide† the correct style for the phrasal adjective modifying â€Å"sales team†? In the previous example, I stated that an en dash replaces a hyphen when one of the terms to be connected consists of more than one word. But there’s a complication here. â€Å"Asia-Pacific† is the label for a region of the world (though its parameters are imprecise). Because the hyphen comes along with the phrase, in this instance, the reference should be hyphenated as shown here: â€Å"What made him leave his comfortable, high-paying position as head of an Asia-Pacific-wide sales team?† 3. With a quarter billion dollar industry possible, there is a real possibility of supporting the community in a new manner. The phrase â€Å"quarter billion dollar industry† includes a phrasal adjective followed by a noun, so at least one hyphen is required. But the three words in the complex phrasal adjective â€Å"quarter billion dollar† should be connected: â€Å"With a quarter-billion-dollar industry possible, there is a real possibility of supporting the community in a new manner.† But what if the value is represented with a dollar sign and a numeral? The phrasal adjective â€Å"$250 million† is considered a single element, just like â€Å"Medal of Honor† in â€Å"Medal of Honor winner.† â€Å"Medal of Honor† requires no hyphenation, and neither does â€Å"$250 million†: â€Å"With a $250 million industry possible, there is a real possibility of supporting the community in a new manner.† On a related note, multi-million has a superfluous hyphen; it should be multimillion (which is never used in isolation- it’s always part of a phrasal adjective), so avoid constructions such as â€Å"multi-million dollar damages,† which erroneously refers to dollar damages of a multi-million nature, or â€Å"multi-million-dollar damages,† which correctly inserts a hyphen before dollar but retains the extraneous previous one. The correct treatment is â€Å"multimillion-dollar damages,† which correctly describes damages costing multiple millions of dollars to remedy. 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:Yours faithfully or Yours sincerely?Loan, Lend, Loaned, LentWords That Begin with Q

Writing An Essay Essay Sample Using Your Tent

Writing An Essay Essay Sample Using Your TentAn essay writing sample is a great help for a camping trip. When you travel, you need to learn to come up with ideas that you can carry with you on your journey. By using a camping essay sample, you will be able to provide the material that you need to support your ideas and thoughts while you are away from home. A camping essay sample will show you how to be an independent thinker when you are in the wilderness.In the present day, there are many people who will be looking for jobs. You will be able to see this in the work place as well. If you want to become an independent thinker, you must be able to think for yourself. In this way, you will be able to find yourself and make decisions that are based on your own personal opinions and choices. You will be able to do this while away from home, so that you will not have to depend on anyone else's opinion.There are many different ways that you can come up with some interesting ideas when you are out in the wilderness. However, you will be able to do this without ever getting out of your tent. There are things that you can do in order to come up with ideas on your own. By coming up with your own ideas, you will be able to understand that you do not have to rely on someone else to create your ideas.With this in mind, you will be able to come up with an essay sample on your own. You will be able to bring the writing down to paper and then show it to someone who is supposed to help you make an overall plan of action for yourself. In this way, you will not have to worry about how your ideas will affect the other people in your life.Writing an essay is something that takes a lot of hard work. While you are out in the wilderness, you may feel like you will never get the chance to sit down and write about something. You can change this because you can do this while you are camping. By using this camping essay sample, you will be able to come up with some very original ideas.You will not only be able to come up with good ideas, but you will also be able to edit them as well. You will be able to give each idea a number and also make sure that each idea is short and to the point. This will allow you to come up with ideas that will be able to reach the attention of the people who are watching the events of your trip.There are many things that you can do with an essay sample. They will help you get some good ideas that you can use in the work place. However, you will also be able to use them to come up with some very original ideas. The great thing about these essays is that they can be used as an outlet for you to express some ideas that you are not ready to talk about yet.