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What are they?

What are they?. Much like compound nouns: they combine two words to create a new term . Bright + lit + streets  Brightly-lit streets The hyphenate designates that the two words work as a unit. [Brightly-lit] streets. Why does this matter?. Building them.

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What are they?

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  1. What are they? • Much like compound nouns: they combine two words to create a new term. • Bright + lit + streets  Brightly-lit streets • The hyphenate designates that the two words work as a unit. [Brightly-lit] streets. • Why does this matter?

  2. Building them • Plenty of construction patterns. Some common ones: • Adjective+noun • Fifteen-minute presentation. • Adjective/Adverb + past participle • Good-looking actor. • Well-done steak. • Adjective-and-adjective • Black-and-blue mark.

  3. Exceptions • The hyphens eliminate ambiguity. When ambiguity is unlikely, hyphens are unneeded: • Usually, there is no need to link an adverb to an adjective using a hyphen. • Young Tracey is an extremely brave girl. • The adverb 'extremely' modifies the adjective 'brave' but is not part of it. • Well-done is one of the corner cases.

  4. A Years-old Problem: • Punctuating “years old.” • Simple rule: only hyphenate a phrase like “X years old” when it is modifying a noun, or being used itself as a noun.

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