Hyphen Workshop

pontios

Well-known member
Nickel made the suggestion, and I took it seriously (as nickel is a person who says what he means, and means what he says).:)

To be honest, I haven't paid any attention to hyphen rules or conventions (presuming they exist) regarding compound words, so I often don't know which need to be hyphenated and which should be left separated or even, in the extreme case, brought together to form a single word (the Germans have mastered this).

I just came across this suggestion (if not rule) - "if you do not find a particular verb in the dictionary, hyphenate it", which is a rule I've probably subconsciously and unknowingly resorted to in the past (whenever I bothered to, that is).

So, in my blissful ignorance, I haven't really made a point of learning any rules (as I didn't bother about it, in all honesty).

palm-sized is an obvious one to hyphenate; it makes sense to, anyway. I note that it's a compound word that serves as an adjective (note to self).
side cutters is a tool with a side-cutting action (which is an adjective, so I've presumed hyphens come into play here) but, as nickel has pointed out (in another thread), it can also be found as a single word, sidecutters.

Please feel free to post any queries in this thread and/or provide examples to discuss.

My first query

Query 1

Chain link (as in chain link fence).
Do we hyphenate it, leave it separate or unite it into a single compound word?
Is it clear-cut?
 

pontios

Well-known member
Query 2

Is Ioannina a city in north west Greece, north-west Greece or northwest Greece?
 

daeman

Administrator
Staff member
...
OED:
north-west, adv., n., and a. (nɔːθˈwɛst)

[f. north and west: cf. MDu. noortwest (Du. noord-), OHG. nord-, northuuest, G. nordwest, Da. and Sw. nordvest; also F. nordouest (†north-, nort-, nor-), Sp. nordovest, norueste, Pg. noroeste.
OE. had also norðanwestan, from the north-west.]



Wikipedia:

Northwest is a compass direction.

Northwest or north-west or north west may also refer to:
...
North West England, region
North-West (European Parliament constituency), in the Republic of Ireland
Copenhagen North West, a part of Copenhagen, Denmark

...
Northwest Territories, Canadian territory
North-West Territory, historical administrative region of the Hudson's Bay Company


All articles with "Northwest" (or a variant) in the title

Northwest or north west is the ordinal direction halfway between north and west on a compass. It is the opposite of southeast. Northwest corresponds to an azimuth or bearing of 315 degrees.
...
...
Δε μπορώ, μανούλα μ', δε μπορώ, άι σύρε να φέρεις το μαϊστρό... :whistle:

Απ' όπου φυσάει ο άνεμος, ο μαΐστρος, το μαϊστράλι. Εμένα μου 'ρχεται North by Northwest:

 

pontios

Well-known member
Thank you, daeman.
So Ioannina is a city in north-west Greece!

Should northwest and north west therefore (strictly speaking) be reserved for the ordinal direction halfway between north and west on a compass?
 

nickel

Administrator
Staff member
I need to find a good web page containing the rules of hyphenation with the kind of emphasis I like. There was a good link once in one of these pages, but the pages grow in number and I grow in years and the two do not work well together.

Quick solutions then:
chain link (nice compound noun, does not need a hyphen, does not look good as one word). But, when used as an adjective, it is better to write "chain-link fence". It is not necessary because one easily understands it is a fence using chain links and not a link fence using chains. Careless writers omit this kind of hyphen as a rule. Careful writers add it as a rule.

north west Greece, north-west Greece or northwest Greece?

The hyphen is the safe solution in all such combinations. Dropping the hyphen in favour of one word is the modern tendency.
Write north-west even for the noun:
he pointed to the north-west | the north-west of London
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/north--west?q=northwest

North West is a province of South Africa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_West_(South_African_province)

Α, ωραία, πρόλαβε ο σύντεκνος...
 

pontios

Well-known member
Καλημέρα.

Το "half listen" χρειάζεται ενωτικό σημείο;
.. και τι γίνεται με το "half listening";

edit (from the exclamation thread) ...maybe i should have referred to myself as a possessive-apostrophe swinger?
 

pontios

Well-known member
Thanks, nickel.
From what I've half gathered, you can have a half-listening audience; i.e., one which is half listening. :huh:
 

pontios

Well-known member
Which one gets the nod?

a. It was midsummer.
b It was mid-summer.
c. It was mid summer.

Thanks.
 

nickel

Administrator
Staff member
LOL. I suppose they all get the nod, but let's say that "It was midsummer" also gets the wink.
 

pontios

Well-known member
Καλημέρα και καλή εβδομάδα.

Do all the following require hyphens?
(οι σχολές σκέψης βρίσκονται στα μαχαίρια; )

no one
a shoddily built house
early morning chill or early morning coffee
a bi monthly twenty four hour leave
a two hour concert
a half hour recital
a six year old boy
migrant centre staff
a late evening rehearsal
 

nickel

Administrator
Staff member
Hi!

I'd say:

no one
a shoddily built house
early morning chill or early morning coffee (A hyphen might be considered too much, though it would help.)
a bi-monthly twenty-four-hour leave > a bimonthly 24-hour leave
a two-hour concert
a half-hour recital
a six-year-old boy
migrant centre staff (Again: usually avoided, though it would help)
a late evening rehearsal (A hyphen would help)

Very much depends on the style. In an academic book I would use all the hyphens necessary, even at the risk of appearing pedantic. In a novel I might avoid the obvious ones. Not the ones I have used above, though, whether obvious or not.
 

pontios

Well-known member
Thank you, nickel.

You've explained it well (when/where hyphens are needed), and I think it's finally sinking in.
 

nickel

Administrator
Staff member
Ενωτικά για ακραίες χρήσεις:

short- to mid-term = βραχυμεσοπρόθεσμα
short- to mid- and long-term = βραχυμεσομακροπρόθεσμα
 
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