Hyphens And Compound Adjectives
Hyphens And Compound Adjectives Education Take a noun, any noun, and stick two adjectives in front of it. Do you need to connect them with a hyphen? Or can you simply leave them alone? The answer is "depends." More accurately, it depends on what they're doing to the noun, and what they're doing to each other. The Formula for Hyphenating Two Adjectives I love algebra. And I love grammar. In many ways, grammar is the algebra of language, and algebra is the grammar of math. We can use an algebraically expressed formula for determining whether or not to use a hyphen. We use a hyphen when the following conditions are met: (AdjectiveA + AdjectiveB) describes Noun AND AdjectiveA describes AdjectiveB In words: We use a hyphen when two adjectives together describe a noun that follows, and when the first adjective describes the second. Example One: oven-baked flavor Let's put some real words in the formula, apply them in a sentence, and see how this works. AdjectiveA: Ov...