So just because you don’t find the hyphenated word in a dictionary, that doesn’t mean that you don’t hyphenate it. The problem here is that hyphenated words can be temporary spellings, hyphenated for the needs of a moment but not for every use. While it’s easy to determine whether closed and open compounds are spelled correctly-simply look them up in a current dictionary-the task is a bit harder when you’re faced with hyphenated compounds.
The right spellings can make manuscripts look good and help convey the correct meanings of our phrases.Ĭompound words can be open (separate words with spaces between them), closed (a single word, no spaces or hyphens), or hyphenated. The spelling of compound words is one of those not-so-sexy but majorly useful topics that writers should have a handle on. For a change of pace, read Chapter 1 of Swan Song, a comic novel.Augby Fiction Editor Beth Hill last modified August 15, 2015 And check out our books about the English language. Help support the Grammarphobia Blog with your donation. If you come across a compound that we haven’t mentioned, how can you tell whether the adjective and noun forms are hyphenated or one word? The easiest way is to check out the compound in an up-to-date dictionary. Some examples are “drop in,” “drive in,” “cave in,” “drop off,” “carry on,” “die off,” and usually “clean up.”
Many other compounds, for now at any rate, still follow the “check in”/“check-in” pattern-that is, the phrasal verb is two separate words but the adjective and noun are hyphenated. These include “break down,” “hold up,” “crack down,” “hand out,” “build up,” “back up,” “lay off,” “send off,” “send up” (to mock), and usually “close out.”
Many other compounds follow the “check out”/“checkout” pattern-the phrasal verb is two separate words but the adjective and noun are one. In 2019, we described the evolution of the verb “check out” as well as the noun and adjective “checkout.” The book illustrates this variability with the phrasal verbs “flare up” and “burn out.” Their equivalent adjectives and nouns are “flare-up” (hyphenated) and “burnout” (unhyphenated).īut as we wrote in 2009, the conventions of hyphenation change over time, and the tendency is for hyphens to disappear from familiar compounds.
#Follow up hyphen manual
“A phrasal verb is not hyphenated,” the manual says, “even though its equivalent noun or adjective might be.” The Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed.) gives “settle down,” “act up,” and “phase out” as examples.
#Follow up hyphen plus
The verbs involved here are phrasal verbs, which are usually defined as a verb plus an adverb. Nouns (hyphenated or one word): “Our check-in was easy and so was the checkout, even though we were walk-ins.” Verbs (no hyphens): “We’ll check in Friday and check out Monday, assuming they’ll let us walk in.”Īdjectives (hyphenated or one word): “The check-in clerk says checkout time is at noon, and they accept walk-in customers.” (Some dictionaries may follow the preferred spellings with lesser-used variants.)
#Follow up hyphen how to
Here’s our advice on how to write those terms, based on preferences given in the 10 standard dictionaries we regularly consult. But as adjectives and nouns, they’re either hyphenated or a single word. Are terms like “check in,” “check out,” and “walk in” hyphenated?Ī: When compounds like those are used as verbs, they’re generally two separate, unhyphenated words. Q: I am writing a standard operating procedure for my company (hotels) that describes, among other things, how employees should deal with “walk ins”- guests who “walk in” without a reservation.
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