Re: O Level English : Mon Nov 26, 2012 1:03 am  

Rooster Booster wrote: The BBC suggest compound adjectives "normally" have hyphens between them. Not as essential as you claim. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learn ... v224.shtml They are essential. Like i is essential before e. The fact that there are specific and very limited exceptions only serves to prove the rule. As the popular saying confirms.

Rooster Booster wrote: The BBC suggest compound adjectives "normally" have hyphens between them. Not as essential as you claim. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learn ... v224.shtml They are essential. Like i is essential before e. The fact that there are specific and very limited exceptions only serves to prove the rule. As the popular saying confirms.

Re: O Level English : Mon Nov 26, 2012 4:49 am  

Kosh wrote:

Phonetically it's more like 'barth'. The same reason why some folk travel to work on the 'buzz'. Your regional variation, innit.

How then do people who come out of the barth not walk down the parth?

Re: O Level English : Mon Nov 26, 2012 7:23 am  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

They are essential. Like i is essential before e. The fact that there are specific and very limited exceptions only serves to prove the rule. As the popular saying confirms.

Let the BBC know then.

Re: O Level English : Mon Nov 26, 2012 8:24 am  

Kosh wrote:

Phonetically it's more like 'barth'. The same reason why some folk travel to work on the 'buzz'. Your regional variation, innit.

It's baff, as in 'gunnarav a baff'

Re: O Level English : Mon Nov 26, 2012 9:21 am  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

They are essential. Like i is essential before e. The fact that there are specific and very limited exceptions only serves to prove the rule. As the popular saying confirms.

According to this week's QI, there are actually more words in the English language that don't conform to the "I before E except after C" rule than there are that do conform to it. Which is weird.

Re: O Level English : Mon Nov 26, 2012 11:17 am  

tb wrote:

Compound adjective. The hyphen is essential.


(unless you're exclaiming in surprise at discovering some level English, of course. "O, level English!"

Or saying "He's got 8 O levels", in which case we are into compound noun territory.

Re: O Level English : Mon Nov 26, 2012 12:02 pm  

I see Billybop has not joined in his own debate

[tb]

Re: O Level English : Mon Nov 26, 2012 2:12 pm  

El Barbudo wrote:

Or saying "He's got 8 O levels", in which case we are into compound noun territory.

Adjetive and the noun it describes. No need for a hyphen (any more than you'd hyphenate 'he has five red balls'). Noun and adjective used together as an adjectival phrase, or compound adjective, requires a hyphen.

It's a very simple rule.

[tb]

Re: O Level English : Mon Nov 26, 2012 2:18 pm  

Anyway - the definitive guide to hyphenation from the last style guide wot I wrote.

Hyphens

Use hyphens to avoid ambiguity, eg cross-section, not cross section, we are not discussing its temper.

When the same two vowels appear together it helps pronunciation if they are hyphenated, eg co-operate not cooperate, re-enter not reenter.

Compound adjectives (ie, when a noun is used with a modifier to form a single description) should be hyphenated, eg, two-tier workforce, part-time worker (but someone works part time).

Nouns formed from a verb and preposition also take hyphens, eg: ‘there was a build-up of forces’, but ‘UNISON is going to build up its membership’.

Similarly, only hyphenate compass points and fractions if they make a compound adjective, eg south-east England, two-thirds full. Otherwise, it’s three quarters of us were happy to live in the north west.

An adverb and verb doesn’t take a hyphen, eg poorly paid workers, not poorly-paid workers, properly rewarded jobs, not properly-rewarded jobs (the technical reason is that it’s not a compound adjective but an adverbial phrase – as a rule of thumb: if there’s a y, there’s no hyphen).

Re: O Level English : Mon Nov 26, 2012 2:23 pm  

tb wrote:

Anyway - the definitive guide to hyphenation from the last style guide wot I wrote.

I knew there was a reason I took Wudwerk and not Inglish at skool