12 November 2013

Hyphenate compound modifiers before nouns

In British English, all compound adjectives should be hyphenated.

Example: 

a well-written article
nitrogen-fixing bacteria


In American English, it's not as important unless there is a loss of meaning without a hyphen.

Example:

a small-appliance company (company that sells small appliances)
a small appliance company (small company that sells appliances)


If it's not before a noun, it usually isn't hyphenated.

Example:

The advanced-physics teacher teaches advanced physics.

The text was very well written.


This website is quite useful.

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