COMPOUND ADJECTIVES For many writers, the most difficult aspect of hyphenation occurs when nouns are premodified by two or more words (modifiers) that function as a single "compound adjective" before the noun. An added problem is that most of these compounds are not usually hyphenated when they occur after a noun. As a rule of thumb, a hyphen is likely to be needed when a noun compound consists of more than two nouns. American English tends to apply this rule far less than British English. Americans omit hyphens as much as possible, unless leaving out the hyphen could otherwise lead to possible misunderstanding.   Premodifies another noun   Noun compound alone Credit—card debt (Hyphenated)   Avoid overusing your credit card Ø. (No hyphen) Credit card debt (Not hyphenated also ok in the USA)   In general, English hyphenates the compound modifier when it appears before a noun in order to prevent any ambiguity. For example, is 'a small business loan' a loan which is small (small business loan) or a loan meant for small businesses (small-business loan)? Only the use of a hyphen can clarify the intended meaning. Further examples are given below. HYPHENATED NOT HYPHENATED A man-eating shark (a carnivorous fish) a man eating shark (a carnivorous male human) New age-discrimination rules (new rules regarding discrimination according to age) New-age discrimination rules (rules about discriminating against the philosophy of the New Age movement ) Let's now explore seven forms that compound adjectives can take when premodifying a noun.

Finnish Virtual University / © 2004 Pennington