Do you get confused whether to hyphenate or not? Kathy Rollinson posted a fabulous list of rules of hyphenation on her blog.
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TO HYPHENATE OR NOT TO HYPHENATE, THAT IS THE QUESTION BY K J ROLLINSON
Do you know the rules that govern hyphenated words? I didn’t know when I began writing, and I relied on my ‘instinct’ or a dictionary and online information to guide me. Gradually, I came aware that there are distinct rules.
I was dithering whether to put foot or feet – when I was describing my protagonist in my latest book ‘Where Lies My Heart’ – whether to put six feet tall or six foot tall. Evidently, it doesn’t matter whether you use foot or feet, BUT the rules change, dependent whether you use feet or foot.
When it functions as an adjective phrase before a noun you use the singular form and hyphenate it – six-foot-tall. If the description comes after a verb you don’t use hyphens and use the plural form – six feet tall.
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This is a common question that comes to mind for me, Michelle, so thank you for sharing and providing an answer! I have a feeling I’ll be relearning a lot once I return to school this fall. 🙂 ♥
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I know you’ll be really busy come fall, but I hope you check in once and awhile and let us know how you’re doing. Hugs.
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Oh, I will and I hope to still write and post but I really have no idea what I’m in for. 🙂 Thanks so much, Michelle! Hugs to you, too!
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🙂
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Thank you so much, your information is so great and much needed …! I’m writing my second book and still fight with this question.
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Don’t feel bad; we all do.
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Thanks for sharing this article, Michelle. There is some hard-to-find advice there that will make hyphens much easier to use! I always find useful information through you. 🙂
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Thanks, Norah. There are so many wonderful resources on blogs.
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Definitely! 🙂
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Many thanks for the reblog.
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My pleasure. It is a very useful post. I hope it brings more followers your way.
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Very helpful. Many thanks for sharing. Sometimes I swear I spend more time considering grammar than actually composing.
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You are not alone!
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I try to have the spell checkers help me with these. I usually am wrong. 😀
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I have a Word programme which helps. If I am in doubt, I join words together, ie proofreader – see it stays as one word (without a squiggly red line underneath it). My word ‘programme’ has a red line underneath it because I’m using the UK spelling, not the American spelling.
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I know what you mean. We really need to simplify grammar rules.
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I agree! 😊💗
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I agree, too. I know excellent grammar is important, if we are to raise the excellence of Indie authors, but I think too many rules make writing a minefield.
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Kathy, I could not agree more. I have my college English grammar book in front of me every day and I still make mistakes. I just try to do the best I can. I used to use the Grammarly Extension for Chrome and had to stop because our WordPress menu on the top right would not let me post and have the Grammarly icon in the general area. Now, I am winging it. Don’t count my errors. 😀 ❤
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