>2-word compound modifiers and suspended hyphens





.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__bot-mid-leaderboard:empty{
margin-bottom:0;
}








2

















I have been taught that when creating compound modifiers, a hyphen (-) should be used if the compound consists of two words, while an en-dash (–) is used if the compound consists of three or more words:




I am Vancouver-based journalist.



You are a New York–based journalist.



She is a Rio de Janeiro–based journalist.




I have also been taught that when listing multiple compound modifiers that share a common base(?), one can use a suspended hyphen to avoid repetition:




He is a Canada-, US-, and Brazil-based journalist.




My question, finally, is how these two rules work together. Are the following sentences correct?




I am a New York– and Vancouver-based journalist.



You are a Vancouver- and New York–based journalist.



She is a Rio de Janeiro–, Vancouver-, and New York–based journalist.











share|improve this question






















  • 5





    Do you have a source you can cite for the rule you were taught about using an en dash in this situation?

    – JLG
    Mar 6 '17 at 18:38






  • 1





    I never heard of the en-dash used as a hyphen. It's a great idea to make that distinction, but not ready for prime time if others don't recognize what you are doing.

    – Yosef Baskin
    Mar 6 '17 at 20:00








  • 1





    FWIW, I've seen an en dash used instead of a hyphen when denoting a construct that has components, such as a "key-value pair". What is meant is a pair composed of a key and a value. Another example might be a "copy-paste operation", meaning copy plus paste. I don't have a reference for this, but I do think it can make things clearer.

    – Drew
    Mar 6 '17 at 20:33








  • 2





    I had never heard of the en-dash as a hyphen either until a google search revealed this source (see the bottom section on compound adjectives). Note the language "some writers," which along with these comments may indicate that this practice is not very common.

    – vpn
    Mar 6 '17 at 20:49




















2

















I have been taught that when creating compound modifiers, a hyphen (-) should be used if the compound consists of two words, while an en-dash (–) is used if the compound consists of three or more words:




I am Vancouver-based journalist.



You are a New York–based journalist.



She is a Rio de Janeiro–based journalist.




I have also been taught that when listing multiple compound modifiers that share a common base(?), one can use a suspended hyphen to avoid repetition:




He is a Canada-, US-, and Brazil-based journalist.




My question, finally, is how these two rules work together. Are the following sentences correct?




I am a New York– and Vancouver-based journalist.



You are a Vancouver- and New York–based journalist.



She is a Rio de Janeiro–, Vancouver-, and New York–based journalist.











share|improve this question






















  • 5





    Do you have a source you can cite for the rule you were taught about using an en dash in this situation?

    – JLG
    Mar 6 '17 at 18:38






  • 1





    I never heard of the en-dash used as a hyphen. It's a great idea to make that distinction, but not ready for prime time if others don't recognize what you are doing.

    – Yosef Baskin
    Mar 6 '17 at 20:00








  • 1





    FWIW, I've seen an en dash used instead of a hyphen when denoting a construct that has components, such as a "key-value pair". What is meant is a pair composed of a key and a value. Another example might be a "copy-paste operation", meaning copy plus paste. I don't have a reference for this, but I do think it can make things clearer.

    – Drew
    Mar 6 '17 at 20:33








  • 2





    I had never heard of the en-dash as a hyphen either until a google search revealed this source (see the bottom section on compound adjectives). Note the language "some writers," which along with these comments may indicate that this practice is not very common.

    – vpn
    Mar 6 '17 at 20:49
















2












2








2


1






I have been taught that when creating compound modifiers, a hyphen (-) should be used if the compound consists of two words, while an en-dash (–) is used if the compound consists of three or more words:




I am Vancouver-based journalist.



You are a New York–based journalist.



She is a Rio de Janeiro–based journalist.




I have also been taught that when listing multiple compound modifiers that share a common base(?), one can use a suspended hyphen to avoid repetition:




He is a Canada-, US-, and Brazil-based journalist.




My question, finally, is how these two rules work together. Are the following sentences correct?




I am a New York– and Vancouver-based journalist.



You are a Vancouver- and New York–based journalist.



She is a Rio de Janeiro–, Vancouver-, and New York–based journalist.











share|improve this question















I have been taught that when creating compound modifiers, a hyphen (-) should be used if the compound consists of two words, while an en-dash (–) is used if the compound consists of three or more words:




I am Vancouver-based journalist.



You are a New York–based journalist.



She is a Rio de Janeiro–based journalist.




I have also been taught that when listing multiple compound modifiers that share a common base(?), one can use a suspended hyphen to avoid repetition:




He is a Canada-, US-, and Brazil-based journalist.




My question, finally, is how these two rules work together. Are the following sentences correct?




I am a New York– and Vancouver-based journalist.



You are a Vancouver- and New York–based journalist.



She is a Rio de Janeiro–, Vancouver-, and New York–based journalist.








compound-adjectives suspended-hyphen






share|improve this question














share|improve this question











share|improve this question




share|improve this question










asked Mar 6 '17 at 18:07









allonewordalloneword

111 bronze badge




111 bronze badge











  • 5





    Do you have a source you can cite for the rule you were taught about using an en dash in this situation?

    – JLG
    Mar 6 '17 at 18:38






  • 1





    I never heard of the en-dash used as a hyphen. It's a great idea to make that distinction, but not ready for prime time if others don't recognize what you are doing.

    – Yosef Baskin
    Mar 6 '17 at 20:00








  • 1





    FWIW, I've seen an en dash used instead of a hyphen when denoting a construct that has components, such as a "key-value pair". What is meant is a pair composed of a key and a value. Another example might be a "copy-paste operation", meaning copy plus paste. I don't have a reference for this, but I do think it can make things clearer.

    – Drew
    Mar 6 '17 at 20:33








  • 2





    I had never heard of the en-dash as a hyphen either until a google search revealed this source (see the bottom section on compound adjectives). Note the language "some writers," which along with these comments may indicate that this practice is not very common.

    – vpn
    Mar 6 '17 at 20:49
















  • 5





    Do you have a source you can cite for the rule you were taught about using an en dash in this situation?

    – JLG
    Mar 6 '17 at 18:38






  • 1





    I never heard of the en-dash used as a hyphen. It's a great idea to make that distinction, but not ready for prime time if others don't recognize what you are doing.

    – Yosef Baskin
    Mar 6 '17 at 20:00








  • 1





    FWIW, I've seen an en dash used instead of a hyphen when denoting a construct that has components, such as a "key-value pair". What is meant is a pair composed of a key and a value. Another example might be a "copy-paste operation", meaning copy plus paste. I don't have a reference for this, but I do think it can make things clearer.

    – Drew
    Mar 6 '17 at 20:33








  • 2





    I had never heard of the en-dash as a hyphen either until a google search revealed this source (see the bottom section on compound adjectives). Note the language "some writers," which along with these comments may indicate that this practice is not very common.

    – vpn
    Mar 6 '17 at 20:49










5




5





Do you have a source you can cite for the rule you were taught about using an en dash in this situation?

– JLG
Mar 6 '17 at 18:38





Do you have a source you can cite for the rule you were taught about using an en dash in this situation?

– JLG
Mar 6 '17 at 18:38




1




1





I never heard of the en-dash used as a hyphen. It's a great idea to make that distinction, but not ready for prime time if others don't recognize what you are doing.

– Yosef Baskin
Mar 6 '17 at 20:00







I never heard of the en-dash used as a hyphen. It's a great idea to make that distinction, but not ready for prime time if others don't recognize what you are doing.

– Yosef Baskin
Mar 6 '17 at 20:00






1




1





FWIW, I've seen an en dash used instead of a hyphen when denoting a construct that has components, such as a "key-value pair". What is meant is a pair composed of a key and a value. Another example might be a "copy-paste operation", meaning copy plus paste. I don't have a reference for this, but I do think it can make things clearer.

– Drew
Mar 6 '17 at 20:33







FWIW, I've seen an en dash used instead of a hyphen when denoting a construct that has components, such as a "key-value pair". What is meant is a pair composed of a key and a value. Another example might be a "copy-paste operation", meaning copy plus paste. I don't have a reference for this, but I do think it can make things clearer.

– Drew
Mar 6 '17 at 20:33






2




2





I had never heard of the en-dash as a hyphen either until a google search revealed this source (see the bottom section on compound adjectives). Note the language "some writers," which along with these comments may indicate that this practice is not very common.

– vpn
Mar 6 '17 at 20:49







I had never heard of the en-dash as a hyphen either until a google search revealed this source (see the bottom section on compound adjectives). Note the language "some writers," which along with these comments may indicate that this practice is not very common.

– vpn
Mar 6 '17 at 20:49












1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















1


















You are, of course, correct in your usage of en-dashes to connect a prefix to a proper open compound (I'm surprised this is not more generally known). Your solution of mixing hyphen and en-dash is a good one; style manuals will vary on this (if they consider it at all). The U.S. Government Printing Office would have you write U.S. with the periods (U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual, Chapter 9 - Abbreviations and Letter Symbols).






share|improve this answer



























  • Welcome to EL&U. Note, this site is different from others: it's not a forum for opinions. Instead, an answer on EL&U is expected to be authoritative, detailed, and explain why it is correct. Can I suggest you edit your answer to provide evidence for your assertion about correctness? Does the USGPO provide guidance on the matter? See How to Answer for further guidance, and take the EL&U Tour. :-)

    – Chappo
    Dec 29 '18 at 23:26













Your Answer








StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "97"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});

function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"u003ecc by-sa 4.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});


}
});















draft saved

draft discarded
















StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f377003%2f2-word-compound-modifiers-and-suspended-hyphens%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown


























1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes








1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









1


















You are, of course, correct in your usage of en-dashes to connect a prefix to a proper open compound (I'm surprised this is not more generally known). Your solution of mixing hyphen and en-dash is a good one; style manuals will vary on this (if they consider it at all). The U.S. Government Printing Office would have you write U.S. with the periods (U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual, Chapter 9 - Abbreviations and Letter Symbols).






share|improve this answer



























  • Welcome to EL&U. Note, this site is different from others: it's not a forum for opinions. Instead, an answer on EL&U is expected to be authoritative, detailed, and explain why it is correct. Can I suggest you edit your answer to provide evidence for your assertion about correctness? Does the USGPO provide guidance on the matter? See How to Answer for further guidance, and take the EL&U Tour. :-)

    – Chappo
    Dec 29 '18 at 23:26
















1


















You are, of course, correct in your usage of en-dashes to connect a prefix to a proper open compound (I'm surprised this is not more generally known). Your solution of mixing hyphen and en-dash is a good one; style manuals will vary on this (if they consider it at all). The U.S. Government Printing Office would have you write U.S. with the periods (U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual, Chapter 9 - Abbreviations and Letter Symbols).






share|improve this answer



























  • Welcome to EL&U. Note, this site is different from others: it's not a forum for opinions. Instead, an answer on EL&U is expected to be authoritative, detailed, and explain why it is correct. Can I suggest you edit your answer to provide evidence for your assertion about correctness? Does the USGPO provide guidance on the matter? See How to Answer for further guidance, and take the EL&U Tour. :-)

    – Chappo
    Dec 29 '18 at 23:26














1














1










1









You are, of course, correct in your usage of en-dashes to connect a prefix to a proper open compound (I'm surprised this is not more generally known). Your solution of mixing hyphen and en-dash is a good one; style manuals will vary on this (if they consider it at all). The U.S. Government Printing Office would have you write U.S. with the periods (U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual, Chapter 9 - Abbreviations and Letter Symbols).






share|improve this answer














You are, of course, correct in your usage of en-dashes to connect a prefix to a proper open compound (I'm surprised this is not more generally known). Your solution of mixing hyphen and en-dash is a good one; style manuals will vary on this (if they consider it at all). The U.S. Government Printing Office would have you write U.S. with the periods (U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual, Chapter 9 - Abbreviations and Letter Symbols).







share|improve this answer













share|improve this answer




share|improve this answer










answered Dec 29 '18 at 22:49









new_but_oldnew_but_old

111 bronze badge




111 bronze badge
















  • Welcome to EL&U. Note, this site is different from others: it's not a forum for opinions. Instead, an answer on EL&U is expected to be authoritative, detailed, and explain why it is correct. Can I suggest you edit your answer to provide evidence for your assertion about correctness? Does the USGPO provide guidance on the matter? See How to Answer for further guidance, and take the EL&U Tour. :-)

    – Chappo
    Dec 29 '18 at 23:26



















  • Welcome to EL&U. Note, this site is different from others: it's not a forum for opinions. Instead, an answer on EL&U is expected to be authoritative, detailed, and explain why it is correct. Can I suggest you edit your answer to provide evidence for your assertion about correctness? Does the USGPO provide guidance on the matter? See How to Answer for further guidance, and take the EL&U Tour. :-)

    – Chappo
    Dec 29 '18 at 23:26

















Welcome to EL&U. Note, this site is different from others: it's not a forum for opinions. Instead, an answer on EL&U is expected to be authoritative, detailed, and explain why it is correct. Can I suggest you edit your answer to provide evidence for your assertion about correctness? Does the USGPO provide guidance on the matter? See How to Answer for further guidance, and take the EL&U Tour. :-)

– Chappo
Dec 29 '18 at 23:26





Welcome to EL&U. Note, this site is different from others: it's not a forum for opinions. Instead, an answer on EL&U is expected to be authoritative, detailed, and explain why it is correct. Can I suggest you edit your answer to provide evidence for your assertion about correctness? Does the USGPO provide guidance on the matter? See How to Answer for further guidance, and take the EL&U Tour. :-)

– Chappo
Dec 29 '18 at 23:26



















draft saved

draft discarded



















































Thanks for contributing an answer to English Language & Usage Stack Exchange!


  • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

But avoid



  • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

  • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




draft saved


draft discarded














StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f377003%2f2-word-compound-modifiers-and-suspended-hyphens%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown





















































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown

































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown









Popular posts from this blog

He _____ here since 1970 . Answer needed [closed]What does “since he was so high” mean?Meaning of “catch birds for”?How do I ensure “since” takes the meaning I want?“Who cares here” meaningWhat does “right round toward” mean?the time tense (had now been detected)What does the phrase “ring around the roses” mean here?Correct usage of “visited upon”Meaning of “foiled rail sabotage bid”It was the third time I had gone to Rome or It is the third time I had been to Rome

Bunad

Færeyskur hestur Heimild | Tengill | Tilvísanir | LeiðsagnarvalRossið - síða um færeyska hrossið á færeyskuGott ár hjá færeyska hestinum