Re: hyphenated word grammar question

Subject: Re: hyphenated word grammar question
From: "Michael West" <mbwest -at- bigpond -dot- net -dot- au>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 22:49:08 +1000


Marie asks:
> I'm am thinking that unless it is part of a registered
> trademark, the three correct spellings are trade-in,
> Trade-in, and trade-ins. Does anyone have any
> information to the contrary?


Marie, you could draw the following conclusions
from Dick Margulis's response -- and if you did, you
would be correct. And the really cool thing is that you
can apply these guidelines to hundreds -- nay, thousands --
of other English words, and *still* be correct.

1. Trade-in is not a word. It is two words.

2. The hyphen is used to connect them when
they are used as a compound modifier -- as in
"trade-in value".

3. The hyphen is used to connect them when
they are used as a compound noun -- as in
"other trade-ins".

4. The hyphen is *not* used to connect them when
they are used as a verb-preposition combo -- as in
"Trade in your pencil stub".

The other cool thing is that if you forget these guidelines
(and most of us do sometimes) you can look them|
up in any basic grammar handbook.

So now go tell those silly interface coders a thing or two.
They'll ignore you anyway.

--
Mike West
Melbourne


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References:
hyphenated word grammar question: From: Marie Parker

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