RE: Hyphen in "must have" in the predicate?

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

Jan Axelson wrote:
 
> Punctuation experts,
> 
> Leaving aside whether there are better ways to say it, which is
> preferable:
> 
> This book is a must have for anyone...
> 
> This book is a must-have for anyone...

The latter. Rearrange a bit, supplying the implied object, to see why. 

"This is a must-have book" is good. "This is a must have book" is not so good. 

"Must-have" is a compound adjective modifying "book." The hyphen makes that clear. Without it, it's difficult to parse the sentence. 

HTH!

Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-903-6372
------






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