Page 102 - Perfect English Grammar: The Indispensable Guide to Excellent Writing and Speaking

■ ■ ■
firehouse fire-sale/fire sale fire truck firewall Compounds made with two
or more nouns are far more likely to be closed. In many cases, the first noun

of a compound began as an attributive noun, which acts like an adjective in
describing the second noun of the pair.

■ ■ ■ daybed houseboat toothpaste If the compound is made out of an adjective
and a noun, it is unlikely to be hyphenated.

■ ■ ■ middle class full moon black eye If the last word in the compound is

obviously derived from a verb, and refers to a person who does a specific

type of thing, then you can often use a hyphen, especially if the word is not
very common.

■ ■ ■ fire-breather fire-walker fire-watcher If any of the words in the compound

are the -ing form of a verb, it is likely to be an open compound.

■ ■ ■ driving school dry cleaning swimming pool This is one of those rare cases
where you may be able to trust your spellchecker (spell-checker?), because at
least it will be consistent and not out on the forefront of closing compounds

and eliminating hyphens. Also, as you read more, you’ll begin to absorb

which is correct for which words.
The widespread decrease of hyphenation is unfortunate, as it is very much

needed in some modifying compounds. For example, the difference between
■these two is made clearer: Good: new hat-seller = The person who sells

hats is new to the job.
■ Good: new-hat seller = The person sells new hats.

■ Bad: new hat seller = More context is needed to understand the exact

meaning.

These are not academic distinctions, either, but widespread difficulties caused by
the absence of hyphenation. Take this wording from a box of plastic bags my

wife and I found in the store: 30 gallon bags Because there was no
hyphenation, there was a chance we could be confused. We didn’t know which