{"id":252,"date":"2014-06-29T12:57:40","date_gmt":"2014-06-29T12:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kenmageeauthor.com\/?page_id=252"},"modified":"2014-08-27T16:04:48","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T16:04:48","slug":"compound-words","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.kenmageeauthor.com\/?page_id=252","title":{"rendered":"Compound Words"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"post-title entry-title\">When my editor\/proofer returned my manuscript of my first book,\u00a0Dark Tidings, I was surprised to see so many corrections to, what I discovered later are referred to as, compound words. Apparently I had adopted a very &#8216;relaxed&#8217; style, which meant I had spelt words in the way I felt made it easiest for the reader. I actually liked the style, but my publisher wanted formal spelling rules to be followed. \u00a0This was quite traumatic because it meant I had stop writing the sequel so I could\u00a0check all the compound words in Dark Tidings. I needed to research the subject first, and learn the rules.<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-title entry-title\">Compound words can be used as nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs and can be spelled as one word, two words, or hyphenated. So in essence there are three forms\u00a0of compound words:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>closed form<\/b> &#8211;\u00a0words are simply melded together e.g. corkscrew<\/li>\n<li><b>open form <\/b>&#8211;\u00a0words are separated by a space (so it&#8217;s not really a compound word) e.g. full moon<\/li>\n<li><b>hyphenated form<\/b>\u00a0&#8211; words are separated by a hyphen or hyphens e.g.\u00a0six-pack, son-in-law.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"post-title entry-title\">I discovered that there are twenty-one (numbers are always hyphenated) rules of thumb (that&#8217;s how you pluralise an open form compound word) to determine which form the compound word will take. Of course, because we&#8217;re talking about English so there are loads of exceptions and sub-rules and just to complicate things a little e.g.\u00a0it sometimes depends on how the word is used and where it appears in the sentence.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div id=\"post-body-7865820384221043199\" class=\"post-body entry-content\">\n<p>For general rules, I found it was easiest to look at word types.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Adjectives (modifiers)<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Hyphenate two adjectives united to modify a noun, except when the modifier comes after the noun e.g.\u00a0curtains which are fire resistant are called fire-resistant curtains.<\/p>\n<p>Having said that, there is a convention to use open compounds for words which are deemed\u00a0to form perpetual concepts e.g.\u00a0an ice cream cone.<\/p>\n<h3>Adverbs<\/h3>\n<p>Don&#8217;t hyphenate &#8216;-ly&#8217; words to the verbs they modify e.g. a brightly coloured shirt. Hyphenate other adverbs to their verb e.g. my best-kept secret (although compounds with the words &#8216;least&#8217;, &#8216;less&#8217;, &#8216;most&#8217; and &#8216;more&#8217; are exceptions, so are not hyphenated).<\/p>\n<h3>Nouns<\/h3>\n<p>Nouns usually adopt the closed form e.g. blackboard, fingerprint if the word is well accepted. However, some words you&#8217;d expect to be &#8216;accepted&#8217; aren&#8217;t so they take the open\u00a0form e.g. body blow. Compounds which\u00a0can be used as verbs and nouns differ in that the verbs\u00a0are usually\u00a0hyphenated while the nouns aren&#8217;t e.g. we&#8217;ll need to \u00a0jump-start the\u00a0car, because the car needs\u00a0a jump start. Another example is fast track. We fast-tracked the project, but the project is\u00a0on the fast track.<\/p>\n<h3>Verbs<\/h3>\n<p>Compound verbs are generally hyphenated e.g. stir-fry, kick-start, although where the verb is well accepted it can adopt the closed form e.g. to sleepwalk.<\/p>\n<h3>Multi-word Compounds<\/h3>\n<p>Multi-word compounds always include hyphens e.g. right-of-way, up-to-date. Always? You&#8217;re right, that would be too simple. Common expressions which do not appear in the dictionary don&#8217;t have hyphens e.g. head to toe, unless they are being used as modifiers e.g. a head-to-toe inspection.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>That was five of the rules sorted (more or less), only sixteen more to go. As you can imagine, it took me a while to feel I had a proper handle on the &#8216;basics&#8217; but with a bit of time and effort I made it. So now, with handle firmly grasped,\u00a0I can write my books\u00a0without the worry of revisiting (<i>not re-visiting<\/i>) the whole text later. A word of warning though, have a good dictionary to hand at all times because the rules don&#8217;t always give you the right answer.<\/p>\n<p>I hope this post has convinced you that you should add compound words to your <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">checklist<\/span>\u00a0of things to look out for when you <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">proofread<\/span>\u00a0your finished\u00a0text, or at least make sure you\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">spot-check<\/span>\u00a0a good number of them on the way through. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>Out of interest, do you think\u00a0the compound words in this paragraph are\u00a0right or wrong?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I try and keep these three examples in my head:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>it&#8217;s just\u00a0<strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">common sense<\/span><\/strong> to adopt a\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>common-sense<\/strong><\/span> approach (<em>the spelling depends on whether the word is\u00a0being used as a noun or an adjective<\/em>)<\/li>\n<li>a PC used for <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>word processing<\/strong><\/span> will usually run a <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>word-processing<\/strong><\/span> package\u00a0(<em>the spelling depends on whether the word\u00a0being used as a verb\u00a0or an adjective<\/em>)<\/li>\n<li>he gave me on the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>rundown<\/strong> <\/span>on the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>run-down<\/strong><\/span> Victorian house (<em>the hyphen changes the meaning of the word<\/em>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>They remind me that compound words are tricky. So if I&#8217;m not confident after I&#8217;ve written one, I look it up in the Oxford English Dictionary. And, before you ask, this post relates to UK English. The US English rules are similar although there are some subtle differences.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s my confession, what about you? What type of words do you always struggle to spell?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When my editor\/proofer returned my manuscript of my first book,\u00a0Dark Tidings, I was surprised to see so many corrections to, what I discovered later are referred to as, compound words. Apparently I had adopted a very &#8216;relaxed&#8217; style, which meant I had spelt words in the way I felt made it easiest for the reader. 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