[Grammar] Hyphen for compound adjective

[uktous]

Hi,

Question:
Which sentences are correct?


Sentence1:
I am a fast learning and self motivated person.
Sentence2:
I am a fast-learning and self-motivated person.

Sentence3:
I am fast learning and self motivated.
Sentence4:
I am fast-learning and self-motivated.

Sentence5:
I have good team working and problem solving skills.
Sentence6:
I have good team-working and problem-solving skills.




Thanks

 

[mayita1usa]

Question:
Which sentences are correct?

Sentence1:
I am a fast learning and self motivated person.
Sentence2:
I am a fast-learning and self-motivated person.

Sentence3:
I am fast learning and self motivated.
Sentence4:
I am fast-learning and self-motivated.

Sentence5:
I have good team working and problem solving skills.
Sentence6:
I have good team-working and problem-solving skills.

These are easy:
Sentence2: I am a fast-learning and self-motivated person.
Sentence4: I am fast-learning and self-motivated.

The last one is difficult because teamwork is usually written as a noun without a hyphen, and I've never heard it used in adjective form (although anything is possible!). I would probably rewrite to say:

Sentence6: I have good skills in problem-solving and teamwork.

I'm interested to see what others have to say.

 

[bertietheblue]

These are easy:
Sentence2: I am a fast-learning and self-motivated person.
Sentence4: I am fast-learning and self-motivated.

The last one is difficult because teamwork is usually written as a noun without a hyphen, and I've never heard it used in adjective form (although anything is possible!). I would probably rewrite to say:

Sentence6: I have good skills in problem-solving and teamwork.

I'm interested to see what others have to say.

I don't like sentence 2 ('I am a ... person') - sentence 4 instead

And a space, not a hyphen, in 'problem solving':
Problem solving - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Actually, I'd probably be more likely to say:

'I have excellent problem-solving and teamwork skills.'

Note preference for hyphen here since it is used adjectivally.

Also note 'excellent' - I wouldn't say 'good', especially if applying for a job, because if I was only 'good' at these skills, it wouldn't be worth mentioning. I'd want to stand out, even if that meant overstating my skills a bit.

 

[mayita1usa]

And a space, not a hyphen, in 'problem solving':
Problem solving - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

'I have excellent problem-solving and teamwork skills.'

Note preference for hyphen here since it is used adjectivally.

Yes, I forgot to remove the hyphen when I switched the sentence around to make it a noun.
(FYI, in our district students are discouraged from using Wikipedia as an authoritative source, due to its changeable wiki nature...)

 

[bertietheblue]

Yes, I forgot to remove the hyphen when I switched the sentence around to make it a noun.
(FYI, in our district students are discouraged from using Wikipedia as an authoritative source, due to its changeable wiki nature...)

Wiki ain't the Word but it's conveniently located on page 1 of just about every google search!;-)

 

[uktous]

Hi,

If I write "problem solving skills", will people misread as

"problem solving-skills." ????



in this case, it is misread as

adjective = problem
noun = solving skills


Thanks

 

[bertietheblue]

Hi,

If I write "problem solving skills", will people misread as

"problem solving-skills." ????



in this case, it is misread as

adjective = problem
noun = solving skills


Thanks

No, they wouldn't. Either, or is in fact OK in my opinion since it is not ambiguous. It's more when you use an [adjective-noun]/[adjective-adjective] as an adjectival compound that I think - but don't quote me since I haven't considered this in depth yet - you'd be likely to use a hyphen to be clear which adjective/noun the adjective is defining, but even here, if there's no ambiguity the hyphen is usually optional. Consider:

long-term loan v long term loan - ever heard of a 'term loan'? Not me - either, or

part-time job v part time job - ever heard of a 'time job'? Not me - either, or

There might be a preference for a hyphen but what I'm saying is it is generally not obligatory if the sense is clear. However, I'm afraid of oversimplifying because hyphen use with compound adjectives is not a straightforward matter - there are, for example, cases where a hyphen is always used even if the sense is clear, often partly as a matter of convention. I'll come back to this later because I'm in a rush right now. In the meantime, I'll leave it to others to expand on or clarify, or indeed correct, what I have written.