Compound Adjectives

[EML67]

I am currently checking the grammar of a friend's website and am finding it quite tricky when dealing with compound adjectives. Specifically, I would like to know when to use hyphens and when to put a comma betweeen compound words. Could you please tell me if I have got the following phrases correct?

1. It is similar to the ever-popular Ford Focus.

2. As with all dual-action machine polishers...

3. Manufacturers have started using super-hard, scratch-resistant clear coats. (comma between compound words?)

4. It features state-of-the-art technology.

5. It uses the highest-grade paint available.

6. The aim is for a high-gloss finish .

7. This is a professional-strength product...

8. It is designed for darker coloured cars. (no hyphen?)

9. This environmentally friendly product. (no hyphen?)

Thanks :up:

 

[riverkid]

I'd say that there is a strong trend is to get rid of hyphens.

 

[EML67]

Thanks for the reply.

I thought hyphens were important in formal writing, therefore should not be omitted?

 

[louhevly]

Thanks for the reply.

I thought hyphens were important in formal writing, therefore should not be omitted?

See: The Hyphen

 

[EML67]

See: The Hyphen

Thank you for that webpage.

This quote from the above page states...

"Now here is something important: it is usually essential to hyphenate compound modifiers."

....and the examples it gives, lead me to think that I am correct in using the hyphen in my examples.

I hope so anyway!! :up:

 

[louhevly]

Thank you for that webpage.

This quote from the above page states...

"Now here is something important: it is usually essential to hyphenate compound modifiers."

....and the examples it gives, lead me to think that I am correct in using the hyphen in my examples.

I hope so anyway!! :up:

I think all your examples are correct.

 

[riverkid]

Thousands of hyphens perish as English marches on

By Simon Rabinovitch

LONDON (Reuters) - About 16,000 words have succumbed to pressures of the Internet age and lost their hyphens in a new edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.

Bumble-bee is now bumblebee, ice-cream is ice cream and pot-belly is pot belly.

And if you've got a problem, don't be such a crybaby (formerly cry-baby).

The hyphen has been squeezed as informal ways of communicating, honed in text messages and emails, spread on Web sites and seep into newspapers and books.

"People are not confident about using hyphens anymore, they're not really sure what they are for," said Angus Stevenson, editor of the Shorter OED, the sixth edition of which was published this week.

Thousands of hyphens perish as English marches on | Oddly Enough | Reuters

This must be a BrE thing because those examples look really clunky. They have been gone forever in CdE and I'm quite sure in AmE too.