A
Anonymous
Guest
which would be the correct spelling?
At $10,000 the used car is definitely (a) overpriced, (b) over-priced, (c) over priced.
At $10,000 the used car is definitely (a) overpriced, (b) over-priced, (c) over priced.
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jennifer said:
Compounds come in three forms: 1. Open Compounds (over priced), 2. Hyphenated Compounds (over-priced), and 3. Solid Compounds (overpriced).
1. Use an Open Compound when the compound functions as a predicate adjective (i.e., when it follows a linking verb e.g., is, am, are, was, were) and when the second word in the compound is a past participle.
EX: The book is over priced.
=>over priced is a compound and the second word in the compound priced is a past participle, so a hyphen is not required.
2. Use a Hyphenated Compound when the compound functions as a modifier, like this,
EX: This is an over-priced book.
=>over-priced functions as an adjective. It modifies 'book'.
Source
3. Some writers will use the adjective overpriced, a Solid Compound, because it looks just like the verb overpriced, to overprice, overpricing.
In short, you need not use a hyphen with over priced. The reason being, its grammatical order is natural: it doesn't cause ambiguity.
EX: over (adverb) + priced (adjective). In English, adverb + adjective is the natural order. :wink:
All the best,
Francois said:The non-scientific Google finds 300K hits for overpriced and 140K for both "over priced" and "over-priced" together. In fact, Google suggests the former spelling when we search for "over priced"!
FRC
No doubt due to the 300K hits. :wink: :wink: That's how it calculates.
It looks really bad to me. I'm not a big fan of the hyphenated version either, but I can tell it is correct.
My point is, why not use a simple, single word to express that idea? English is a very dynamic language, and new words or verbs can be coined if they fill a gap. I can tell 'overpriced' comes from 'over' and 'priced', so I don't see the value of the hyphen (let alone the space) there if I can do away with it.
What do you mean, nobody cares?
FRC
My point is, why not use a simple, single word to express that idea? English is a very dynamic language, and new words or verbs can be coined if they fill a gap. I can tell 'overpriced' comes from 'over' and 'priced', so I don't see the value of the hyphen (let alone the space) there if I can do away with it.
What do you mean, nobody cares?
FRC
Francois said:I can tell 'overpriced' comes from 'over' and 'priced', so I don't see the value of the hyphen (let alone the space) there if I can do away with it.
What do you mean, nobody cares?
FRC
Well, the way it ivolves is as follows: over priced => over-priced => overpriced. The hyphen expresses close connection.
Check out this
Source. :shock:
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