vice president

[Tan Elaine]

In the online Oxford Dictionaries, I find vice president written without a hyphen.

Do native speakers write the phrase with or without the hyphen?

Thanks.

 

[andrewg927]

Without.

 

[emsr2d2]

In BrE: vice-president.

Wikipedia confirms that this is the case when referring to a member of a government or to a business position.

 

[andrewg927]

So you say "vice-president Mike Pence" in BE? I have never seen that before.

 

[Rover_KE]

No - we give him the title by which he is known in the USA:

'Vice President Mike Pence will visit the UK in September'.

But we would probably report 'Mike Pence, the American vice-president, will visit the UK in September'.

 

[emsr2d2]

Yes, we would use the BrE hyphenated version when referring to British positions.

The vice-president of BritCo Ltd is coming to visit the local factory tomorrow.
Vice-President James Twonk, of BritCo Ltd, is coming to visit the local factory tomorrow.

We might well use the hyphenated version if we were talking about someone from a country where we don't know if the hyphenated version is used or not ("I have no idea who the vice-president of the Philippines is", for example). However, as Rover said, with an example like Mike Pence, we would know (or could easily find out) that the AmE style is "Vice President Mike Pence" so a writer would follow that style.

 

[andrewg927]

It was Rover, not Raymott. Give the guy a little credit.

 

[emsr2d2]

Fixed! Sorry, Rover!