Hyphens in Compound Adjectives

Clifton writes:
I am in charge of a state music event and need to post directional signs in the building to indicate where a room is located. There is a question on the correct way to do this. The questions deal with whether to use a hyphen or not. Is it Warm-up Room or Warm up Room AND; is it Sight-reading Room or is it Sight reading Room? I believe you use the hyphen, because it is a compound adjective that modifies the word “room”. However, sometimes in letters we refer to the room as a noun (for example, students will go to warm-up/warm up; or students will travel to sight-reading/sight reading). At other times it is referred to as the verb (such as your students will warm-up/warm up; or you band needs to sight-read/sight read)

I need to know in each instance (compound adjective, noun, and verb) whether to use the hyphen to make it one word or not use the hyphen and leave it as two words.

You're right—with compound adjectives, we need hyphens. But of course, in English it's never simple.

A compound adjective has two or more words acting as a single modifier—for example, a warm-up room. It's not an up room that is also warm, so the hyphen tells us to read the two words as one. The same is true of sight-reading room.

But when the same term appears on the other side of the verb, or without a noun to modify, we drop the hyphen:
She went into the warm-up room to warm up.
He went to the sight-reading room to do some sight reading.
In these examples, "warm up" and "sight reading" aren't adjectives, so we don't need hyphens.

Here are some other examples:
Clifton is a well-educated man. (He's not healthy and educated; he's been educated well.)
Clifton is well educated. (Now "well educated" modifies Clifton, on the other side of the verb.)
Clifton drives a high-powered car.
Clifton's car is high powered.

We have one exception for the compound adjective. If part of the compound is an adverb that ends in -ly, we don't use a hyphen:
They are a happily married couple.
She is a truly talented poet.

Comments

[Tar]

Are my sentences correct gramatically ?

You have a responsibility as a student to succeed in your study.

or
It is your responsibility as a student to succeed in your studies.

[Crawford Kilian]

Your sentences are grammatically correct, Tar. But I suggest a couple of changes in style and usage.

First, usage. When we talk about the courses that students take, we can say "your studies." "Studies" here means everything that students are learning.

We use "study" to mean a single research project: "We are doing a study on the tourism industry." "He took part in a study on American health problems."

Second, style. I also suggest not using "It" or "There" to begin a sentence. Neither word adds anything useful in most cases.

Consider: "It is your responsibility to" (5 words) and "You are responsible to" (4 words).

"There are ten courses that you must take" (8 words) and "You must take ten courses" (5 words).

I think you'll agree that the shorter versions are easier to understand.

[Aleksey Gureev]

Hi, first of all, the blog is perfect and I barely can tear myself off it. I need to tell beforehand that English isn't my native language. My feelings may be way to different from these of native speakers, but to me the following two sentences have slightly different color and emphasis.

1. You responsibility is to ...
2. It's your responsibility to ...

#1 gives little emotional information providing bare facts about what responsibility includes, whereas #2 puts the stress on who is responsible. It even creates a feeling that the listener didn't understand or forgot his responsibilities and they were reminded to him.

Perhaps, it's my imagination though... :)

Thanks for your useful blog!

[Crawford Kilian]

Hi, Aleksey--

Thanks for your comment. I tell my students that in English, readers tend to pay the most attention at the beginning and end of a sentence...and the beginning and end of a paragraph. I call these places "hot spots."

Readers usually react most strongly to the words they find in the hot spots. They understand everything else in the sentence or paragraph, but without as much feeling.

In the examples, "Your responsibility" is a hot spot with YOU right at the beginning. That makes us pay attention.

"It is your responsibility," however, puts a dull word, "It," in the hot spot. "Your" and "responsibility" are buried in the middle. Yes, this sentence sounds more formal—but the first version will usually have more impact.

I hope you visit often. Send me some questions!

[Aleksey Gureev]

Aha! Now I think I started to understand the background behind the inversion. Litle did I know about such nuances.

To be completely honest, I still believe that "it was he who broke the vase" is more appropriate sometimes than low fat "he broke the vase". Do you agree? :)

I'm sorry if I appeared impolite to you. My critical thinking leads me. :)

Thanks!

[safwen]

I would like to know when using past participle construction in compound adjectives?

example:
blue-eyed girl why not blue eye girl ??

Is there a rule ??

Thanks