Pimp my English | Hyphenating adjectives

By Anna Malczyk

In this lesson, we’re going to learn when to hyphenate compound adjectives.

Here’s a final funny example:

He is a small business owner. (This means he is “a small and business owner” – in other words, you’re calling him short!)
He is a small-business owner. (This is correct if you’re trying to say that he is the owner of a “small business”.)

Don’t be scared by these terms – in five minutes time, you’ll understand them and be able to use them confidently!

Simple and compound adjectives
First of all, you know that an adjective is a “describing word” – it gives us more information about something. For example, a dog can be “old”, “playful”, “brown” and “funny-looking”.
An adjective can be simple, which means it consists of one word (green, cold, wet), or it can be compound, which means it consists of two or more words (blue-tinged, strong-willed, up-to-date).

Sometimes compound adjectives are hyphenated, and sometimes they are not. How do you know which to do when?

Where is the adjective?
It’s important to know where the adjective is in relation to the noun it’s describing.

An adjective (shown below in bold) that comes before the noun (underlined) is called attributive.

That is a lazy dog!

An adjective that comes after the noun is called predicative.

That dog is lazy!

How does this all fit together?

When to hyphenate?
Very simply, the rule is that:

Compound adjectives that come before the noun are hyphenated.
Compound that come after the noun are NOT hyphenated.

Here are some examples:

The decision-making process was very important.
The process involved decision making.

My strong-willed friend never backed down.
My friend was very strong willed and stubborn.

GetSmarter presents distance-learning courses.
GetSmarter’s courses are done via distance learning.

The ISU is a part-time course.
The ISU course is part time.

Pro tip
Be careful to distinguish between multiple simple adjectives (e.g. two adjectives describing the same thing) and a compound one (e.g., one adjective that consists of two words). For example:

That is a funny green ball. (Two completely separate simple adjectives.)
She is a green-eyed woman. (One compound adjective made up of two parts.)

How can you tell which one it is?
Very simple! Just try putting the word “and” between the two adjectives and see if it still makes sense. For example:

That is a funny and green ball. (Makes sense – “a funny ball” and “a green ball” are logical descriptions.)
She is a green and eyed woman. (Makes no sense – a woman isn’t usually “green”, nor is she “eyed”.)

If the “and” trick doesn’t work, put a hyphen in! Of course, this only applies to compound adjectives before the noun. Compound adjectives after the noun never get hyphens, as you’ve just learned.

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