Do we hyphenate adjectives including numbers?
What is the correct way of saying this:
- I have completed three years of a six years course.
- I have completed three years of a six-years course?
And also, should it be 'six year' or 'six years' here?
adjectives grammatical-number
edited 2 days ago
Andrew Leach♦
79.5k8150256
asked 2 days ago
user329952
1
New contributor
user329952 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
What is the correct way of saying this:
- I have completed three years of a six years course.
- I have completed three years of a six-years course?
And also, should it be 'six year' or 'six years' here?
adjectives grammatical-number
edited 2 days ago
Andrew Leach♦
79.5k8150256
asked 2 days ago
user329952
1
New contributor
user329952 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
"A six-year course". Measure expressions like this have a singular noun base, hence "year", not "years". As Andrew Leach says in his answer, six-year" is a compound adjective, a single word, and hence should be hyphenated.
– BillJ
2 days ago
add a comment |
What is the correct way of saying this:
- I have completed three years of a six years course.
- I have completed three years of a six-years course?
And also, should it be 'six year' or 'six years' here?
adjectives grammatical-number
edited 2 days ago
Andrew Leach♦
79.5k8150256
asked 2 days ago
user329952
1
New contributor
user329952 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
What is the correct way of saying this:
- I have completed three years of a six years course.
- I have completed three years of a six-years course?
And also, should it be 'six year' or 'six years' here?
adjectives grammatical-number
adjectives grammatical-number
edited 2 days ago
Andrew Leach♦
79.5k8150256
asked 2 days ago
user329952
1
New contributor
user329952 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 2 days ago
Andrew Leach♦
79.5k8150256
asked 2 days ago
user329952
1
New contributor
user329952 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 2 days ago
Andrew Leach♦
79.5k8150256
edited 2 days ago
Andrew Leach♦
79.5k8150256
edited 2 days ago
Andrew Leach♦
79.5k8150256
79.5k8150256
asked 2 days ago
user329952
1
New contributor
user329952 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 2 days ago
user329952
1
asked 2 days ago
user329952
1
1
New contributor
user329952 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
user329952 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
user329952 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
"A six-year course". Measure expressions like this have a singular noun base, hence "year", not "years". As Andrew Leach says in his answer, six-year" is a compound adjective, a single word, and hence should be hyphenated.
– BillJ
2 days ago
add a comment |
"A six-year course". Measure expressions like this have a singular noun base, hence "year", not "years". As Andrew Leach says in his answer, six-year" is a compound adjective, a single word, and hence should be hyphenated.
– BillJ
2 days ago
"A six-year course". Measure expressions like this have a singular noun base, hence "year", not "years". As Andrew Leach says in his answer, six-year" is a compound adjective, a single word, and hence should be hyphenated.
– BillJ
2 days ago
"A six-year course". Measure expressions like this have a singular noun base, hence "year", not "years". As Andrew Leach says in his answer, six-year" is a compound adjective, a single word, and hence should be hyphenated.
– BillJ
2 days ago
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
John Lawler calls this the eleven-year-old boy rule.
When a noun modifier consists of more than one word, it goes after the noun it modifies.
When a noun modifier consists of only one word, it goes before the noun it modifies.
Mnemonic: an eleven-year-old boy versus a boy eleven years old
A single word (which includes a hyphenated word, as here) is an adjective; a multi-word phrase is an adjectival phrase. Adjectives are not inflected for number, and will always be singular — hence "eleven-year". It doesn't matter whether you are talking about a seven-year itch or an eleven-year-old boy, it's always year before the noun. You might get an itch every seven years, where the adjectival phrase does have a plural.
In your example, six-year is a single adjective going before the noun it modifies. It should be hyphenated because it's a single word, and it should be singular because adjectives are always singular.
answered 2 days ago
Andrew Leach♦
79.5k8150256
I don't know whether I'd call it a single word. You're not going to find it in any dictionaries. And with things like under-the-radar, the spelling will change depending on whether it's an attribute or predicate adjective, which is a really weird property for a "word" to have.
– Peter Shor
2 days ago
I'm very happy for others to write a better answer. This question seems to be a good one to make the canonical dupe-target.
– Andrew Leach♦
2 days ago
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "97"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
user329952 is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f479109%2fdo-we-hyphenate-adjectives-including-numbers%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
John Lawler calls this the eleven-year-old boy rule.
When a noun modifier consists of more than one word, it goes after the noun it modifies.
When a noun modifier consists of only one word, it goes before the noun it modifies.
Mnemonic: an eleven-year-old boy versus a boy eleven years old
A single word (which includes a hyphenated word, as here) is an adjective; a multi-word phrase is an adjectival phrase. Adjectives are not inflected for number, and will always be singular — hence "eleven-year". It doesn't matter whether you are talking about a seven-year itch or an eleven-year-old boy, it's always year before the noun. You might get an itch every seven years, where the adjectival phrase does have a plural.
In your example, six-year is a single adjective going before the noun it modifies. It should be hyphenated because it's a single word, and it should be singular because adjectives are always singular.
answered 2 days ago
Andrew Leach♦
79.5k8150256
I don't know whether I'd call it a single word. You're not going to find it in any dictionaries. And with things like under-the-radar, the spelling will change depending on whether it's an attribute or predicate adjective, which is a really weird property for a "word" to have.
– Peter Shor
2 days ago
I'm very happy for others to write a better answer. This question seems to be a good one to make the canonical dupe-target.
– Andrew Leach♦
2 days ago
add a comment |
John Lawler calls this the eleven-year-old boy rule.
When a noun modifier consists of more than one word, it goes after the noun it modifies.
When a noun modifier consists of only one word, it goes before the noun it modifies.
Mnemonic: an eleven-year-old boy versus a boy eleven years old
A single word (which includes a hyphenated word, as here) is an adjective; a multi-word phrase is an adjectival phrase. Adjectives are not inflected for number, and will always be singular — hence "eleven-year". It doesn't matter whether you are talking about a seven-year itch or an eleven-year-old boy, it's always year before the noun. You might get an itch every seven years, where the adjectival phrase does have a plural.
In your example, six-year is a single adjective going before the noun it modifies. It should be hyphenated because it's a single word, and it should be singular because adjectives are always singular.
answered 2 days ago
Andrew Leach♦
79.5k8150256
I don't know whether I'd call it a single word. You're not going to find it in any dictionaries. And with things like under-the-radar, the spelling will change depending on whether it's an attribute or predicate adjective, which is a really weird property for a "word" to have.
– Peter Shor
2 days ago
I'm very happy for others to write a better answer. This question seems to be a good one to make the canonical dupe-target.
– Andrew Leach♦
2 days ago
add a comment |
John Lawler calls this the eleven-year-old boy rule.
When a noun modifier consists of more than one word, it goes after the noun it modifies.
When a noun modifier consists of only one word, it goes before the noun it modifies.
Mnemonic: an eleven-year-old boy versus a boy eleven years old
A single word (which includes a hyphenated word, as here) is an adjective; a multi-word phrase is an adjectival phrase. Adjectives are not inflected for number, and will always be singular — hence "eleven-year". It doesn't matter whether you are talking about a seven-year itch or an eleven-year-old boy, it's always year before the noun. You might get an itch every seven years, where the adjectival phrase does have a plural.
In your example, six-year is a single adjective going before the noun it modifies. It should be hyphenated because it's a single word, and it should be singular because adjectives are always singular.
answered 2 days ago
Andrew Leach♦
79.5k8150256
John Lawler calls this the eleven-year-old boy rule.
When a noun modifier consists of more than one word, it goes after the noun it modifies.
When a noun modifier consists of only one word, it goes before the noun it modifies.
Mnemonic: an eleven-year-old boy versus a boy eleven years old
A single word (which includes a hyphenated word, as here) is an adjective; a multi-word phrase is an adjectival phrase. Adjectives are not inflected for number, and will always be singular — hence "eleven-year". It doesn't matter whether you are talking about a seven-year itch or an eleven-year-old boy, it's always year before the noun. You might get an itch every seven years, where the adjectival phrase does have a plural.
In your example, six-year is a single adjective going before the noun it modifies. It should be hyphenated because it's a single word, and it should be singular because adjectives are always singular.
answered 2 days ago
Andrew Leach♦
79.5k8150256
edited 2 days ago
answered 2 days ago
Andrew Leach♦
79.5k8150256
answered 2 days ago
Andrew Leach♦
79.5k8150256
answered 2 days ago
Andrew Leach♦
79.5k8150256
79.5k8150256
I don't know whether I'd call it a single word. You're not going to find it in any dictionaries. And with things like under-the-radar, the spelling will change depending on whether it's an attribute or predicate adjective, which is a really weird property for a "word" to have.
– Peter Shor
2 days ago
I'm very happy for others to write a better answer. This question seems to be a good one to make the canonical dupe-target.
– Andrew Leach♦
2 days ago
add a comment |
I don't know whether I'd call it a single word. You're not going to find it in any dictionaries. And with things like under-the-radar, the spelling will change depending on whether it's an attribute or predicate adjective, which is a really weird property for a "word" to have.
– Peter Shor
2 days ago
I'm very happy for others to write a better answer. This question seems to be a good one to make the canonical dupe-target.
– Andrew Leach♦
2 days ago
I don't know whether I'd call it a single word. You're not going to find it in any dictionaries. And with things like under-the-radar, the spelling will change depending on whether it's an attribute or predicate adjective, which is a really weird property for a "word" to have.
– Peter Shor
2 days ago
I don't know whether I'd call it a single word. You're not going to find it in any dictionaries. And with things like under-the-radar, the spelling will change depending on whether it's an attribute or predicate adjective, which is a really weird property for a "word" to have.
– Peter Shor
2 days ago
I'm very happy for others to write a better answer. This question seems to be a good one to make the canonical dupe-target.
– Andrew Leach♦
2 days ago
I'm very happy for others to write a better answer. This question seems to be a good one to make the canonical dupe-target.
– Andrew Leach♦
2 days ago
add a comment |
user329952 is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
user329952 is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
user329952 is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
user329952 is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Thanks for contributing an answer to English Language & Usage Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Some of your past answers have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from answering.
Please pay close attention to the following guidance:
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f479109%2fdo-we-hyphenate-adjectives-including-numbers%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
"A six-year course". Measure expressions like this have a singular noun base, hence "year", not "years". As Andrew Leach says in his answer, six-year" is a compound adjective, a single word, and hence should be hyphenated.
– BillJ
2 days ago