COMPOUND MODIFIERS: When a compound modifier — two or more words that express a single concept — precedes a noun, you must decide: Hyphenate that modifier, or not? Often there’s not one ...

Compound modifiers are often hyphenated, but the rules leave a lot of room for judgment, ... you’d hyphenate it before, but not after a noun (a half-asleep worker, ...

Combine a complete phrase before a noun. These hyphens are no longer needed when the phrase comes after the noun. 26-year-old woman but woman who is 26 years old; ... regardless if the compound ...

The exception: Don’t hyphenate if your compound contains an “ly” adverb: “The hastily decorated car bore a just-married sign.” For nouns and verbs, there’s no formula.

But when two words forming a compound adjective follow a noun, generally omit the hyphen. Thus, “The well-played game was well played,” and, “The tough-minded executive was tough minded.” ...

One of the regular features we do on Twitter is "Why we need hyphens": phrases that have different meanings depending on whether there's a hyphen. These usually occur when a noun has a compound ...

When a compound noun that is correctly written as two words is being used as a verb, it's hyphenated. For example, "I have a new pair of ice skates," but when I use them, "I will ice-skate." ...

A compound modifier is two or more words working like an adjective to modify another word, usually a noun. When you say, "I live in northwestern California," those last two words aren't modifying ...

So the rules for hyphenating compound adjectives say that, in most cases, you should hyphenate two words that come before a noun to modify it, giving you "months-long protests." [email protected] ...

When dealing with compound modifiers, heed this advice from The Associated Press Stylebook: "Do not use a hyphen between adverbs ending in '-ly' and adjectives they modify." For example, no ...