Work around an issue or workaround an issue?

Question

I'm writing an essay for college admissions, and this snippet is highlighted by my auto-correct as incorrect:

There are many obstacles I face while working on a project, most of which take a lot of time and energy to fix or work around.

I can't see anything wrong with using work around in this context, but I'd like to know how to correctly use this phrase.

Your intuition is correct, and your auto-correct is auto-wrong. This has been covered before for login vs. log in, backup vs. back up, fallback vs. fall back, payoff and pay off, and so on and so forth. The answer is always exactly the same, noun vs. verb, but your auto-correct simply failed to pick up that this is a verb (if it is capable of distinguishing between parts of speech at all). — RegDwigнt, Oct 10 '13 at 15:33

score 26 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 10 '13 at 00:37

26

Work around is a phrasal verb. Work-around is a noun (often written workaround, without the hyphen). Your example uses the verb, so it is correct as written. Ignore the auto-correct suggestion in this case.

answered Oct 10 '13 at 00:37

Bradd Szonye

15,402

1

Isn't that GR :) – Kris Oct 10 '13 at 07:55
1

Yeah, but the OP didn't know which reference to believe. – Bradd Szonye Oct 10 '13 at 08:12

Work around an issue or workaround an issue?

1 Answers1