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I cannot locate accurate answers anywhere regarding these. My explanations are below each example. I believe that all examples may be correct but am unsure. I'm just looking for some confirmation. In which, if any, would you change the punctuation?

(1) Mike said, "The team needed ten point five million.” [No hyphens because 'ten point five million' isn't modifying anything. Good as is?]

(2) Mike said, "The team needed ten-point-five-million dollars." [Hyphenate because 'ten-point-five' is modifying dollars, correct?]

(3) Mike said, "The figures represented a ten-point-five-million-dollar-a-year increase in revenues." [Hyphenated because 'ten-point-five-million-dollar-a-year' is modifying 'increase'. Good?]

(4) "Mike said, "The figures represented a ten-point-five-percent increase." [Hyphenated because 'ten-point-five-percent' is modifying 'increase', correct?]

(5) Mike said, "The figures represented a ten-point-five-percent-a-year increase." [Hyphenated because 'ten-point-five-percent-a-year' is modifying 'increase', yes?]

(6) Joe said, "She displayed one-hundred-and-ten-percent commitment." [Hyphenated because 'one-hundred-and-ten-percent' modifies 'commitment'.]

(7) Dave said, "I'll give it one hundred and ten percent." [No hyphens because 'one hundred and ten percent' isn't modifying anything.]

(8) Louise said, "The interest rate is at twelve point seven." [No hyphens because 'twelve point seven' isn't modifying anything, correct?]

(9) Louise said, "The interest rate is at twelve-point-seven percent." [Hyphenated because 'twelve point seven' is modifying 'percent', right?]

(10) Louise said, "I need one-hundred-percent commitment from you." [Hyphenated because 'one-hundred-percent' modifies 'commitment', correct?]

whippoorwill
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  • I think Prof Lawler's eleven-year-old boy rule answers this. – Andrew Leach Mar 01 '14 at 21:06
  • @AndrewLeach yes, I've just read JL's 'eleven-year-old boy rule' and the ensuing comments, but I am still unclear as to why the word 'boy' escapes hyphenation. Shouldn't it be 'the eleven-year-old-boy rule'? – WS2 Mar 01 '14 at 21:31
  • Possibly, since boy is the main noun modified by the preceding phrase. Perhaps I should have written the "eleven-year-old boy" rule, or rule of the eleven-year-old boy. – Andrew Leach Mar 01 '14 at 21:36
  • Funny you say that. I just responded to that link. – whippoorwill Mar 01 '14 at 21:36
  • No. "Eleven-year-old-boy rule" is correct. You don't need both quotes and hyphens for the same purpose. – whippoorwill Mar 01 '14 at 21:38
  • Prof. Lawler, do you agree with the ten examples above (i.e., hyphenated correctly)? – whippoorwill Mar 01 '14 at 21:39
  • I know what I wrote. Using quotes gives a name to the rule. – Andrew Leach Mar 01 '14 at 21:39
  • Please cite a source for that. – whippoorwill Mar 01 '14 at 21:40
  • Maybe I should be writing for The New Yorker. Working alongside Ian Frazier would be a privilege. – whippoorwill Mar 01 '14 at 21:46
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    Why use words and not numerals? What's wrong with "10.5 million"? or "110 percent commitment"? or "interest rate of 12.7 percent"? There's more than one way to swing a dead cat. – rhetorician Mar 01 '14 at 21:50
  • There's nothing wrong with it. My question was how to spell these out. There's always a reason for the questions I post. I like to skin the cat first; then swing it. – whippoorwill Mar 01 '14 at 21:52
  • You be better off asking this about something other than numbers, because style guides pretty much universally insist on writing these out with numerals, and so there isn't a lot of precedent in English for how to write these. – Bradd Szonye Mar 02 '14 at 03:27
  • That said, I'm pretty sure that a numerical value with a unit (like ten dollars) isn't parsed the way your examples suggest. The unit is part of the value, they don't exactly modify each other. – Bradd Szonye Mar 02 '14 at 03:30
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    Also, this question seems suspiciously similar to several others you've asked recently. You should edit those or post bounties asking for more information, rather than repeating minor variations of the same basic question. – Bradd Szonye Mar 02 '14 at 03:31
  • Suspicious? This is a basic English forum of simple questions and answers. Why does this sound overtly dramatic? "Suspicious." Oh, no! :-0 – whippoorwill Mar 02 '14 at 05:29
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    There are no accurate answers because there is *no general consensus* on how to write things like this. – Peter Shor Mar 02 '14 at 06:02

2 Answers2

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These are wrong. You do not hyphenate numbers when they are used as determiners because numbers are not treated the way most compound adjectives are.

Why not? First, because numbers are unambiguous, so you never need to hyphenate them to avoid ambiguity (which you sometimes need to do for compound adjectives). Second, because "fifty-seven-thousand-three-hundred-and-twenty-two hats" looks absolutely terrible. I'm not sure of the correct way to treat (3) and (5), so I'm leaving them out. I think the rules say that you should put the hyphens in those, though.

(1) Mike said, "The team needed ten point five million.”

(2) Mike said, "The team needed ten point five million dollars."

(4) Mike said, "The figures represented a ten point five percent increase."

(6) Joe said, "She displayed one hundred and ten percent commitment."

(7) Dave said, "I'll give it one hundred and ten percent."

(8) Louise said, "The interest rate is at twelve point seven."

(9) Louise said, "The interest rate is at twelve point seven percent."

(10) Louise said, "I need one hundred percent commitment from you."

I can't find a reliable source that shows I'm correct, but I can give you an example where it is done this way:

Seventy-six trombones led the big parade
With a hundred and ten cornets close at hand.

Peter Shor
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-1

(1) Mike said, "The team needed ten-point-five million”. [I would argue that 'ten-point-five modifies 'million' hence hyphens are needed. My own convention would change the position of the full stop.]

(2) to (6) All fine, except for my positioning of full stop, above.

(7) Dave said, "I'll give it one-hundred-and-ten percent". [ Hyphenated because modifying 'percent'.]

All the rest fine except for positioning of full stop.

WS2
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  • The dastardly phantom does their worst again! 'Put-up or shut-up' is the appropriate metaphor for phantoms. – WS2 Mar 01 '14 at 21:33
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    Looks to me like it's wrong. Ten point five is not an adjective qualifying million. Ten point five million is a single amount. Similarly for 7: 110% is a single amount. – Andrew Leach Mar 01 '14 at 21:40
  • I agree. That's the way I originally had it. – whippoorwill Mar 01 '14 at 21:41
  • So, Andrew, what's your verdict with the ten examples? Are they all correct, except for the two you had pointed out? Did I initially have them all correct? – whippoorwill Mar 01 '14 at 21:45
  • @AndrewLeach And if the example had been thirty-five million? – WS2 Mar 01 '14 at 22:03
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    @whippoorwill I'd use figures and not write them out at all. It's completely unnatural. – Andrew Leach Mar 01 '14 at 22:03
  • @WS2 Thirty-five is a number. Ten point five is a number. Ten point five million is a number. Thirty-five million is a number. Thirty-five gets hyphenated simply to add five to thirty. You may think it's inconsistent; but it's not: it has its own consistency. Numbers are not hyphenated unless they really have to be -- an unhyphenated thirty five would probably make no sense. – Andrew Leach Mar 01 '14 at 22:05
  • Could you at least confirm that they're all correct? That's all I'm asking. – whippoorwill Mar 01 '14 at 22:41
  • Professor Lawler: Could you please review the ten examples for accurate punctuation? What would you change, if any? Please, no recasts to numerals. – whippoorwill Mar 01 '14 at 22:53
  • Can anybody just approve of or disapprove of the examples (the way they currently stand as exactly written) as being correct or incorrect — minus the personal opinions of how they feel they should be written)? – whippoorwill Mar 02 '14 at 05:22
  • Peter, I found this sentence in The New Yorker: www.newyorker.com/.../070115fa_fact_... Jan 15, 2007 - Anschutz offered him an entry-level, sixty-five-thousand-dollar-a-year position on the condition that he ... Numbers (3) and (5) may be correct based on this example, yes? – whippoorwill Mar 02 '14 at 13:17
  • And also this: www.newyorker.com/.../spitzers-expandi... Aug 9, 2013 - ... and Silda Wall Spitzer's hundred-and-twenty-five-thousand-dollar-a-year job at a private-equity firm, ... – whippoorwill Mar 02 '14 at 13:20
  • I would think (3) and (5) are correct, because when you add the "a year", you turn them from numbers into compound adjectives. But you can find examples both with and without the hyphens. – Peter Shor Mar 02 '14 at 13:20