Question on spelling "two drink minimum" (two-word adjectives)

Question

Due to an argument, I must ask: Is it "two-drink minimum" or "two drink minimum"? Are both valid?

To me, the latter feels wrong because it has neither plural on "drink" nor the dash/hyphen to imply they are linked; am I right?

EDIT: Taking the examples given below, would the correct way to say be "Three-bedroom house"? I do agree about the plural, but I thought that kind of required the usage of a hyphen.

Does this answer your question? Pluralization rule for "five-year-old children", "20 pound note", "10 mile run" (Despite the title, this contains reasonably good answers on hyphenation.) (There are other duplicates; search for 'hyphen' + 'units' etc.) — Edwin Ashworth, Feb 25 '20 at 14:36

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

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Some people tend to avoid hyphenation because they feel it is loosely ruled or lazy writing, or they simply don't prefer it unless absolutely necessary, with the avoidance of ambiguity outweighing the clutter of daisy chaining nouns. It is largely a matter of house style.

Note that a plural declension is not necessary when the nouns act in this modifying capacity, e.g.,:

O Three bedroom house

X Three bedrooms house

or

O Two car garage

X Two cars garage

edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

Community

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answered Feb 24 '20 at 23:00

timesheetscooper

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I believe in these examples, the hyphen would actually be necessary (for the same reason as my question). Where do you get that "loosely ruled"/"lazy writing" idea from? My quick research told me that two-word adjectives (see what I did there?) before a noun to require the two adjective to be linked via a hyphen. Could you provide me with some points of reference for what you are saying? (my source: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/hyphen/) – Maxime M. Feb 24 '20 at 23:12
re: loosely ruled: "If you take hyphens seriously, you will surely go mad" (Oxford University Press) I don't suppose you write on-line or to-day? I merely suggest you don't think of it as a "require" matter. When it helps the reader in comprehension, use it, if not don't, and notice that this changes depending on audience and context. – timesheetscooper Feb 25 '20 at 00:01
I am pretty sure we are talking about two-word adjectives and not single words that have been official for decades at the very least. – Maxime M. Apr 13 '20 at 13:31

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 25 '20 at 14:13

In my mind, "two drink minimum" is the shortened form for "A minimum purchase of two drinks is required."

But it does not quite work. It should be shortened to "minimum, two drinks". I guess they are trying to turn "minimum, two drinks" into a noun so they morphed it to "two drink minimum."

Signs often do not make grammatical sense.

Question on spelling "two drink minimum" (two-word adjectives)

2 Answers2