In the phrase "highly trained support specialist" should a hyphen be used?
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The adverb 'highly' is modifying an adjective and needs no hyphen to let us know that. – Yosef Baskin Dec 02 '20 at 16:20
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For the specific collocation here, Hyphenated *highly-trained* used to be as common as the "separate words" version in British English until just a few decades ago. But almost no-one hyphenates that particular one today (which in any case was only ever done if it came before the relevant modified noun; Our support specialists are all highly trained would never be hyphenated). – FumbleFingers Dec 02 '20 at 16:24
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Highly trained support-specialist - Does it reduce the confusion? – Ram Pillai Dec 02 '20 at 16:57
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@RamPillai: No! That would be completely wrong! We rarely if ever put a hyphen after a *noun adjunct* (which is what "support" is there). No-one ever writes My car-radio* doesn't work*, for example. – FumbleFingers Dec 02 '20 at 17:01
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@FumbleFingers: OK; agree to your views! – Ram Pillai Dec 02 '20 at 17:10