2

I know that I can use hyphens to suspend compounds that are written with a hyphen to begin with, for example "first-class fares and second-class fares" can be written as "first- and second-class fares".

But what about compound nouns that consist of two nouns and are not originally hyphenated, for example "PDF files and Excel files"? I can see two possible answers:

  1. "PDF- and Excel files"
  2. "PDF and Excel files"

I think that option 1 is more logical, because option 2 can lead to ambiguous expressions quite often. For example, "I like chocolate and vanilla ice cream" could mean that I like chocolate ice cream and vanilla ice cream, or that I like vanilla ice cream and chocolate. If the rule were to mark the omission of the word "files" by a hyphen, such ambiguity would be avoided. But I was not able to find any definite rules or style guides confirming this. All I can find are style guides that discuss compounds that were already hyphenated before they were suspended, like in my initial example.

Joe7
  • 121
  • 2
    How can you suspend a compound that wasn't there to begin with? (Welcome to ELU, BTW!) – Conrado Jan 10 '23 at 11:50
  • 1
    I’m voting to close this question because it assumes, wrongly, that there is a possibility of hyphens in the examples when there is none. – Greybeard Jan 10 '23 at 12:01
  • @Conrado My reason would be to show the reader that a word was omitted. "PDF and Excel files" could be read as "Excel files and PDF". The hyphen after "PDF" makes it clear that Excel files and PDF files are meant. This may not be the best example, but I'd assume that cases exist in which not marking the omission of the word would create significant ambiguity. – Joe7 Jan 10 '23 at 12:05
  • Welcome to ELU. But why is option 1 logical? Why is option 2 not logical? Please add all relevant information to the question rather than bury it in comments. – Andrew Leach Jan 10 '23 at 12:11
  • "Wine may be made from both red and white grapes." There is no need to insert a hyphen when there isn't one in the original expression. The sentence could be re-worded if there was a potential ambiguity - "red grapes and white ones". – Kate Bunting Jan 10 '23 at 12:58
  • 1
    We see your concern, but the reader will know that chocolate and vanilla ice creams are two ice creams, not chocolate something else and vanilla ice creams. – Yosef Baskin Jan 10 '23 at 14:09
  • @AndrewLeach I carelessly assumed my reasoning for option 1 to be self-evident. I edit the question now to include it. – Joe7 Jan 10 '23 at 16:04
  • @Greybeard I did not intend to imply that all options are possible, but I intended to ask which version is correct. I edited the question to make this clearer and removed the third option. – Joe7 Jan 10 '23 at 16:06
  • @Conrado Also, "PDF files" and "Excel files" are compound nouns, which are suspended in my example, or am I mistaken about this? – Joe7 Jan 10 '23 at 16:09
  • @KateBunting The difference is that "red" and "white" in your example are adjectives, while "PDF" and "Excel" in my example are nouns, making "PDF files" and "Excel files" compound nouns. Suspending the compund nouns without adding the hyphen could lead to ambiguity (like in Yosef Baskin's example of "chocolate and vanilla ice cream"), which is usually not the case with two adjectives (e.g. "I like fragrant and colorful flowers" cannot be interpreted as "I like colorful flowers and fragrant"). – Joe7 Jan 10 '23 at 16:16
  • Does this answer your question? A suspended hyphen in a list with only one hyphenated word – Edwin Ashworth Jan 10 '23 at 16:18
  • 1
    To use things like first- and second-class fares, the original terms have to include a hyphen. If they don't, you don't. PDF and Excel files. No hyphens. Another example: military and civilian personnel, no hyphens. – Lambie Jan 10 '23 at 16:20
  • @EdwinAshworth Unfortunately not, since it doesn't deal with compound nouns, but all the comments do answer my question quite clearly. :-) – Joe7 Jan 10 '23 at 16:26
  • My question is anwered by the comments. The consensus is obviously that version 2 is corrrect and version 1 is not. Apparently I could not find the answer in style guides because it is so obvious to everyone. I edited the question and hope it will be re-opened, so that someone can post an answer, which I would happily accept. In the meantime, I'll upvote the comments that resemble final answers. Also, thanks for the welcomes to ELU! – Joe7 Jan 10 '23 at 16:36
  • I'd say there are 5 compound nouns in << experimental economics, behavioral economics, cognitive economics, evolutionary economics, and neuroeconomics >>, 4 in << given name and surname; cattlemen and sheepmen >>, and in << both over- and underfed cats >> the compound adjectives are used to exemplify usage (or what shouldn't be used), mapping clearly to recommended treatment of compound nouns. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 10 '23 at 16:50
  • @EdwinAshworth You're right. I meant to says compounds of two nouns and didn't realize that the term "compund noun" can also refer to a compound of an adjective and a noun (as one example). I'll edit the question again to clarify this. – Joe7 Jan 10 '23 at 18:20
  • 'Cattlemen' and 'sheepmen' are examples of solid compound nouns formed from [noun1] + [noun2]. The bottom line here is that different people (even different style guides) give different advice, and there's no hyphenation Czar. For two items, it's surely best just to spell out fully. And in spite of what others might say, clarity is of even greater importance than following convention or appeasing someone with a half-remembered mantra: if adding a hyphen that wasn't there in the first place is the only way to clarify, use it. Some dictionary probably carries your spelling variant. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 10 '23 at 19:51

0 Answers0