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submitted 2 days ago by daggermoon@lemmy.world to c/til@lemmy.world
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[-] witty_username@feddit.nl 39 points 2 days ago
[-] CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I like to use them when words create a unit of thought. Like line-of-sight, and such. It really helps readability. It prevents people from having to think too hard about certain sentences when it's ambiguous which words belong to what part of the sentence. Especially when the expression contains function words like "of".

However, I'm a fan of just making multiple words into compound words, like bumblebee. That doesn't work well with something like lineofsight, though.

As a side note, I wish we would being back the diaeresis in favor of hyphens in words like co-op. It used to be coöp, and that so much more fun. Or words like reëlect. Even when it's not abbreviated, the diaeresis makes it more obvious to readers how coöperative is pronounced. Or any other time where two vowels in a row are pronounced separately.

[-] MBM@lemmings.world 6 points 1 day ago

Albeit always confuses me. Albeït is so much better.

[-] Cort@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago
[-] giantsorbiting@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

trailblazers in space travel

[-] gramie@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

I think you would be more convincing if you spelled "line of sight" correctly

[-] CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Good catch. I fixed it.

[-] Metostopholes@midwest.social 71 points 2 days ago

"Printed writing is very much design-led these days in adverts and Web sites, and people feel that hyphens mess up the look of a nice bit of typography," he said. "The hyphen is seen as messy looking and old-fashioned."

I see the dictionary editor they quoted is still fighting back.

[-] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 days ago

I'm gonna argue with the title.

Obsolete means no longer of use, in a general sense.

Just because people don't know that the tool is there, or don't know how to apply it, doesn't mean it's obsolete. Hyphenation still has its original utility, it helps communicate in writing what is evident in speech.

I get what they mean, but the title is not accurate to the rest of the article, imo.

[-] Hawke@lemmy.world 31 points 2 days ago

You mis-spelled “to-day”.

[-] spongebue@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago

Take a second to actually read this one. It's pretty short and sweet. It's also from 2007, and talks about nouns (maybe compound nouns) that we really don't think and probably never knew were hyphenated. It's not about the use we typically see today.

As an aside, I've noticed people start hyphenating in weird ways, like "I've been at this job for 7-years"

[-] Pandemanium@lemm.ee 7 points 2 days ago

I think at this point MS Word automatically recommends a hyphen after any number + quantifier combo. One time it wanted me to correct "three armed guards" to "three-armed guards" which would have changed the meaning considerably.

The number of times MS autocorrect suggests incorrect changes to grammar is laughably high, and most people just blindly follow the suggestions.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I fucking hate autocorrect. I mean to say "its" a lot more often than I mean to say "it's", but Gboard on my phone tries to change it to the latter almost every time.

I say "almost" because it did it the first time in the above sentence, but not the second time, so it managed to make the wrong guess for both of them. Goddamn useless trash -- Markov can suck it!

[-] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Three-armed guards would probably be in very high demand, depending how functional the extra arm was

[-] ewenak@jlai.lu 2 points 2 days ago

Could the strange hyphenation be due to the influence of their mother tongue? I don't know if there is any language that does it like that, but it seems plausible.

[-] griff@lemmings.world 22 points 2 days ago

there are times when punctuation is actually useful for clarification!

[-] XTL@sopuli.xyz 16 points 2 days ago

And capitals for readability.

[-] pixeltree 7 points 2 days ago

yeah, without them capitalizing that first t their comment is completely unreadable

[-] kobra@lemm.ee 4 points 2 days ago

hyphens are dead, capitalization is next.

[-] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

They can rip “E-mail” from my dusty old hands!

[-] hilliard@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago

they are a bit old-fashioned

[-] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 3 points 1 day ago
[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago

A question from a non-native speaker: Is there a definitve guide on American punctuation somewhere? I always wonder about American use of punctuation inside single quotes when quoting a term instead of a sentence, and some other cases where I see different intepretations of punctuation.

[-] marron12@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago

There are different ones for different kinds of writing (general, academic, journalism, and more). Chicago Manual of Style is one of the general ones. It's good, and considered authoritative, but you have to buy a copy or an online subscription.

A free one that I like is Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab from a university). It's easy to understand and has good info.

[-] daggermoon@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

I found this. It seems pretty good. Although I don't really think it matters much. You'll likely be understood the same.

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Thanks. I think it is quite well made, and I would love authors read this before they hand in their manuscripts...

[-] RandomVideos@programming.dev 3 points 1 day ago

You should use replace the - with space or nothing at random

icecream ice cream ice-cream

[-] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Bīng Qí Lín Bing Chilling BingChilling Bing-Chilling

[-] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Nah, just turn the first word into an adjective.

"Iced cream" sounds far more sophisticated than boring ice cream.

[-] jimmy90@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

is old fashioned non-hyphenated?

like red tree

[-] Stovetop@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

My experience is more "feels" than fact I suppose, but I've always seen it that any adjective or noun playing adverb to another adjective or participle should be hyphenated to the word it describes.

Red-hot coals (coals that are hot to the point of being red)

Red hot coals (coals that are both hot and red)

Ruby-red shoes (shoes that are as red as rubies)

Ruby red shoes (ruby shoes that are red)

Smooth-talking rogue (a rogue who talks smoothly)

Smooth talking rogue (a smooth rogue who talks)

Bamboo-eating panda (a panda who eats bamboo)

Bamboo eating panda (bamboo is eating a panda)

this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2025
87 points (100.0% liked)

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