Stewarts corner

Compound phrases: When to use one word, a hyphen or two words?

Phrases, like Œoil slick¹ in British English are written in two words, whereas the Norwegian equivalent Œ oljeflak¹ is one word. The following guidelines to such constructions in British English (BE) may help in selecting when to write a single word, use a hyphen or write the words separately. A glance at the Oxford dictionary will show that this is no easy matter. Entries include: Œoilfield¹, Œoil-tanker¹ and Œoil well¹. American English, like Norwegian, tends to write many such constructions in a single word, where BE would uses two words or a hyphen.

Guidelines to compounds in BE: 1. Two words in a phrase are kept as separate words until they are become frequently treated as one unit, when they receive a hyphen or become one word (e.g. petroleum-related activities and high-speed racing used to be referred to as Œoff-shore activities/racing¹ and have now developed into Œoffshore activities/racing¹ in recent dictionaries. The original concept of a position off the coast or Œoff shore¹ is still used and is written as two words).

2. If the first words in a phrase act as adjectives and describe the subject, hyphenation should be used to help the reader understand your meaning (e.g. Œa hot-air balloon¹ which may not mean the same as a Œhot balloon in the air¹). A large dictionary lists phrases such as Œstate-of-the-art¹ twice, first as an adjective phrase (Œstate-of-the-art concept¹) and as a noun phrase without hyphens (Œa concept that is state of the art¹).

3. If two or more words are used in a phrase where there may be ambiguity, a hyphen is to be used with care or there may be amusing results. One guide to the English language gives the example of a Œnatural gas-producer¹, where a reader may understand this to be a person living in a natural state with questionable manners. Although Œnatural gas¹ is not usually hyphenated, writing Œnatural-gas producer¹ or Œnatural-gas-producer¹ should be an unambiguous reference to a company like Statoil.

4. In conference proceedings etc., hyphens can distinguish between: Œthe non-Norwegian-speakers¹ (those who do not speak Norwegian) and Œthe non-Norwegian speakers¹ (those who are not Norwegian citizens).

5. Some words have to be hyphenated or they may be misunderstood. Compare: Œun-ionize¹ (removing ions) and Œunionize¹ (join a trade union), or Œre-cover¹ (cover again) and Œrecover¹ (get well).

6. Hyphens are often used between a prefix and a following word with the same letter, so Œpre-exist¹ but not Œprefabricate¹. In BE, many do not use a hyphen in commonly-used words such as Œcooperate¹ and Œcoordinate¹, but most writers would hyphenate the less usual Œco-opt¹.

Tricky words:

Hurricane/typhoon
ŒHurricanes¹ are found east of the International Date Line and Œtyphoons¹ west of the Date Line in the area of the Philippines, the China Sea, or India. They are atmospheric disturbances of about equal intensity and their difference is only a matter of where they occur.

Scotch/Scots
During the Cutty Sark regatta in Trondheim, Adresseavisen wrote on 24 July about the main sponsor: ŒCutty Sark Scots Whisky¹. I do not suppose that many teetotalling Scots read our local paper, but just for the record: ŒScots¹ refers to the people of Scotland, whereas ŒScotch¹, which sounds almost the same, is whisky.

Welch/welsh
Either Œwelch¹ or Œwelsh¹ may be used in the expression Œto welch/welsh on a debt/agreement¹. This means not pay a debt or to ignore a commitment. The spelling Œwelch¹ is preferred as this is a useful way of avoiding making a negative reference to the Welsh: the people of Wales.

Enlightening English

After a long, tiring meeting in Brussels between the national coordination units for a European educational programme, the final item on the agenda was an assessment of the quality of the translations of the application forms into the respective official EU languages. A Greek gentleman raised his hand and addressed the representatives of the European Commission and said: ŒI should not say this, but this translation into my language, is just Greek to me¹.

A young gentleman from Africa tried to capture the interest of the ladies of Norway with the following description of himself in a lonely hearts column: Œ I have red eyes and a black, bushy hairŠ¹ Dagbladet, July 1997.

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Ansvarlig redaktør: Informasjonsdirektør Kåre Kongsnes
Teknisk ansvarlig: aina.berg@adm.ntnu.no
Oppdatert: 27. Feb 1997

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