![]() ![]() If I want to express that Don Juan is a prominent lover, I would use the hyphen: Without the hyphen, the reader might think that Karen loves movies but hates showers: So, basically, we should add a hyphen if it’s needed to clarify our meaning.įor example, if I want to express to my reader that my friend Karen loves porn, I would write the following: It advised that we should join two words with a hyphen “if doing so will significantly aid the reader in recognizing the compound adjective.” I found it in the good old Texas Law Review Manual of Style. So I delved deeper into the grammatical sea of knowledge, and I found an explanation that was a bit more satisfying. ![]() The consensus is this: when in doubt about whether or not two words should be hyphenated, consult the dictionary.Īs you can imagine, that response did not quench my thirst for the knowledge I was seeking. “To understand the hyphen,” the grammar gurus said, “one must first contemplate the sound of one hand clapping.” I texted him, left him three voicemails and tweeted him, and he never got back to me-so I consulted some grammar gurus instead. I attempted to reach Buddha in hopes that he might answer the following question: Is there a rule that explains when to express words as two words, one compound word, or a hyphenated word? Okay, fine, the monks didn’t ask Buddha about the hyphen, but they might as well have the hyphen is as elusive as the mysteries of the universe. The monks’ questions were fancy metaphysical ones like whether or not the world is eternal, whether or not the soul is identical with the body, whether or not a perfectly enlightened being exists after death, and whether or not a hyphen is required in between Buddha and belly. That’s also how I respond to my students’ questions when I don’t know the answers.) Buddha claimed that knowing the answers to such questions only hinders our advancement toward liberation. He refused to answer these ten questions, and, consequently, they have become known as the unanswerable questions. One day, Buddha was asked ten questions by some monks. ![]()
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