Saturday, August 1, 2015

Does hyphenation create a prefix?



When two words are hyphenated do they always become one word? Or does it depend on why you use the hyphen?



For example 'four-wheeled carts'. Has 'four' become a prefix or is the purpose of the hyphen to simply imply the relationship between the two words?



Cheers



Answer



No. Hyphenating two adjectives creates a compound adjective, composed of two distinct words, connected by a hyphen for clarity.



From wikipedia:




A compound modifier (also called a compound adjective, phrasal adjective, or adjectival phrase) is a compound of two or more attributive words: That is, more than one word that together modify a noun.



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