Silly punctuation opinion poll

[gnomi]

A kitchen's walls are covered in grey and blue tiles. Is it:

-- A grey- and blue-tiled kitchen

-- A grey-and-blue-tiled kitchen

Comments

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

The latter.

It's perhaps clearer in Rikchik

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

diagrammed captioned diagrammed and captioned


Or perhaps not.

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

I'd rephrase, possibly to "a kitchen tiled in blue and grey". If I had to choose, I'd probably go for the first. Could it be a grey-and-blue tiled kitchen instead?

[seborn.livejournal.com]

I would go with the first, after a moment's thought.
Before a moment's thought, I would say "a grey-and-blue tiled kitchen," but I would be wrong.
grey-and-blue-tiled just has too many hyphens for my eyes.

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

i'd say the second one but i don't know for sure....

[sethg]

"grey- and blue-tiled" connotes (to me) that it is grey-tiled in some places and blue-tiled in other places. "grey-and-blue-tiled" connotes that the tiling is a mixture of grey and blue.

[pressburger.livejournal.com]

I agree with Seth.

[dianora2.livejournal.com]

The first one.

[magid.livejournal.com]

off-topic: lovely userpic!

[gingicat]

I prefer the "neither" option; I'd say "a kitchen tiled in grey and blue" instead. But the first is correct, not the second.

[donovanstitch.livejournal.com]

The two versions have different meanings, in my view. The first interjects "and blue" as a kind of afterthought, while the second has the combined color scheme presented as, um, an up-front-fait accompli.

[cellio]

I'd write around the problem to get rid of the pre-nominal adjective.

The first means some grey tiles and some blue ones; the second means that the tiles are (individually) both grey and blue.

[farwing.livejournal.com]

scrolling along I misread this as "-- A grey- and blue-tiled kitten" which seems cruel *imagines a kitten covered in those tiny tiles they use in older bathrooms*

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Of the two choices, I'd choose "a".

ech

[etrevino.livejournal.com]

The second one is correct, but when you have a question like that, it screams "rephrase" to me!

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

I'll go with "B," Alex...

[magid.livejournal.com]

I think (a) is correct for tiles of different colors, and (b) might be correct for tiles of mixed colors, but is far too confusing with (a) if it can be avoided. Well, both would be easier to read if rephrased without multiply hyphens.