Why Hyphens are Important

[gnomi]

Because there are differences among:

-- stinky-fish-eating coworker
-- stinky fish-eating coworker
-- stinky fish eating coworker

If a stinky fish were eating my coworker, I'd be concerned. The other two are just annoyances.

Comments

[kradical.livejournal.com]

Of course, some would spell it "co-worker".....

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

True enough.

My company's house standard is that prefixes are not hyphenated unless it would cause confusion if the word were left unhyphenated. So, for instance, it would be "coworker" and "multitalented" but "pre-sent" (meaning "sent before") and "re-sent" (meaning "sent again").

[madfilkentist]

And some spell it cow-orker. But only if you have cows to ork.

[saxikath]

This would make a great set of cartoons. :)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Alas, I have no artistic ability of that sort.

But if anyone *had* the talent, I'd say go for it.

[saxikath]

Alas, I don't either.

But I could totally see a book of grammar and usage reminders done as cartoons like that.

[ckd]

There is a kid's book version of Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

Among other things, it illustrates the difference between these two sentences:
Becky walked on, her head a little higher than usual.
Becky walked on her head, a little higher than usual.

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

The Girls Like Spaghetti is another kids' book by the same author. It focuses on apostrophes:

The girls like spaghetti. (several happy girls eating pasta)
The girl's like spaghetti. (one really tall and thin girl)

[bluepapercup]

Please see comment below. If the pictures are too big or breaking your page, let me know, I will resize/thumbnail and repost.

A Study In Hypens; Three Parts.

[bluepapercup]

Re: A Study In Hypens; Three Parts.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Those are *brilliant*! I love them!

Re: A Study In Hypens; Three Parts.

[bluepapercup]

Haha, YAY!!!!

I haven't felt inspired to draw in a while (I really like drawing cartoons like this) but your post really grabbed me. Glad I could oblige your readership. :)

Re: A Study In Hypens; Three Parts.

[saxikath]

Bwahaha! Those are great!

Re: A Study In Hypens; Three Parts.

[cellio]

*applause*

nitpick

[thespisgeoff.livejournal.com]

..don't you mean "differences between," as "differences among" usually means that there are differences of opinion/etc within a group?

</ nitpick>

Re: nitpick

[csbermack.livejournal.com]

well, but there's three of them. Between implies two. Of course, if you take the samples pairwise you still get differences...

Re: nitpick

[thespisgeoff.livejournal.com]

Hrmm.
You're right; I've always thought of the difference between "between" and "among" as more amorphous, but it's pretty cut-and-dry based on the number of subjects.

I have been schooled.

Re: nitpick

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Well, it does get murkier than that, but, yes. Traditional AmE usage is "between" for two and "among" for three or more.

[byrne.livejournal.com]

HEEE!

Okay. Yes.

Eats Shoots And Leaves

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

Many of the students whose papers I look at solve the whole comma problem by not including any.

[tygerseye.livejournal.com]

Or perhaps a stinky, fish-eating coworker.

A stinky, fish-eating coworker is not a minor annoyance.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Are you familiar with Bob the Angry Flower?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I am, actually. I had one of the Bob cartoons up on my wall for a while.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Which one? The apostrophes?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Yup. :-)

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

He also now has one for its/it's and their/there/they're... :-)

[rivkaesque.livejournal.com]

Abso-frickin'-lutely! ;D

[running-girl4.livejournal.com]

How true!