Hyphen Before "Like"?

Question

Does anybody know whether the hyphen before "like" is needed in phrases like "Windows NT-like window manager", "this gnat-like aircraft", etc.?Regards,Alexander Bodnarchuk

Usenet · Accepted Answer

Thus spake alexbod:
[nq:1]Does anybody know whether the hyphen before "like" is needed in phrases like "Windows NT-like window manager", "this gnat-like aircraft", etc.?[/nq]
Yes, the hyphen is necessary. When you add "like", you are transforming the noun into an adjective, and compound adjectives take hyphens.

Simon R. Hughes

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Does anybody know whether the hyphen before "like" is needed in phraseslike "Windows NT-like window manager", "this gnat-like aircraft", etc.?[/nq]
[nq:1]Yes, the hyphen is necessary. When you add "like", you are transforming the noun into an adjective, and compound adjectives take hyphens. Simon R. Hughes[/nq]
Thank you for your fast reply. I gave the documentation I had made up to a native speaker who's supposed to check it. I received it back with all hyphens (before "like") deleted. I tried to clear up the situation with Google, but failed.
Regards,
Alexander Bodnarchuk

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]like Simon R. Hughes wrote[/nq]
[nq:2]Yes, the hyphen is necessary. When you add "like", you are transforming the noun into an adjective, and compound adjectives take hyphens.[/nq]
[nq:1]Thank you for your fast reply. I gave the documentation I had made up to a native speaker who's supposed to check it. I received it back with all hyphens (before "like") deleted. I tried to clear up the situation with Google, but failed.[/nq]
The use of hyphens is a matter of style,
thus dealt with in style books (The Chicago
Manual of Style and similar works.)
1. Find out whether your client uses a stylebook. If so, get a copy which will simplify your work.
2. If your client has no preferred style, thisleaves you freer to edit according to your
preferences. (These days, you can in time
probably find a style book to support almost
any decision you make.

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)
hyphens

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Thus spake alexbod:[/nq]
[nq:2]Does anybody know whether the hyphen before "like" is needed in phrases like "Windows NT-like window manager", "this gnat-like aircraft", etc.?[/nq]
[nq:1]Yes, the hyphen is necessary. When you add "like", you are transforming the noun into an adjective, and compound adjectives take hyphens.[/nq]
I agree (though I could live with "gnatlike aircraft"). I just wanted to add that I'd go to considerable lengths to avoid writing "Windows NT-like window manager", because it looks like "Windows" is separate from "NT-like".

Jerry Friedman

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Does anybody know whether the hyphen before "like" is needed in phrases like "Windows NT-like window manager", "this gnat-like aircraft", etc.?[/nq]
Most style books I have seen recommend closing in "like" compounds of ordinary common nouns. However, I would certainly make an exception of "Windows NT-like" (if I had to put up with it at all), not only because -like is being added to a two-word phrase (indeed, some people these days would even use an en dash there), but because tacking a word onto an abbreviation looks bizarre; I would also write NT-like. Other plausible exceptions include long words (probability-like), proper nouns (Einstein-like), and words ending in -ll (bell-like).
Joe Fineman (Email Removed)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Does anybody know whether the hyphen before "like" is needed in phraseslike "Windows NT-like window manager", "this gnat-like aircraft", etc.?[/nq]
Yes. When you invent an adjective on your own it takes a hyphen. But there are some established words that come as a package deal, e.g. ladylike.

M-W.com has this for -like:
Main Entry: -like
Function: adjective combining form
resembling or characteristic of

Hyphen Before "Like"?

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