Suspended hyphens
Hi all,
My editor changed "material and food supplies" into "material- and food supplies", referring to the use of suspended hyphens as the reason. Is the change correct?
Top answer
"material- and food supplies" is not correct. The form for a suspended hyphen would be "material- and food-supplies", meaning "material-supplies" and "food-supplies", but this is not correct either, because these terms are not hyphenated. If you mean material supplies and food supplies, you can say "supplies of food and material(s)", but you may also want to specify what type of material.
- "material- and food supplies" is not correct.
- The form for a suspended hyphen would be "material- and food-supplies", meaning "material-supplies" and "food-supplies", but this is not correct either, because these terms are not hyphenated.
- If you mean material supplies and food supplies, you can say "supplies of food and material(s)", but you may also want to specify what type of material.
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"material- and food supplies" is not correct. The form for a suspended hyphen would be "material- and food-supplies", meaning "material-supplies" and "food-supplies", but this is not correct either, because these terms are not hyphenated. If you mean material supplies and food supplies, you can say "supplies of food and material(s)", but you may also want to specify what type of material.
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