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Bart mv Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
Using hyphens with -wide
Hello, I've been googling this for a bit, but am having trouble finding a satisfactory answer. Apparently, you sometimes use a hyphen when adding 'wide', such as with industry-wide, but sometimes you don't, like with worldwide (which I've also seen written as 'world wide'). I'm not a native English speaker and it seems a bit random to me.On to the sentences I have a question about specifically:
1) First, they can be separated into hospital- and department-wide protocols.
2) During research, both hospitals were asked about the number of protocols used hospital-wide and department-wide.
What would the correct way to write these sentences be and why? (Don't necessarily limit your advice to the hyphens). I personally don't really care for the way the words look without the hyphen, but that doesn't mean it's not correct.
Thanks in advance for any answers
1) First, they can be separated into hospital- and department-wide protocols.
2) During research, both hospitals were asked about the number of protocols used hospital-wide and department-wide.
What would the correct way to write these sentences be and why? (Don't necessarily limit your advice to the hyphens). I personally don't really care for the way the words look without the hyphen, but that doesn't mean it's not correct.
Thanks in advance for any answers
Top answer
It seems like your question is related to how compound words evolve in English. Compound words are two words put together to make one word. Examples are: blackboard / whiteboard = black + board was the original (from chalk on slate), and when we had dry-erase markers, the new word whiteboard just came naturally.
- It seems like your question is related to how compound words evolve in English.
- Compound words are two words put together to make one word.
- Examples are: blackboard / whiteboard = black + board was the original (from chalk on slate), and when we had dry-erase markers, the new word whiteboard just came naturally.
- lighthouse = used to be light house = a house with a light on top to warn ships that they were near shallow water.
- The word lightship followed naturally.
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4 Answers
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It seems like your question is related to how compound words evolve in English.
Compound words are two words put together to make one word. Examples are:
blackboard / whiteboard = black + board was the original (from chalk on slate), and when we had dry-erase markers, the new word whiteboard just came naturally.
lighthouse = used to be light house = a house with a
Compound words are two words put together to make one word. Examples are:
blackboard / whiteboard = black + board was the original (from chalk on slate), and when we had dry-erase markers, the new word whiteboard just came naturally.
lighthouse = used to be light house = a house with a
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Ahh, I see, so you basically have to judge how common a compound word is and base your decision on that. Thank you for the thorough explanation. I suppose that at some point during the process of moving from the second to the third stage, the words are added to dictionaries. So unless I can find the word in a dictionary I should probably opt for one of the first two stages?
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Bart mv So unless I can find the word in a dictionary I should probably opt for one of the first two stages?Yes. A lone individual cannot influence the evolution; it is a collective process. Dictionary writers (lexicographers) study the patterns of usage and meanings over years, and then make decisions on what words / definitions to add, what words to delete
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Detailed advice on this and related topics can be found in the section on 'Compound words and hyphens' (points 3.18-3.32) of the https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/styleguide_english_dgt_en.pdf published by the European Commission (DG Translation).
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