Relatively Ignorant Blog

The hyphen is unfortunately fading from common use. The current fashion for compound adjectives exaggerates the problem. So there are many food products labelled as 97% fat free instead of 97% fat-free.

We recently received a brochure from a wine merchant that loudly proclaims on its cover:

Must have
wines
for your
collection

Obviously they mean must-have wines, otherwise it is no more than a truism (you must have wines or you don’t have a collection).

So what? We know what they mean. Yes, but without hyphens we often need to read twice to be sure. Properly used, hyphens make reading easier. Otherwise there is ambiguity in meaning and reading is slower.

What are the rules we are apparently not learning in school? Melanie Spiller’s Hyphen Hysteria is a good guide. Wikipedia also provides more detail.