Following Canadian Press style, eight of these sentences need hyphens. Which ones don’t?
- That’s a million dollar idea.
- This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
- Tories decried it as a small business tax.
- She entered the dimly lit room.
- Soccer hooliganism is a United Kingdom tradition.
- Ryder is an award winning singer songwriter.
- Smith is Singaratnam’s mother in law.
- Anti Ford rallies were held in several cities.
- The auditorium was three quarters full.
- Not done with his playing career, Harris resigned with the Mustangs in February.
The key here is clarity. Is the meaning clear without a hyphen? Would the lack of a hyphen potentially confuse readers?
The Canadian Press Stylebook advises us to hyphenate to make it clear that two, or sometimes three or four, words are being used together as a compound modifier – “but not if the meaning is instantly clear because of common usage of the term.”
So, you would write “Jefferson’s third-period goal” and not “Jefferson’s third period goal” because you want to be clear that you’re not saying Jefferson netted three goals in one period, but you’d probably be safe in writing “chequing account deposit” because it’s clear without a hyphen.
When a verb comes right after an adverb ending in -ly, there’s no need for a hyphen. Write “Anderson delivered his eagerly awaited speech” with no hyphen.
Hyphens are seldom, if ever, needed when proper nouns are used as modifiers. The uppercase letters make the meaning clear in “a Jackson Pollock painting” or “the Montreal Canadiens legend.”
Item 4 doesn’t need any hyphens, as dimly lit is an -ly adverb followed by a verb. Item 5 needs no hyphen because the uppercase letters make it clear that the country’s name is being used as an adjective.
Million-dollar, once-in-a-lifetime and small-business should be hyphenated in the first three items, that last compound modifier being hyphenated to be clear that you’re talking about a tax on small businesses and not a business tax that’s small.
In Item 6, award-winning and singer-songwriter should be hyphenated. The hyphenated elements in the last four items are mother-in-law, anti-Ford, three-quarters and re-signed. Re-signed needs hyphenation to avoid confusion with resigned (quit).