Why/ no hyphen

Why/ no hyphen
Message from mohammad51 posted on 03-01-2023 at 20:15:51 (D | E | F)
Hello
Please get me help with these sentences.

A question from xxx

Hyphen exercise : Choose the correct sentence

A) This is seventh-grade-reading material.

B) This is seventh grade reading material.

C) This is seventh-grade reading material ... C Is the correct answer according to the page

My question is : Why is hyphen not added between the words grade and reading ?

The word ( material which is a noun Head ) already must not be hyphenated.

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Edited by lucile83 on 03-01-2023 22:28
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Re: Why/ no hyphen from gerondif, posted on 03-01-2023 at 23:02:11 (D | E)
Hello
I would agree that C is correct.
You have two groups of words, as in a two-year-old training bench.

Personally, I would hyphen words like a sitting-room, a washing-machine, a sleeping-bag, reading-glasses but modern usage has a tendancy to drop hyphens.
the dictionary in line gives : Your mother's waiting for you in the sitting room (without hyphen)

I would have written : "This is seventh-grade reading-material" but quite a few of the compound-words I check beginning with an ing word have no hyphen.

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Re: Why/ no hyphen from mohammad51, posted on 04-01-2023 at 01:36:28 (D | E)
Hello
Thank you very much dear teacher gerondif
Of course ( sitting room ) no hyphen is needed, for the reasons :
1- at the end of the sentence
2- No noun comes after it, so that it modifies
3. no verb to be comes before it

These rules I have read in many grammar books.

Again to my questions

This is seventh-grade reading material. Of course words fractions, ordinal numbers are to be hyphenated when they are modifiers in the compound adjectives,.

The rule above is acceptable and no any rejection against

2. Using hyphen is common with all words in the compound adjectives except we don't insert a hyphen before the Noun ( Head)

The word ( reading ) is also adjective part of the modifier ( seventh-grade reading)

many examples like this example, I noticed that hyphen is used with.

It seems to me that when ( ordinal numbers and fractions are modifiers in the compound adjectives ) we insert hyphen only for these

I am not sure . I just guess

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Re: Why/ no hyphen from mohammad51, posted on 04-01-2023 at 03:37:28 (D | E)
Hello
I searched and found these examples
Ordinal numbers \ compound adjective ---- Using hyphen
----

First floor,” but “first-floor apartment”
“Third place,” but “third-place ribbon”
“Thirty-third row,” but “thirty-third-row seats” This is similar to my question sentence

So why the blue book online suggests no hyphen (( seventh-grade reading material.))

seventh-grade- reading material. Not acceptable ?

Link

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Re: Why/ no hyphen from jonquille, posted on 04-01-2023 at 07:14:22 (D | E)
Hello,
I can't give you a specific rule, but as a native English (American) speaker, here are my thoughts:

Reading material as a simple phrase would not be hyphenated.

Seventh grade as a simple phrase is also not hyphenated.

> The reading material for seventh grade comprises....


But when you reverse the order and put the phrase with the number in it first, it becomes an adjective to the following phrase, so it becomes hyphenated; more as a means of clarifying which is the adjectival phrase from the noun phrase.

> Seventh-grade reading material
> Second-grade report card
> Nine-hole golf course

I'm not sure if I made this more confusing. It's difficult to explain how things "work" in your native language!
jonquille

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Re: Why/ no hyphen from mohammad51, posted on 04-01-2023 at 08:54:36 (D | E)
Hello
Thank you very much dear teacher jonquille

Good explanation separated phrase or simple phrase as you said ( reading material )

I got it

On the other hand, you can say it can be considered a one word

Suppose we remove the word (reading ) and say ( seventh-grade material ) = It does no sense

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Re: Why/ no hyphen from jonquille, posted on 06-01-2023 at 07:37:47 (D | E)
Hello!

To answer your question:
> Suppose we remove the word (reading) and say (seventh-grade material) = It does (makes) no sense

In this case, the word "material" would have to be taken in context. The teaching material (textbooks, supplies, worksheets, etc.) used for the curriculum in each grade is different. It is very common to hear teachers discussing the differences between textbooks/materials used in different grades (years).

As an example, a teacher of students in second grade has a student who is performing beyond his or her grade level. The teacher asks another teacher in the third grade,
>> "What is taught in the third-grade curriculum? What are the third-grade materials?

Though, when confusion arises, or when in doubt on whether to use a hyphen, rephrase the sentence! Instead of seventh-grade material, rephrase it: material for seventh grade.

And finally, as gerondif mentioned, common usage these days seems to be to eliminate hyphens. I'm still "old school" and probably use far more hyphens than are being used now!

jonquille

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Re: Why/ no hyphen from mohammad51, posted on 07-01-2023 at 10:57:29 (D | E)
Hello
Thank you very much both teachers gerondif and jonquille

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I sent a message to the book publishers online and got a reply

Here is


The reason that answer C is correct is because "seventh-grade" is a compound modifier describing a compound noun ("reading material"). In other words, the phrase refers to reading material for the seventh grade as opposed to material for seventh-grade reading, which, although subtle, is a distinction.

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so (( reading material )) = one unit ( compound noun ) , but why many other such phrases are in different and the noun coming before the last one is hyphenated ?

Is it according to Chicago manual style for writing ? I am still in doubt with these because there is not clear rule.

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