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Saturday, February 11, 2012

Multi-tasking Adjectives

Sometimes one adjective won’t do. Several words pop into mind and that’s when you call in the hyphens. Here are some examples:
Sometimes this feels like a dog-eat-dog world.
I’m always happy-as-a-lark to offer hope.
Or am I just a whistling-in-the-wind optimist?

Now you try it! Multi-hyphened-words form the entire adjective and are often more effective than a plain-old-one-word modifier.

1 comment:

The Grammar Anarchist said...

I read all manuscripts full of care… you noticed that. Personally… I love the… multi-hyphenated-adjectivally-sound terms. That's the way we speak, isn't it!