Posts filed under 'one word or two?'
September 1st, 2009
Most “pay” nouns are properly written as one word: “payment,” “paycheck,” “payday,” “payload” and “payroll.”
This list even includes three nouns fashioned from verb phrases: “payback,” “payoff” and “payout.” However, write the verb phrases as two words: “We hope to pay off all our debts this year. It’s a long story, but here’s the payoff.”
The only common “pay” noun that’s two words is “pay dirt.”
And now that schools have reopened, here’s my annual reminder on Associated Press style for “grade” words:
Spell out the ordinals “first” through “ninth”; use numerals for “10th,” “11th” and “12th.”
Hyphenate modifiers (”fifth-grade student,” “11th-grade class”) and the “graders” (”second-grader,” “10th-grader”).
Also, note the hyphen in “grade-point average.”
And Webster’s preferred spelling is “kindergartner,” with two “e’s” instead of three.
Master these, and you may go to the head of my class.
July 8th, 2009
“Nobody” is one word, but “no one” is not one.
Interestingly, a nobody can be somebody, as long as it’s someone “of no influence, authority or importance.”
“Nowhere” is also one word, and there can be a there there. As a noun, “nowhere” is “a place that is nonexistent, unknown, remote, etc.” or “a place or state of obscurity.”
As the film “Yellow Submarine” taught us, the “Nowhere Man” was somewhere, and actually somebody, too.
Other useful “no” words are hyphenated, among them “no-account,” “no-brainer,” “no-go,” “no-name,” “no-no,” “no-nonsense,” “no-show,” and “no-lose” and “no-win.”
And did you know that “noway” and the dialectical “nohow” are actually listed as one-word terms? The former is more commonly written these days as two words and “used with the force of an interjection.”
No way! Yes, that way.
March 26th, 2009
These are (some of) the times that try my soul. I’m talking about “-time” words.
Most of them should be written as one word, not two or hyphenated.
It’s “springtime”; before long it will be “summertime”; and all too soon it will be “wintertime” again. However, there’s no “falltime” or “autumntime,” which is actually my favorite time.
We also have “daytime” and “nighttime”; “downtime” and “uptime”; “lunchtime,” “dinnertime” and “mealtime”; “Christmastime”; even “crunchtime” and “showtime.”
However, “leisure time” is two words — that’s time for a break.
March 11th, 2009
Green light, red light, traffic light — each of these nouns should be written as two words.
As a verb for “to approve,” the first one is one word, as in, “The chairman indicated he would greenlight the project.”
As a modifier, the second one is hyphenated: “Police traced the suspect to the city’s red-light district.”
However, the following should all be written as one word: streetlight, stoplight, spotlight, floodlight, footlights, headlight, taillight, highlight, sidelight.
I hope you found this illuminating.
March 10th, 2009
The famed Native American leader for whom many things around these parts are named was Chief Black Hawk. When referring to him or the war in 1832 or the statue of him in Ogle County, it’s “Black Hawk,” two words.
For the names of area businesses, organizations and roadways, it’s predominantly “Blackhawk,” one word.
And one word for the National Hockey League team from Chicago.
So, historical uses, two words; current ones, probably one word.
Also notice above, it’s “predominantly,” not “predominately” — “ant,” not “ate.”
January 17th, 2009
Verbs often pair up with prepositions to form idiomatic phrases. When they’ve been around long enough, they often merge to become adjectives and nouns.
For example, the verb phrase “kick off” is two words: “Organizers will kick off the campaign Friday.”
The adjective and noun forms are one word: “The kickoff luncheon has been postponed.” “He ran the opening kickoff back for a touchdown.”
They don’t always follow this evolutionary path, but it’s the most common one. Other “off” combos that conform to this pattern include “castoff,” “cutoff,” “layoff,” “liftoff” and “takeoff.”
As always, the best policy is to look it up. But if you like to gamble, bet on two words for a verb-preposition pair and one word for the adjective or noun.Â
January 7th, 2009
Baseball Hall of Famer Casey Stengel often is associated with the saying “You could look it up.” And we could, but how many of us do?
When it comes to English, guessing is a bad strategy. Keep a dictionary handy. When you need to know whether a term is written as one word, two words or hyphenated, look it up. Nothing else will do.
For example, “hotshot” is one word. Change one letter, and you have “hot spot,” two words. Webster’s does accept two-word and hyphenated variations of “hotshot,” but most language hotshots prefer the one-word version.
A “hot pepper” is two words. It may have been grown in a “hotbed” or a “hothouse,” each one word.
Anatomical “hot” terms are generally one word: “hotblooded,” “hotheaded,” “hotfoot.”
Most others, from “hot air” to “hot water,” are two words.
But don’t take my word for it. Look it up.
