h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Okay. It seems to me that your examples of where to place and not to place hyphens are a bit incorrect. I agree with the first, 'The garden was well-kept', because 'well' is an adverb and as such can legitimately modify 'kept'. However, in the others (except for the one dealing with the Madonna-like pose, which had to be reworked a bit to work anyway), you have an adjective modifying a verb, which simply doesn't work.

I could, of course, be wrong; after all, I didn't look in a grammar book to justify this claim; I simply relied on my own innate sense for correct grammar. It usually serves me well. I also don't want to seem like I'm attacking the article; it's great and I refer to it constantly; I just love finding errors in things and correcting them. Which is why I am a subeditor, I guess! So, tell me what you think.

I agree with Anna's hyphenation rules except for the use of the word "well."

I edit for a Web site, and hyphens and compound modifiers are a constant source of frustration for me. I was taught that hyphens are used to avoid confusion. Phrases like "first-quarter earnings" and "small-business owner" require hyphenated modifiers to avoid ambiguity. Without a hyphen, "small business owner" is ambiguous.

But in the case of adverbs, such as those ending in -ly, and the word "well," I see no reason to hyphenate. Readers can expect that an adverb will modify any verb that follows, and that the adverb/verb combination will modify the noun that follows it. So, I would take issue with phrases like "well-kept garden." Without a hyphen, there is no confusion: "well kept garden," "well known soldier," "well fed child."

Some grammarians advocate that a hyphen should be used when the modifier follows a form of the verb "to be." In this case: "The garden is well-kept," and "The soldier is well-known." I personally don't subscribe to this rule, and I don't enforce it at work. Because it follows the noun, there is no room for confusion, as in Anna's examples: "was quick witted," "were broad shouldered."

Another use of hyphens not addressed in the guide concerns words such as "resign," to quit a job, for example, and "re-sign," to sign something again; "recover," to restore to normal, and "re-cover," to cover again.