"bla bla bla," i said to myself, only half jokingly.
or
"bla bla bla," i said to myself, only half-jokingly.
or
"bla bla bla," i said to myself, only half-jokingly.
"i said to myself, only half jokingly" does this need a hyphen?
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Hyphen. The punctuation rule is pretty simple: any modifier composed of multiple words that function as a single compound word needs to be hyphenated.
caw
caw
Huh, I thought it had to precede a noun to need a hyphen, but I'm pretty grammatically stupid. I'd go with blacbird's answer.
Huh. I thought ly adverbs were excused from hyphenation. Now where did I get that idea? Maybe because it was in every style book I've ever laid eyes on?
Mark Moore
Banned
I fourth hyphenation.
I don't read style books and thus pay little attention to them. I freely end the last statement in a quote (that's followed by "she said") with a period instead of a comma. I place commas outside the quotes in a series of quoted words. I'm a rebel.
I don't read style books and thus pay little attention to them. I freely end the last statement in a quote (that's followed by "she said") with a period instead of a comma. I place commas outside the quotes in a series of quoted words. I'm a rebel.
Well, I guess we shouldn't be looking to you for tips on proper punctuation.I fourth hyphenation.
I don't read style books and thus pay little attention to them. I freely end the last statement in a quote (that's followed by "she said") with a period instead of a comma. I place commas outside the quotes in a series of quoted words. I'm a rebel.
Here's how Google answered "Hyphenate ly adverb?"
Every single link synopsis says never to hyphenate a ly adverb.
Nope- not even then. But I live on this side of the pond, so....
maybe it's okay 'over there'. To be honest, if I read it I can't say I would worry unduly.
"Sorry," he said, half-heartedly. (But half-heartedly is a word in its own right)
maybe it's okay 'over there'. To be honest, if I read it I can't say I would worry unduly.
"Sorry," he said, half-heartedly. (But half-heartedly is a word in its own right)
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I would go with, he half-jokingly said, and he said, half joking(ly). But I can't point to the rulebook on it. Or even the rule book . Stupid thing is 224 miles away, as usual.
Also, I can be woefully inconsistent.
As for the whole "I'm a rebel." He wrote. ? Well, when I'm reading slush, I like easy rejections.
. Stupid thing is 224 miles away, as usual.Also, I can be woefully inconsistent.
As for the whole "I'm a rebel." He wrote. ? Well, when I'm reading slush, I like easy rejections.
But no one seems to care much. I let my crappy Word spellcheck (spell-check, spell check???) advise me on when to use one and when not. From what I read, it seems that a lot of writers don't care much.
I'm guessing that readers don't get frothy over it, either, since 'wrong' hyphenation doesn't seem to exercise people nearly as much as, frex, a misspelling or a grammar howler.
It would bother me a lot, but I don't consider myself the average reader. I consider myself the fussy, hypercritical reader.
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