to hyphen or to not??

gp101 · Oct 16, 2006

I'm pretty sure the hyphen below is properly used:

"....the jar broke, resulting in a pissed-off grocer..."

yet, a tiny voice in my head keeps egging me on to remove the hyphen and leave "pissed off" as two unconnected words. But that just doesn't look right if "pissed off" is to be used as a modifier as in my example, right? Right...?

He pissed off the grocer.

I'm pissed-off.

The pissed-off grocer.

Correct? Deal or no deal?

isn't it the same principle as in:

"...resulting in a thumb-sucking juvenile..."

Please advise so I can ignore the voices. Thank you.

September skies · Oct 16, 2006

it's correct.

The pissed-off grocer

you hyphen when the two words are needed together to make sense before a noun.
if you were to drop off "Pissed" and used "the off grocer" that would not make sense. So, pissed-off must be hyphenated.

newmod · Oct 17, 2006

I´ve never seen pissed off spelt with a hyphen in Britain/Ireland. I´d personally spell it without. FWIW

Bufty · Oct 17, 2006

I agree with September and gp101.

Something like 'I yelled at him and he pissed off' is totally different.

September skies said:
it's correct.

The pissed-off grocer

you hyphen when the two words are needed together to make sense before a noun.
if you were to drop off "Pissed" and used "the off grocer" that would not make sense. So, pissed-off must be hyphenated.

FloVoyager · Oct 17, 2006

I haven't looked it up, but off the top of my head I'd say leave out the hyphen. It just doesn't look right to my eye hyphenated.

Edited to add: Okay, I got curious, so I looked it up. The Chicago Manual of Style and Strunk & White both say the hyphen is not necessary in the example above, but not incorrect. Try reading the sentence aloud and see what works best.

Bufty · Oct 17, 2006

That's not my interpretation of Strunk & White's comments on the hyphen - indeed I read them as quite the opposite. When gp's phrase is read aloud it may sound okay, but for reading I think the hyphen is needed. It seems a compound adjective to me.

FloVoyager said:
I haven't looked it up, but off the top of my head I'd say leave out the hyphen. It just doesn't look right to my eye hyphenated.

Edited to add: Okay, I got curious, so I looked it up. The Chicago Manual of Style and Strunk & White both say the hyphen is not necessary in the example above, but not incorrect. Try reading the sentence aloud and see what works best.

Sandi LeFaucheur · Oct 17, 2006

It needs the hyphen before the noun "pissed-off grocer", but not in this sentence "he pissed off the grocer".

to hyphen or to not??

gp101

September skies

cloud watching

newmod

Bufty

Where have the last ten years gone?

FloVoyager

Will write for chocolate

Bufty

Where have the last ten years gone?

Sandi LeFaucheur