Those Pesky Dashes

Meira · Apr 7, 2008

Please give advice on use of dashes.

1)
a) one hundred and eighty five years
b) one hundred and eighty-five years
c) one-hundred-and-eighty-five years
d) none of the above

2)
a) four foot three and a half
b) four-foot-three-and-a-half
c) none of the above

Thanks!

aruna · Apr 7, 2008

Meira said:
b) one hundred and eighty-five years

2)

c) none of the above

Methinks!

Shweta · Apr 7, 2008

Methinks methinks is an awesome word and should be used more often.
Mealsothinks Aruna is right

Mealsoalsothinks that this is a grammar question, and shall be ported there posthaste. And there I shall get into trouble for using "also" as an infix, which is a thing one may only do with swear words in English, methinks.

Maryn · Apr 7, 2008

According to my favorite grammar and usage book (The St. Martin's Handbook), use hyphens to spell out whole number from twenty-one to ninety-nine, both when they stand alone and when they are part of larger numbers. Examples:

thirty-seven
three hundred fifty-four thousand

Which makes Aruna right and me sure rather than merely pretty sure.

Maryn, considering that progress

Meira · Apr 7, 2008

Thanks for the Tips!

Thanks for the tips, guys. Sorry I started thread in the wrong place.

Shows what a grasshopper I really am. lol.

Shweta · Apr 7, 2008

No problem at all, Meira! Mejustfigured the folks who know hang out here, and lo! Maryn knows

melaniehoo · Apr 7, 2008

I seem to recall a rule that there is not an 'and' in the number in example 1. My sixth grade teacher beat us silly if we said one hundred and thirty-two, or whatever. I say/write one hundred thirty-two.

Shweta · Apr 7, 2008

I think this might be a british/american difference.

girlyswot · Apr 7, 2008

Yes. I'd certainly say that the 'and' was necessary, but I'm British. The OP seems to be from Colorado, though, so I was surprised to see she'd included it.

Meira · Apr 7, 2008

girlyswot said:
Yes. I'd certainly say that the 'and' was necessary, but I'm British. The OP seems to be from Colorado, though, so I was surprised to see she'd included it.

Blimey! Most of the author's I read are British, now that I think about it. Perhaps that is where I picked that up.

Danalynn · Apr 8, 2008

I have a similar question about dashes in time references?

Nine-thirty

or

Nine thirty

???

Maryn · Apr 8, 2008

Eek, St. Martin's does not address this specifically. My instinct would be to omit the hyphen unless the time's position within the sentence makes it unclear or ambiguous.

When I came over, it was nine thirty.
By nine thirty fifty messages waited for me. (Meh. I'd insert a comma.)

Anybody got a recent edition of the Chicago Manual handy? I'd have to walk clear across the room--to get an edition nearly 30 years old.

Maryn, who never saw any need to replace it

Danalynn · Apr 8, 2008

My instinct was to omit the hyphen, too, but I wasn't sure if that was the correct way to do it or not. . . .

Thanks for the help, Maryn.

:e2flowers

Judg · Apr 9, 2008

*whispers* Dashes and hyphens are not the same thing. Just sayin'. The confusion seems to be persisting despite the highly diplomatic correcting that has been going on. This thread deals with hyphens, not dashes.

Those Pesky Dashes

Meira

Informant X03981

aruna

On a wing and a prayer

Shweta

gone

Maryn

I Tried

Meira

Informant X03981

Shweta

gone

melaniehoo

And thus we begin the edits

Shweta

gone

girlyswot

Meira

Informant X03981

Danalynn

NEVER give up!!!!

Maryn

I Tried

Danalynn

NEVER give up!!!!

Judg

DISENCHANTED coming soon