Ernest Amador is the Testing Coordinator of the Academic Center. While earning his bachelor’s degree from UHV, Ernest worked at the Academic Center as a peer writing tutor from Spring 2006 to Summer 2007. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree from UHV.
 

Noun Phrase- A noun phrase consists of a headword noun along with all of the words and phrase that describe or limit it.

-adapted from Kolln’s Rhetorical Grammar
 

Last week, we focused on when to include a hyphen with compound adjectives. As you might recall, a compound adjective is a group of two or more words that act as a single adjective. For example, the noun phrase the three-legged dog includes a compound adjective: the compound three-legged acts as a single adjective modifying the noun dog.

This week, we’ll take a look at some instances when we want to say No to hyphenating compound adjectives.

(Note: in all of the examples below, the compound adjectives are underlined and the nouns in which they modify are italicized)

In an ly-ending adverb + adjective construction                                                    

Ex: Choosing a candidate for the position will be a hard decision for the interviewing committee because of the large number of highly qualified applicants.

Although  placed before the noun it describes, the compound adjective highly qualified does not require a hyphen because the first word in the compound, highly, is an adverb that ends with ly.

When the second part of the compound adjective is a numeral or a letter

Ex:  The evening news said a category 3 hurricane was approaching the east coast.

Note: If a numeral appears as the first part of a compound adjective, then a hyphen is required. (EX: The price of oil per barrel is now at a six-year high.)