Will the dictionary tell us whether to use “orange juice,” “orange-juice,” or orangejuice”? What’s the difference between red, white, and blue flags compared to red-white-and-blue?
Get it wrong, and most readers won’t notice.
Get it right, and nobody will be alarmed. Isn’t that what you want?
Be careful when two or more adjectives precede a noun.
- The cold dreary sky appeared ready to deliver a heavy limb breaking snow.
- The red and white table cloths were perfect for the Fourth of July.
- The orange juice salesman was responsible for the southeast territory.
Let’s test the noun phrases.
(1) In the “cold dreary sky,” delete “cold.” Is the statement still true? Yes. Delete “dreary,” and the statement still holds true. So the adjectives “cold” and “dreary” each modify the noun “sky.” The meaning is clear, so no editing is needed with that phrase.
(2) What is meant by “heavy limb breaking snow”? A “heavy limb” is not breaking the snow. The snow is heavy. How heavy is it? Not “limb snow,” not “breaking snow.” To avoid confusion, we need limb and breaking to form a single adjective to modify snow. How do we do that? Use a hyphen for a “heavy limb-breaking snow.” Now we have two adjectives, each modifying snow.
(3) Do the “red and white table cloths” refer to cloths on red tables and white tables? Probably not. Use the single word “tablecloths” to eliminate the need for one of the adjectives.
(4) Did some of the tables have white tablecloths while others had red? To make all the tablecloths alike, we need to see the two colors as a single modifier. How do we do that? Use hyphens to describe the festive “red-and-white tablecloths.”
(5) Was the juice salesman orange? No, we need a single-word modifier, so we have an orange-juice salesman (adding the hyphen). Some writers might want “orangejuice” as one word, but most spellcheckers and dictionaries don’t approve, at least not yet.
