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When I walk into Shoppers Drug Mart the day after Easter and see cheap chocolate galore, should I announce it on my Facebook profile by writing it's "half price chocolate" or "half priced chocolate"? I've honestly written it both ways in the past and this has left me wondering if one form is more correct than the other.

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Price can be a noun (the price of an item) or a verb (to set the price of an item). Moreover, the word priced can be used as an adjective, particularly in combination with other words (e.g., high-priced slacks)

That would suggest that half-priced chocolate is also an acceptable form, where half-priced would be an adjective.

The Google Ngram Viewer favors half price rather strongly:

Meanwhile, a straight web search still favors half price over half priced, but shows plenty of results for both:

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  • I'm pretty sure that Ngram just has a problem with hyphens.
    – user545424
    Commented Apr 13, 2012 at 3:31
  • @user545424: Except that I've included both half price and half priced in the Ngram, and the results are still the same. The key finding of the Ngram is that half priced – with the -ed – is not found within the scope of Google's "Search lots of books" search.
    – J.R.
    Commented Apr 13, 2012 at 11:01
  • Ngrams no longer has a problem with hyphens. Both half-price and half price are correct; the first should be used mainly when it's an adjective that comes before the noun, though.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Jul 27, 2018 at 16:14
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Half price is the noun (e.g., I paid half price for these shoes), while the hyphenated Half-price is the adjective/adverb (e.g., All winter coats are half-price today).

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"half-price" seems to be the correct form. half-price half-priced

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  • Additionally you've used hyphens which I didn't think to do in my posting.
    – John K
    Commented Apr 12, 2012 at 23:38
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When you place a dollar value on an item in a store, you price that item. If you half price it, then part of the sales price may not be apparent. It is half priced.

If that chocolate in Shoppers Mart was correctly marked, but marked at a fifty percent discounted price, it would have been half price chocolate.

A sales clerk might be let go for half pricing merchandise!

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I'm of the opinion that half-price is a noun, while half-priced is an adjective.

I think of the two as being used in these ways:

The chocolate is half-price.

The half-priced chocolate is selling quickly.

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    I'm not buying "half-price" as a noun, and your usage example does not clarify. I might also write "The chocolate is melted," but you would not (I hope) claim that "melted" was used therein as a noun. For that matter, I could very well write "The chocolate is half-priced." Both "half-price" and "half-priced" are used as adjectives in your examples.
    – PellMel
    Commented Mar 28, 2016 at 20:37
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half price is half the price so is correct and actually, i think the other should be halved price grammatically speaking.

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    I have never heard of a sign saying "halved price." Maybe this is unique to where you live. Where do you live?
    – Azor Ahai -him-
    Commented Jul 27, 2018 at 16:24
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    Hello and welcome to EL&U. You’re suggesting an unusual term. Can you please demonstrate that it is idiomatic? Have a look at the way J.R. Substantiated his answer for some ideas on how to do that.
    – Lawrence
    Commented Jul 27, 2018 at 16:35

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