10

Consider the following sentence:

The labour-intensive and time-intensive part starts tomorrow.

I want to write this without rewriting the word "intensive."

Is this the correct way to do it?

The labour- and time-intensive part starts tomorrow.

Note the hyphen hanging after the word labour. Or should there be no hyphen after labour? Can anyone point me to a reference that talks about this?

| improve this question | |
  • If it was "labour-intensive or time-intensive" you could say "labour/time-intensive". – JUST16 Nov 10 '13 at 19:49
  • What is the name for this form of hyphenation (labour- ...) in the English grammar, so that I can read up on this? – johann_ka Mar 27 '19 at 15:52
  • 3
    @johann_ka suspended hyphens english.stackexchange.com/a/132002/196994 – Blaisem Mar 29 '19 at 7:28
2

Fowler recommends that you leave out the hyphen after labour there, because it is not strictly needed for comprehension. I don't have a reference on hand, but it is no doubt in his Dictionary of Modern English Usage, a highly respected style book.

| improve this answer | |
  • 3
    Yep. The hyphen is allowed but not required. I like the look of it, though, and it disambiguates a few edge cases. – Jon Purdy Nov 10 '13 at 19:57
  • @JonPurdy: It is required in Dutch btw... – Cerberus_Reinstate_Monica Nov 10 '13 at 20:45
  • Interesting. I know sticklers who would say it’s required in English, but even for the normal case of compound adjectives (“a six-foot-tall man”) most people don’t use them and it’s not usually ambiguous (“a six foot tall man”). The only thing that bothers me is when people hypercorrect: e.g., “she was six years old” to “she was six-years-old”. – Jon Purdy Nov 10 '13 at 23:52
  • @JonPurdy: That is indeed annoying! The idea behind a six-foot-tall man is consistency: if we always hyphenate compound adjectives, we can depend upon this feature, and it becomes easier in general to immediately parse correctly a pot smoking hot and a pot-smoking hottie, even though strictly neither is ambiguous. – Cerberus_Reinstate_Monica Nov 11 '13 at 0:23
0

Yes , you can hyphenate.

Though you have to realize that both "Time-intensive" and "Labor-intensive" are adjectives, qualifying the noun "Part" I would personally take the conjunction "And" out. Try a noun after both the adjectives, for example Time-intensive activities... Labor-intensive jobs etc.

| improve this answer | |

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.