Writing

Foolacious

(540 posts) Tue Jan 5, 2021, 01:17 PM Jan 2021

Hyphenated ages

Has hyphenation of ages become the standard in all grammatical contexts?

When I was in school (60's and 70's), here is how ages were presented:

Rover is a 12-year-old dog.
Rover is 12 years old.

In other words, if the age functioned as an adjective, it was hyphenated; as a copulative predicate, it was not.

Now I seldom see, even in formal publications, the non-hyphenated form. Instead, it's:

Rover is a 12-year-old dog.
Rover is 12-years-old.

Oddly, I only rarely see this form extended to other measurements, like height or time.

Rover is a 30-centimeter-tall dog.
Rover is 30 centimeters tall.
RARELY: Rover is 30-centimeters-tall.

It was a 100-year war.
The war lasted 100 years.
RARELY: The war lasted 100-years.

Anyone have a copy of Chicago Manual of Style or other authoritative source handy?

9 replies

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Highlight:

Hyphenated ages (Original Post) Foolacious Jan 2021 OP

Grammar guru here. The "old" form is still the correct form. tblue37 Jan 2021 #1

Associated Press Style agrees! Blue_playwright Jan 2021 #8

Associated Press Style agrees! Blue_playwright Jan 2021 #9

Hypens in 12-years-old make no sense lettucebe Jan 2021 #2

Except when it's a year... AmyStrange Jan 2021 #7

The younger writers in my group would agree that your first examples are correct. CrispyQ Jan 2021 #3

Perdue's Owl site is good SheltieLover Jan 2021 #4

Apostrophe s pjyonemura Jan 2021 #5

ON EDIT: Decades were presented to us as an exception... Foolacious Jan 2021 #6

tblue37

(68,449 posts)

1. Grammar guru here. The "old" form is still the correct form.

Reply to Foolacious (Original post)

Tue Jan 5, 2021, 01:20 PM

Jan 2021

Rover is a 12-year-old dog.
Rover is 12 years old.

Blue_playwright

(1,621 posts)

8. Associated Press Style agrees!

Reply to tblue37 (Reply #1)

Wed Jan 6, 2021, 12:00 PM

Jan 2021

Blue_playwright

(1,621 posts)

9. Associated Press Style agrees!

Reply to tblue37 (Reply #1)

Wed Jan 6, 2021, 12:00 PM

Jan 2021

lettucebe

(2,356 posts)

2. Hypens in 12-years-old make no sense

Reply to Foolacious (Original post)

Tue Jan 5, 2021, 01:27 PM

Jan 2021

I'm no expert but that is incorrect usage. Why add a hypen to twelve years? It is two words, twelve and years. They are two distinct things. Whereas Twelve-years-old is basically one word. It's stating a fact.

Also, if we want to talk numbers, always write out the number if it's the first word in a sentence. Do not start a sentence with a numeral. Just my thoughts.

AmyStrange

(7,989 posts)

7. Except when it's a year...

Reply to lettucebe (Reply #2)

Tue Jan 5, 2021, 04:16 PM

Jan 2021

-

2020 was a very bad year.
=======

CrispyQ

(41,108 posts)

3. The younger writers in my group would agree that your first examples are correct.

Reply to Foolacious (Original post)

Tue Jan 5, 2021, 01:51 PM

Jan 2021

However, when I read their work, I find that they often use en/em dashes in place of commas. And they cross out a lot of the commas I use in my writing.

SheltieLover

(81,744 posts)

4. Perdue's Owl site is good

Reply to Foolacious (Original post)

Tue Jan 5, 2021, 02:09 PM

Jan 2021

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/english_as_a_second_language/esl_students/punctuation/hyphens_and_dashes.html#:~:text=Note%20that%20dashes%20are%20double,Apostrophes

I hope this helps.

pjyonemura

(9 posts)

5. Apostrophe s

Reply to Foolacious (Original post)

Tue Jan 5, 2021, 02:33 PM

Jan 2021

When I was in school and then an editor, apostrophe-s 's did not a plural make. That was in the 60s and 70s.

Foolacious

(540 posts)

6. ON EDIT: Decades were presented to us as an exception...

Reply to pjyonemura (Reply #5)

Tue Jan 5, 2021, 02:45 PM

Jan 2021

and I've had enough pushback over the decades for "60s and 70s" that I've shifted over to "60's and 70's". With your encouragement, I shall endeavour to switch back!!

ON EDIT: It occurs to me that I was taught to pluralize letters by using an apostrophe: "My name is spelled with two r's."

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