Spelling and Grammar

Dynamo1

Dynamo1

Head of the Swing Shift
Just found this on another message board:

Farewell To The Mighty Hyphen

* Grammar purists, get ready to have your head explode: The new Oxford English Dictionary is getting rid of hyphenated words. [Newsweek]
* The fickle gods of the English language have decided to do away with 16,000 hyphens.
* Some words will now be joined to become one. Others will just be divorced, their life-long connection to one another amputated.
* Farewell to “bumble-bee,” “pot-belly,” “low-life” and “cry-baby.” [Reuters]
* Okay, okay, we’ll admit, some of these hyphens we were already ignoring. (Did you even know “ice-cream” was supposed to be joined?)
* The dictionary’s editor Angus Stevenson: “People are not confident about using hyphens anymore; they’re not really sure what they are for.” Nice way to end with a preposition, buddy. [My San Antonio]
* Why now? Blame technology. Until now, going through to catch every single hyphenated word and all of its appearances in cross references would have been a monumental undertaking. Now it’s as simple as find-and-replace.
* Why now? Blame our new love affair with texting. As messages get shorter and more abbreviated, its out with the old and in with whatever saves a key-stroke.

Watch for small rebel forces of lexographers weilding their hyphenated power popping up across the globe.

Now we will have to get updates for the Firefox browser and Microshaft Word speel chekkers. Er... Spill cheekers... Sppool chuckers... Spele chikeres...
 
So I googled this, and it's rather cool! It's quite a momentous occasion don't you think?
pigeon-hole is becoming pigeonhole.
leap-frog has turned into leapfrog.
*lmao* 'fine-tooth comb' (a comb with closely designed teeth) is very different from a 'fine tooth comb' (presumably a handsome device for combing one's teeth). :lol: Aparently that one will keep it's hyphen. ;)

With 16000 words going though I guess it'll be cheaper?
 
Will actress Ann-Margret become Ann Margret or Annmargret?
John Rhys-Davies: John Rhys Davies or John Rhysdavies?
 
That could cause some fun. I am so glad I'm not at uni anymore. I can just see the lecturers having to go through the essays for the new correct unhyphenated words.
 
Oh, don't get me started on that. :rolleyes:
They changed a ton of grammar rules for German a few years back. Not even the teachers know how to grade our papers anymore.

But I don't get why they want to get rid of hyphens? What did the hyphens ever do to them? :lol:
 
Oh dear...guess this means my Oxford dictionary will now be rendered rather useless :lol: Bleh, I never liked hyphens anyway :p
 
I never know when to use them properly!! At least this takes away *some* of the guesswork on those trickier words.

If they keep revising the Oxford every year, what's the incentive to have an up-to-date one? ;)
 
Wow, they're associating some of it with the amount of 'texting' others are doing. Er, I don't find it useful to text and when I do, I use hyphens. Sorry, I prefer proper spelling. (Which apprently won't be proper spelling in the near future. :lol:)

I don't know, this just seems idiotic to me. I've never seen a small horizontal line linking two words to be a big issue. In fact, it makes it easier in my opinion.

What's next? They'll decide punctuation slows us down too much and get rid of that? Bleh, no thank you Oxford Dictionary people. Why don't they go outside and find something useful to do with their time. :rolleyes:
 
Wouldn't it be easier to teach the new teachers how to use the hyphen and then they can teach the students how to use it. I'm amazed at how someone can just decide that nope we no longer need the hyphen. There are too many short cuts in today society. What's next the apostrophe!
 
My first name is hypenated! *feels sad for the hyphen* :p Although to be honest even I don't use it, and it's my name, so no wonder hyphens are becoming extinct....
 
If you take a look around (even on this message board ;) ), you can see just how much proper spelling and grammar has degraded. It's pretty interesting to see just how many shortcuts (short-cuts? short cuts?) that people will take, resulting in choppy and near-unreadable prose. It drives me crazy! *points to her location*.

But, on the other hand, I can also see the expedience of getting rid of some punctuation marks that are rarely used. Ultimately, I do agree with you both, Jacquie and Elsie: we should take the time to learn to use the rules of syntax of grammar and spelling properly and we should be okay.
 
I agree with you Springmoon, spelling, grammer, and puncituation have been drgrading in life and is very prevelent on this board.

I'm an English major and sometimes I want to strangle people anfask why they can't write properly. I tutor and edit paper and spend a lot of time rewriting the sentences just so they make sense to myself.

Hypens havn't been properly used for a while and many have been forgotten in words. So it's sad to see it go but in the long run it's been the over looked punctuation mark for quite a while.
 
Interesting news...Although I'm not sure I welcome it with open arms...It'll be weird not using the hyphen anymore. I'm not entirely sure if I'll ever drop using the hyphen all together. It will be a hard habit to break. 16,000 words? Wow...can't believe there are that many hyphenated words in the English language. Well, as they say, if a language doesn't evolve, it dies out and becomes extinct...Oh well.
 
I've always been a lazy speller but since I've come on here I keep a dictionary beside me so if the spell checker doesn't get it I have the good old back up to help :) I've also always have had trouble putting my thoughts on paper. I can never get the sentences to be grammatically correct. I remember when I was in grade 13, many, many moons ago that I would take the first draft of my reports to my English teacher for help before I gave him my final reports. For all my efforts he gave me a pass for my final mark. It was 50 but he knew I was at least trying :) When I see the sad state of the spelling on resumes and job applications on the kids of today I wish the teachers today would take the extra step that my English teacher did almost 30 years ago.
 
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