Julia Houston Thanks! There's an old joke:.But for some words, sorry, you just need to memorize them, or hire someone who does, like your friends at ProofreadingPal. So, while the English language bounces along, throwing out odd changes at its speakers’ whims, we can find some order in the chaos. The “a” in “apart” is like the “a” in “asymptomatic” and “asexual,” meaning “not.” The reason this last one is so odd is that it didn’t actually do the a + part = apart dance that the others did. Apart from all that nuisance with the bill, the mechanic stole a part from my car.Apart is a modifier indicating separateness.I cannot explain to my cat I that can not feed her if I do not want to.Īnd then there’s one pair that’s really fiendish: a part and apart.Cannot is a verb and the correct way to spell out “can’t.”.Can not is a verb only to be used as an option for choosing not to do something.Maybe I should tell him that one day his children may be famous.
Maybe is a modifier indicating uncertainty.We were already all ready to go an hour ago.Already is also a modifier, but it means that something has occurred in the past.All ready is a modifier that says something is completely prepared.You guys are altogether crazy when you’re all together like this.Altogether is also a modifier, but it means “completely.”.All together is a modifier that means everyone is included in the action.These are two-words-made-one for all kinds of reasons, and as such must be learned on their own. Our final group here is made up of the troublemakers that don’t really follow a pattern, such as: Their game has gotten better over time.“Sometime” takes the ball and runs with it, becoming a modifier that means “an unspecified time.” If I have “some time,” then I have an amount of time, but I’m not telling you exactly how much time it is (e.g., an hour). The two words merge into one to create a modifier or noun that is related to, but not the same as, the modified noun. In this group, two words are used when it’s a modifier + a noun. See how I set up that gender-defying setup?.Dad wants to make up with her, so he put on his makeup.Mom’s going to pick up the kids in her pickup.In better news, there are some groups of two-word / one-word terms that show a pattern, such as:Īs you can see, in this group, two words are used when they are a verb + a preposition, and one word is used when it’s a noun. Some words may soon be headed for hyphenation:Īnd currently hyphenated words that may soon just be one word include: When it comes to spelling things with hyphens, people basically approach it like cooking asparagus: we do it until we get tired of it and decide it’s OK to stop. That’s why it’s email but e-commerce, and why decision-making is always hyphenated now, even though other such constructions, such as risk taking, muscle building, and drug seeking, are hyphenated only when they’re modifiers. So, while there’s no rule, there is a general trend, which is that the more people use a word, the less likely they are to hyphenate it.
Think all you like that you shouldn’t split infinitives, but it’s no longer an “official” grammatical mistake. Another aspect of a living language is that what is “correct” is only what is most commonly done.
I would just love to tell you the rule about when and how and why two words can go from standing alone to being hyphenated to being one word, such as:
IS CANNOT ONE WORD OR 2 FREE
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