Compound adjectives - Unit 03

A compound adjective is a simple adjective made up of more than one word.The words in a compound adjective are often linked together with a hyphen.

example:

                Ana works part-time as an accountant.

There are some compound adjectives that don't have to use a hyphen. There is a rule that can help us to understand when we have to use it and when we don't.

When a multiword adjective comes before the word it modifies, hyphenate it. When it comes after the word it modifies, don't hyphenate it.

example:

               internationally recognized author.

In this example internationally describes the verb, when a word of the compound adjective is a -ly adverb, we don't use hyphen.

But if it is an irregular adverb we have to use hyphen.

example:

               Well-know actress.

If the expression comes after the modified noun, the hyphen won't appear.

example:

              The actress is well known.

In English there are a lot of phrasal adjectives.. It is really important to know their meanings.

In this link you will find a list of compound adjectives... and when you have to use a hyphen.

Reflections

Compound adjectives are words that are made for two or more words, in english as in spanish we use compound adjectives for denoting something specific... a characteristic of an object. There are lots of compound adjectives in English. In my personal opinion when someone wants to learn and improve their level of english, has to know how to use and create a compound adjective.. there is not a list of instructions for create a compound adjective. We can identify one compound adjective by the hyphen that almost every compound use, but not all of the compounds use it.