hyphen

The Hyphen

That was good Ticomaya

It was darker colored. No hyphen.

It was a darker-colored sky. If it a darker sky or a darker color? The hyphen helps clarify it, though the differences are subtle in this case.

Thanks, Coluber.

But now I'm confused. Some members say it should be hyphenated.

Yoong Liat
Remember this:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_hyphen.html

Thanks, TTH.

Multi-word adjectives should be hyphenated. But most native English speakers don't know this and even those who do often neglect to do so. That's why you get conflicting opinions.

coluber2001 confused you because he attempted to illustrate that the words "darker coloured" don't necessarily construct a multi-word adjective. But to be honest I'm not sure that he succeeded since his examples change structure and can still be seen as using a multi-word adjective.

Here are different examples that might be clearer:

The darker, coloured image is my favorite. (This is two adjectives).

The darker-coloured image is my favorite. (This is one adjective).

It could be darker and colored or just comparatively darker-coloured.

One trick that may help you is to use "and" where you would put the hyphen and see if it makes sense. If not, then use the hyphen.

Your particular example is easy to confuse so I'll use an easier one: two-car garage.

It is a two-car garage. If you say "it is a two and car garage" it makes no sense. Compare it to multiple adjectives (as opposed to a multi-word adjective):

It is a big, blue garage. If you say "it is a big and blue garage" it is awkward but makes sense. So don't hyphenate the adjectives as they are separate.

P.S. I'm not sure if my comma between big and blue in my example is correct. It's a weird area of punctuation and I'm very, very bad with commas.

Rose colored glasses . . .

Light colored walls . . .

no hyphen needed.

That is not correct. But it's commonly accepted.

I've a feeling that punctuation marks are often done away in modern English. That's why our members have different views.

The more pedantic parts of punctuation have always been neglected. Modern technology like email and text messaging are just causing even more abusage.

The multi-word adjective rule is just one of the ones that has been frequently ignored. But it has not yet become correct to do so.