As an English major, I must comment. Hyphens are used when you have double adjectives, but you DO NOT hypenate adverbs. A lot of people don't seem to know this rule anymore.

Our newspaper, which used to be a prize winning paper until it was bought by the Gannett people, has laid off many--maybe all--of its proofreaders so that I get upset most mornings while reading it. One thing they do consistently in the daily weather report is to use exclamation points after almost every statement. It drives me crazy!

Carolyn, don't read Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific" if exclamation points drive you crazy. From memory I think he liberally sprinkled the whole book with them !!!

Carolyn, thanks for the information about hyphens. I had no idea about any of the 'rules' as grammar is seldom taught these days and I had never had any lessons, even over sixty years ago, regarding the hyphen and its use.

Regarding your local weather reports . . . and this is also for yoyo . . . recently the TV weatherman described the upcoming weather as "trending backwards" which apparently means "It will get colder."

Carolyn, how does the double adjective rule work ? Why not just put a comma between them ? Ex. " A beautiful, sunny, bright morning." This would not call for hyphens.

Vee.... *sigh* , I hate it. " uptick" " trending" ...and now, this.

I found another annoying habit that seems to be "trending" . A weather reporter on the Weather Channel said " The thing is, is that the front...." I am noticing there is a new habit of repeating the "is". I suspect that grammar is not taught well in schools and is going to end up like cursive. The age of texting lingo is upon us. The new definition of a compound word is " UR"

I recall when a hyphenated surname used to be rather upper class in Britain. In Australia it is more likely to be used by children of unmarried partners. It joins the surnames of both parents, usually with the maternal one first but I don't know what the arrangement is with children of same-sex partners.

What Is the usual case in the UK and USA?

I think that in the USA it is frequently used by the "modern" woman who wants to maintain her identity while married. For the same reason many chafe at seeing "Mr. and Mrs." and prefer " John and Mary" . And many more choose to eliminate the Mrs./Miss/ Ms. in their name as men do.

I find it interesting that Miss was used frequently when the masculine Master was not.

To clarify, I should have said a compound adjective when both adjs modify the same noun; e.g., He submitted a six-page document or She adopted a two-year-old cat. Not that I'm pedantic or anything.

Pedantic, you, Carolyn? Never!

Like Vee I also have a very rudimentary knowledge of grammar. I have mostly relied on English as it was spoken on the BBC to make written words sound right in my head. That has to suffice.

I was taught, I suppose, in English Language and Literature classes in the 12 - 16 High School but like with maths, never grasped the subject at all well.

I can mainly recall the simple lessons from the 7-11 Junior school.

"Verbs are doing words." etc.

annpan, ditto re "Verbs are doing words" and 'Nouns are the names of things" learnt when I was about 9 or 10; the rest is hazy.

Carolyn I have to admit I don't know what a 'modifier' is or, come to that, a compound adjective. I just have to muddle through.

yoyo, we in the UK notice when Americans address letters (for eg) just using 'John' and 'Mary' without the Mr Mrs Ms. Does the same rule or lack of it apply to formal/business letters?

I know that you have a reputation for being rather more easygoing than the stuffy old English and used to wonder at a New York friend now settled locally who has always called the Doctor by his first name. Maybe it is because she visits him several times a month she feels she knows him socially and Peter has certainly welcomed her into the NHS with open arms.

Vee, for formal /business letters the Mr/Mrs/Miss is always used.

I would not call a doctor by his/her first name unless I knew them personally as a friend. In fact one female OBGYN told me that when I saw her socially I could call her by her first name and didn't have to use her "office title".

Carolyn, did you ever watched Schoolhouse Rock ? My children always watched it and it was the most educational , clever little segments for teaching all kinds of things. I still remember the songs like " Lolly, Lolly, Lolly get your adverbs here " and "Conjunction Junction, what's your function..."

There was also a song about the Preamble and Bills.

Kids love catchy songs and these really taught skills.

My children also learned a song which put all the States in alphabetically order.

Vee, the young doctor who took over my case while my own GP was on holiday, told me to call her by her first name. I didn't feel comfortable about that though. Having worked in a medical library, it felt disrespectful even if she was young enough to be a granddaughter! (Actually my eldest GD is 40 this month!)

We were taught at school to address a doctor as Doctor and their surname because it wasn't polite otherwise. You wouldn't address a man as just "Mister" formally, so simply "Doctor" was incorrect.

Vee....I edited my prior response as I noted that I'd left out " not" in the first sentence :0)

I'm another one who doesn’t remember what I learned of grammar. I do remember hating to diagram sentences! I am fairly well-educated and I read a lot, so I know if something is wrong even if I can’t describe the error (such as a dangling participle).

I also wouldn’t address a doctor by their first name unless I knew them socially. Some of the veterinarians at the clinic where we take our cats go by “Dr Cara” or “Dr Tom”.

Donna

Dangling participles always sounded like a medical condition to me . As far as diagramming sentences, I really liked the structure and orderliness of it !

I'm not familiar with Schoolhouse Rock, Yoyobon, but it sounds like a great program. No, my grammar came from being raised by a school teacher mother. Her three sisters were teachers, too, so we never had a chance.

One family story: my sister and I and her three-year-old (note hyphens) daughter were visiting our paternal grandmother who used "ain't" during the conversation. Little niece immediately said, "Don't say ain't." Grandma laughed until she nearly fell off her chair. Niece is now a teacher herself and death on grammar. One of her recent posts on Facebook said that the Devil whispered in her ear "Your about to eat that big piece of chocolate cake," and she whispered back in his ear, "You're."

Carolyn, when my grandmother went "into service" as a 13yo she said "Yes, ain't it" in reply to her mistress remarking on the lovely day and was promptly corrected. She was a quick child and never said it again but told me the story.

I read somewhere that only aristocratic or common people say "ain't".

Carolyn, here is the Schoolhouse Rock Preamble :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHp7sMqPL0g

Interjections :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaWSQuS_ZUw