multiple adjectives


When a noun is described by two or more adjectives that are side-by-side, place a comma between the adjectives.  For example,  “The boat sank in the wild, stormy sea”.


Is that correct?  In which cases would the two adjectives be hyphenated?

1 answer


The "rule" has one part you left out. You add the comma only if you can replace the comma with the conjunction "and".  If both adjectives are required and "and" cannot be added between them, then no comma is added.


You sentence requires the comma.


Generally, if you cannot use the comma, you hyphenate the two adjectives before a noun. But there are many exceptions. he Chicago Manual of Style devotes more than seven pages trying to describe all the different exceptions. The most important eception: never hyphenante a compound adjective where the first word ends in -ly. Other than that, if you add the hyphen you are more likely right than wrong.

link comment answered Oct 22 '12 at 02:50 Jeff Pribyl Grammarly Fellow

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