P.S. to PM, a believer in careful writing

JUNE CASAGRANDE

Ever since I started writing this column, I’ve developed an

irrational (or perhaps rational) fear of checking my e-mail. The

following exchange should make my reasons all too clear:

June, I was about to give you an A+ for your entertaining column

on the proper use of the apostrophe when I ran smack into

“nonmistake”. Alas, Dictionary.com, Merriam Webster Online, and the

American Heritage Dictionary (as well as several actual paper sources

I consulted) each fails to recognize “nonmistake” as a word. The

problem was compounded by your masterful use of the hyphen, shortly

thereafter, in “know-it-all” and “half-baked.” “The Careful Writer”

thinks the hyphen should be used when adding a prefix to a noun to

create a non-traditional word. Several of my grammatically-inclined

friends think you should get a pass on this one but, as Edwin Newman

pointed out, (I paraphrase) “you gotta be awfully careful when you

start telling people how use the language.” Keep up the good work. PM

So I replied:

Aha! Thank you for what will probably be the subject of my next

column. Interesting area you’ve ventured into, but I’m still taking

that A+. Here’s why.

If you would have performed a similar inquiry into a July 12 L.A.

Times horse-racing article by Bob Mieszerski, you might have reached

the opposite conclusion. Mieszerski’s article uses “non-threatening,”

but your own Merriam Webster source says that “nonthreatening” is, in

fact, a word.

Here’s the skinny: As you know, dictionaries are the main

authority on whether a root word plus a prefix can form a

nonhyphenated, correctly spelled word. However, as you also know,

just because it’s not in the dictionary doesn’t mean it’s not a word.

English is funny like that. Adding prefixes and suffixes can actually

create correct words that spell checkers and dictionaries don’t

recognize. The question is: When can you do that? Here’s what the

Associated Press Style Guide, the closest thing the newspaper

business has to a standardized authority, says:

Non- The rules of prefixes apply, but in general no hyphen when

forming a compound that does not have special meaning and can be

understood if “not” is used before the base word. Use a hyphen,

however, before proper nouns or in awkward combinations, such as

non-nuclear.

So, according to AP Style, I was right.

HOWEVER, in my zeal to prove myself right on this one, I

discovered something else: The Los Angeles Times appears to be on

your side. Non-profit, non-threatening and a bunch of others I found

opted for the hyphen. (Nonstop was used as one word.) So, apparently,

the Los Angeles Times style rules beg to differ with Associated

Press. (Like most big papers, the Times has its own style guide, and

I don’t have a copy. ‘Spose I should get one, because the Daily Pilot

is supposed to follow Times style rules.) So, you and I were both

right. You could also say that you and I were both wrong. But it is

fair to say that you busted me.

So I’ll bust you, too: You wrote, “ ... my grammatically-inclined

friends think ... “ Sorry PM, but that’s a wrong use of a hyphen.

Standard hyphenation rules don’t apply to adverbs that end in ly.

From the AP guide: “ ... use hyphens to link all the words in the

compound except the adverb very and all adverbs that end in ly.”

Of course, all this does an excellent job of underscoring your

main point: “You gotta be awfully careful when you start telling

people how use the language.”

PM Replies:

lol, Well, that was an excellent and thorough answer except for

where you think you busted me. Once again, check “The Careful

Writer,” which urges the use of a hyphen to avoid confusion. In this

case, the hyphenless “ ... my grammatically inclined friends ...”

leaves some ambiguity as to whether my friends who use grammar are

slanted, or, alternatively, I relied on a group of my acquaintances

who I deem to be well schooled in English usage. Thus, a requisite

hyphen to make the connection crystal clear. I will concede, slipping

the hyphen in after an adjective was daring and perhaps bordered on

the overly ambitious.

PM

Darn, and to think I could’ve busted PM on putting the period

outside the quotation marks at the end of his very first sentence.

Next time I’ll first consult the Careful Reader.

This column is dedicated in loving memory of my cat, Stevie.

* JUNE CASAGRANDE is a freelance writer. She can be reached at

[email protected].