ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos

ACT English 3.2 Punctuation 962 Views


Share It!


Description:

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 2. How should we properly hyphenate the words in this sentence?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here's your shmoop du jour, brought to you by Chocolate-Covered Candies. Because sometimes

00:08

you just need your sugar to be dipped in sugar.

00:11

How should this sentence be changed so that it is grammatically correct?

00:15

The chocolate-covered candies were hard-centered.

00:26

Hyphens are used for more than just to communicate how important Hollywood bigwigs are.

00:30

They are also used to combine compound modifiers, or words that modify the interpretation of

00:35

a sentence's subject...as long as they come before that subject.

00:39

Let's check out the use of hyphens in the original sentence.

00:43

Chocolate-covered seems legit, but what about hard-centered?

00:46

This one comes after the subject, so it doesn't work. Again - hyphens can only be used to

00:52

combine modifiers that come before the subject. In D, the hyphen doesn't come between two

00:57

compound modifiers, it comes between one of the compound modifiers and the subject.

01:01

So, this one is outta there. C has the same problem as the original

01:05

sentence. The hyphen can only be used in front of the noun to combine modifiers, but hard-centered

01:10

is after the subject. And we're left with B. This uses a hyphen

01:15

only between the words before the subject.

01:17

These things sound delicious, but, of course, they'll still need to be deep-fried.

Up Next

ACT English 2.2 Punctuation
2058 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 2. Where should the semi-colon be placed?

Related Videos

ACT English 3.1 Punctuation
1059 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 1. How should this sentence be changed so that it is grammatically correct?

ACT English 3.4 Punctuation
516 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 4. Which choice best formats this list of items?

ACT English 2.1 Punctuation
509 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 1. Which choice of punctuation best completes the sentence?

ACT English 2.4 Punctuation
457 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 4. Which punctuation fits best in this sentence?