My wife saw this in an email message yesterday.<\/p>\n
Problem:<\/strong> Explanation:<\/strong> This phrase should not<\/em> have a hyphen.<\/p>\n When a number modifies a noun (or noun phrase) to tell you how many<\/em>, there should be no hyphen between the number and the noun (or noun phrase) that the number is modifying.<\/p>\n In the problematic phrase, the number “16” is modifying “years of age” (a noun phrase), so one should not insert a hyphen between them.<\/p>\n I believe that the writer of the email message was distracted by the fact that hyphens are<\/em> required when one writes something such as “the 16-year-old student”. The reason for this requirement is that “16-year-old” is modifying “student”; the hyphens effectively glue “16” and “year” and “old” together to create a modifier of “student” (the noun).<\/p>\n Solution:<\/strong> My wife saw this in an email message yesterday. Problem: The hyphenation is incorrect. Explanation: Here is the phrase as it appeared in the full sentence: “Please ask students who you think would really benefit from this experience and who are at least 16-years of age to complete the information.” This phrase should not have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,33,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adjectives","category-hyphens","category-nouns"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nThe hyphenation is incorrect.<\/p>\n
\nHere is the phrase as it appeared in the full sentence: “Please ask students who you think would really benefit from this experience and who are at least 16-years of age to complete the information.”<\/p>\n
\n“at least 16 years of age”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"