{"id":608,"date":"2009-05-18T12:00:07","date_gmt":"2009-05-18T18:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/"},"modified":"2015-12-10T13:33:25","modified_gmt":"2015-12-10T19:33:25","slug":"thank-you-for-your-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/","title":{"rendered":"“Thank-You For Your Business!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

My wife and I saw this at the bottom of an invoice a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Beyond noticing that the preposition “For” should not have been capitalized, we both had a gut reaction to the hyphen in “Thank-You”.<\/p>\n

The reaction was that the hyphenated form of the imperative “Thank You” felt like something that we used to see a few decades ago.<\/p>\n

Of course, she or I today would use the hyphenated “Thank-You” when those two words together modify a noun, as in “Thank-You Cards”.<\/p>\n

But neither of us would hyphenate “Thank You” when using those two words as an imperative (in, say, a headline).<\/p>\n

I saw no matches when I searched Google for the use of the hyphenated “thank-you” as an imperative, but I admit that it was not a very deep search.<\/p>\n

What I now wonder is whether the hyphenated imperative form in my wife’s and my memories comes from seeing typesetters’ mistakes or is based on a style that has gone out of favor.<\/p>\n

Do you<\/em> recall seeing the hyphenated imperative “Thank-You” years ago?<\/p>\n

Do you believe that this form was a mistake or that it was a commonly accepted form?<\/p>\n

Please let me know<\/a>, and I will elaborate on this topic in a future post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My wife and I saw this at the bottom of an invoice a few weeks ago. Beyond noticing that the preposition “For” should not have been capitalized, we both had a gut reaction to the hyphen in “Thank-You”. The reaction was that the hyphenated form of the imperative “Thank You” felt like something that we…<\/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":[7,33,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adjectives","category-hyphens","category-imperatives"],"yoast_head":"\n"Thank-You For Your Business!" - Kirk Mahoney . com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Thank-You For Your Business!" - Kirk Mahoney . com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My wife and I saw this at the bottom of an invoice a few weeks ago. Beyond noticing that the preposition “For” should not have been capitalized, we both had a gut reaction to the hyphen in “Thank-You”. The reaction was that the hyphenated form of the imperative “Thank You” felt like something that we…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kirk Mahoney . com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-05-18T18:00:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-12-10T19:33:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kirk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kirk\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kirk\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/ef2d2a9df1a7b457aacaa1b36d0ffe3a\"},\"headline\":\"“Thank-You For Your Business!”\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-05-18T18:00:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-12-10T19:33:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/\"},\"wordCount\":213,\"articleSection\":[\"Adjectives\",\"Hyphens\",\"Imperatives\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/\",\"name\":\"\\\"Thank-You For Your Business!\\\" - Kirk Mahoney . com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-05-18T18:00:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-12-10T19:33:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/ef2d2a9df1a7b457aacaa1b36d0ffe3a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"“Thank-You For Your Business!”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/\",\"name\":\"Kirk Mahoney . com\",\"description\":\"Better Communication for Smart People\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/ef2d2a9df1a7b457aacaa1b36d0ffe3a\",\"name\":\"Kirk\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a8752dc5ed4333a83c8044afd0530fb70bcf58c955e7b5cbadbbd7b4c82c7cd?s=96&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a8752dc5ed4333a83c8044afd0530fb70bcf58c955e7b5cbadbbd7b4c82c7cd?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a8752dc5ed4333a83c8044afd0530fb70bcf58c955e7b5cbadbbd7b4c82c7cd?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kirk\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/author\/Kirk\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Thank-You For Your Business!\" - Kirk Mahoney . com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Thank-You For Your Business!\" - Kirk Mahoney . com","og_description":"My wife and I saw this at the bottom of an invoice a few weeks ago. Beyond noticing that the preposition “For” should not have been capitalized, we both had a gut reaction to the hyphen in “Thank-You”. The reaction was that the hyphenated form of the imperative “Thank You” felt like something that we…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/","og_site_name":"Kirk Mahoney . com","article_published_time":"2009-05-18T18:00:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-12-10T19:33:25+00:00","author":"Kirk","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kirk","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/"},"author":{"name":"Kirk","@id":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/ef2d2a9df1a7b457aacaa1b36d0ffe3a"},"headline":"“Thank-You For Your Business!”","datePublished":"2009-05-18T18:00:07+00:00","dateModified":"2015-12-10T19:33:25+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/"},"wordCount":213,"articleSection":["Adjectives","Hyphens","Imperatives"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/","url":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/","name":"\"Thank-You For Your Business!\" - Kirk Mahoney . com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-05-18T18:00:07+00:00","dateModified":"2015-12-10T19:33:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/ef2d2a9df1a7b457aacaa1b36d0ffe3a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/05\/thank-you-for-your-business\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“Thank-You For Your Business!”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/","name":"Kirk Mahoney . com","description":"Better Communication for Smart People","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/ef2d2a9df1a7b457aacaa1b36d0ffe3a","name":"Kirk","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a8752dc5ed4333a83c8044afd0530fb70bcf58c955e7b5cbadbbd7b4c82c7cd?s=96&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a8752dc5ed4333a83c8044afd0530fb70bcf58c955e7b5cbadbbd7b4c82c7cd?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a8752dc5ed4333a83c8044afd0530fb70bcf58c955e7b5cbadbbd7b4c82c7cd?s=96&r=g","caption":"Kirk"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/author\/Kirk\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gYTW-9O","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1079,"href":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608\/revisions\/1079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}