Do you remember The Doors’ hit song titled “Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me.” While I love the title, I sometimes find myself saying it as “Seen it wrong so often it looks right to me.” 

Here are a few of my (not) favorites. 

1•   using a hyphen with an adverb ending in -ly.  Not necessary, as the -ly already lets the reader know that it is an adverb. 

    NO: This new computer program is easily-learned. 

   YES: This new computer program is easily learned. 

2• Guess what – you may use more than one hyphen when creating a one-word adjective directly modifying a noun. In fact, you really should.  TRAP: only using one hyphen when you need two or more. 

NO: My ten-year old doggy needs a bath.  (He is an old doggy, but not a ten-year (old) doggy. 

YES: My ten-year-old doggy needs a bath. 

3•  There’s another example in the first line above. A comma is not required before every word that is  preceded by a quotation  mark. A title is just that; it’s not dialogue. 

NO: Do you remember The Doors’ hit song titled, “Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me”? 

YES: Do you remember The Doors’ hit song titled “Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me”? 

4•  While we’re on the topic of hyphens, here’s a tricky one. For the last several years, I’ve seen many writers use hyphens any time they see a number. In fact, I actually wrote to the editor of a medical magazine I used to receive that used phrases like this: Pediatricians see two to three times as many boys as girls in the summer. (I made up the sentence.) This magazine consistently punctuated similar numbers as “two-to-three times…”no matter the usage. I’m all for in-house style, but only when it serves a purpose.  

An article in the Sunday, June 21 Los Angeles Times said, “[Name], who has posted restaurant reviews and other content for roughly one-and-a-half years, said….”  These three hyphens are not needed.  

  NO: My brother’s house is two-to-three times as large as my nephew’s [house, understood]. 

YES: My brother’s house is two to three times as large as my nephew’s [house, understood]. 

YES: The sixty-year-old house is scheduled for demolition. 

YES: The house that is scheduled for demolition is sixty years old. 

NO: The house that is scheduled for demolition is sixty-years old. [since “years” ends in s, no hyphens needed] 

5•  Headline in the Los Angeles Times, Sunday, June 21, p.B1, read: The details that the City Council says sunk a plan to add members. 

The basic parts of the verb “to sink” are (present) sink, (simple past) sank, (past participle) had sunk.  So the verb should have read “sank.”  

6• With the increasing advent of AI, as well as voice-to-print dialogue, errors abound. In one day, I’ve caught “break” used instead of “brake” twice. (“The Courts Continue to Slam the Breaks On [name]” is one example, from a prominent online columnist) 

The voice-to-print app records things phonetically, so in an online comment about a wedding dress, instead of the fabric “tulle,” it wrote “tool”!  Another one wrote “hollow” instead of the bread “challah.” 

7• Note that when you’re referring to a person, use “who” and when it’s a “thing,” use “that.”  

NO: I have a friend that always asks me for money. 

YES: I have a friend who always leaves before the check arrives. 

NO: I know of a company who gives frequent raises.  (No; a company is not a “who”) 

YES: I know of a company that gives frequent raises. (Yes; a company is a “thing”) 

8•  And, finally, we must watch out for that gremlin inside our technology that purports to help us but changes our correct word for an incorrect word, such as this headline in a Facebook post: “The Hollywood Ranch Market formally the Mandarin Plaza”….  I can’t guarantee what the poster meant, but it should have said “formerly.”  

If there is a topic you’d like me to address in a future column, or if there’s a usage that hits you like fingernails on a chalkboard, feel free to drop me a note at floself@aol.com. 

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I was so saddened to hear of the sudden passing of Sandy Murphy, who edited this newsletter for years. During the months I’ve been doing this column, she was a delight to work with. I enjoyed her sweet sense of humor—and her patience. I will miss her.— Flo Selfman