Not a Compound Adjective

Usually when I write about compound adjectives, I use one (or more) as an example. Here’s a good example of a pair of adjectives that do not make a compound! Headlines are often incorrect, but this time they got it reasonably right. I ran into this headline recently (mid-July 2020) in the local paper:

No mask mandate in Pocatello, at least for now

As written, this means “no mandate regarding masks…” because the adjectives don’t modify each other; they both modify the noun “mandate.” (Yes, “mask” is really a noun. It’s being used as an adjective. We call this using the noun attributively, and if you can, avoid doing it, but you may when you don’t cause any ambiguity. I think this sentence is just ambiguous enough to justify a Writing Rag article about compound adjectives.)

Let’s make it a compound adjective:

No-mask mandate in Pocatello, at least for now

This would be referring to a mandate about requiring no masks! Politically, at least, this has quite a different meaning!

Pay attention to your commas!

PS—Here’s a correct sentence that uses both kinds of adjectives:

We flew in from New Zealand on a Hercules military ski-equipped aircraft.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/john-priscu-finds-life-in-antarcticas-frozen-lakes-20200720/

“Military” and ski-equipped” are separate adjectives that modify “aircraft.” If such things as military skis exist, and he were referring to them, we would have gotten two hyphens: “military-ski-equipped.”

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In this case, a separable verb, pin down. It’s at the bottom.

I think that’s how you do it, anyway. How would you do it?

You see compound adjectives done correctly a lot, so you probably get them correct yourself. You could say it’s a deep-seated habit. Here’s a guy who got it wrong:

Well, his mistake is justified. The rule is that two adjectives (or nouns used attributively) that modify a word together should be hyphenated. So we have the five-second rule about dropped food.

An adverb-adjective pair, though, usually isn’t hyphenated because the adverb modifies just the adjective. For example, we can have a very dark night, or a thoroughly spoiled custard. And “after holiday” is an adverb-adjective pair.

But sometimes that adverb-adjective pair just makes more sense as a compound adjective. “After” is an adverb, but he’s not saying that he’s doing something after the holiday; he’s saying that the bills are the after-holiday type. So here we have the uncommon case of an adverb-adjective compound.

It’s a judgement call, so think when you write.

Okay, forget about the comic itself (I don’t get it, and besides, this is a grammar blog, not a comic blog).

First mistake; third panel: If you’re talking about distance, use “farther,” not “further.” “Further” is for abstract things that can’t be described by distance.

Second mistake; last panel: He’s talking about the manner in which something is being done, so he needs an adverb, not an adjective. He should say “quickly.”

Third item, not a mistake, but most people get it wrong: His “I” is correct. “I” is the subject of the implied sentence “I can look it up.” People get this wrong so often that you would be ahead to supply the missing verb: “…as quickly as I can.”

The mistake is in the first panel. I bet you won’t see it. I’m not referring to the false subject (there’s) either:

Here’s the goof: technically, “slower” is an adjective, and she’s using it as an adverb, to modify “drive.” You can have a slow driver, but you drive slowly, or in this case, more slowly.

Ah, idiomatic spoken English is so full of solecisms…