I saw something odd when previewing a recent post:
A modern rule might be formulated thus: when the -It was time to look for a non-breaking hyphen. And one exists: ‑. Behold:
ing (present) participle has the force of a noun, it preferably takes a possessive subject, especially in formal contexts.
A modern rule might be formulated thus: when the ‑ing (present) participle has the force of a noun, it preferably takes a possessive subject, especially in formal contexts.The detached hyphen seems to be a sometime thing, a matter of device or browser or font or some combination thereof — or perhaps it’s just the magic of Blogger. In the sentence from Garner’s Modern English Usage that I’ve quoted here, the hyphen sometimes detached itself and sometimes stayed put. Here, for the sake of the example, I’ve detached the hyphen by means of a line break.
A related post
Looking for a non-breaking thin space
comments: 3
Back in my mid-1980s typesetting days, the non-breaking hyphen was one of my favorite discoveries. I lost track of it while using PageMaker, QuarkXPress and InDesign, since there was more control by just forcing returns. I got lazy. It's good to have this reminder of the HTML entity... thanks!
That explains a lot. As I took a walk yesterday afternoon, I came upon a lone hyphen on the sidewalk, obviously hurrying after its partner-syllable.
DN3, you’re welcome.
Geo-B, that sounds like a cartoon in the making.
If either of you happens across a non-breaking thin space, let me know. I will give it a good home.
Post a Comment