Here’s something that eagle-eyed clients sometimes pick up on and question. Why has the first example hyphenated “forward-looking” – and the second one hasn’t? Not understanding the rules about when to hyphenate can add unnecessary time into the approvals process. So here’s a mini explainer.
It’s a forward-looking company.
The company is forward looking.
For a number of reasons, both of these examples are absolutely correct. Why? It’s all about the position of the words.
In both the examples here, the words “forward” and “looking” are working together as a single adjective. Or in other words, their job is to describe the company.
Getting into the grammar
Because there is more than one word involved in describing a single concept, the phrase “forward-looking” (or indeed, “forward looking”) is what’s called a compound adjective.
And when compound adjectives come before the noun (naming word) they describe, they should be hyphenated. When they come after it, they aren’t.
Why is this?
Well, usually it’s about precision and clarity. So when a compound adjective comes before a noun in a sentence, the hyphen shows clearly that the two words belong together as a concept.
This example is ambiguous:
It’s a very forward looking company.
Is the company very forward? Or is it very progressive? If it had a hyphen between “forward” and “looking”, you’d know it was the latter.
As a company, it’s very forward looking.
When the compound adjective comes after the noun, you instinctively understand that the meaning is “a very progressive company”. In English, verbs don’t tend to come at the end of sentences – so we understand that forward and looking belong together as a concept.
It’s not just about the position of compound adjectives. Sometimes two words sitting next to one another in a sentence perform very different jobs, depending on where they are and whether they’re hyphenated.
In the examples below, the “morning-after” is a compound adjective and it has to come before the noun, because it wouldn’t make sense if it came after it. And if it’s coming before the noun, it needs to be hyphenated.
In the second example, we’re not even talking about the same kind of pill.
She took the morning-after pill.
She took the pill the morning after.
These two statements describe something completely different. The morning-after pill is a very specific kind of drug, for a very specific purpose. In the second example, the subject of the sentence could be taking any type of pill the morning after a previously-specified event.
In the first example, the “morning-after” is adjectival and it comes before the noun “pill”, so it’s hyphenated. In the second, “the morning after” describes when the pill was taken. In grammatical terms, “the morning after” acts as an adverb – or in other words, it describes how the action happened.
All seems too complicated?
If this seems like a faff – and you know you’ll just end up having to explain and re-explain as stakeholders also bring up the question of the hyphen, then just avoid compound adjectives as much as possible. Call the company “progressive” rather than “forward looking”.
Does knowing when to hyphenate matter?
If you mean, should you always follow the rules, come what may? Then not necessarily. If you decide to break a grammatical rule because it’s right for your brand – then do it. Just do it consistently (and to be consistent, you have to understand which rules you’re breaking and why).
Another reason it’s good to be clear on the grammar is if you’re involved with approving or feeding into copy. If you don’t know why forward-looking is hyphenated in one place and not another, you could waste a lot of time giving incorrect feedback to the author, who’ll then have to waste time explaining why it’s not wrong. It’s also likely you’ll feel grumpier than you ever needed to, wondering why you’re paying good money to a copywriter who – in your eyes – is making mistakes and inconsistently presenting phrases.
Any other advice?
If you’re working with a copywriter and ever start to feel niggly about something they’re doing or not doing, picking up the phone should be your first line of action.
A conversation that starts: “Hi Liz, just wondered – why is “forward thinking” hyphenated in some places and not others?” one of two things will happen. You’ll either realise your copywriter hasn’t a clue – and you can try to find someone else. Or, it can lead to a deeper relationship based on mutual respect and trust.
If instead you use red tracked changes to write: “INCONSISTENT! CHANGE THIS!!” Your copywriter will feel depressed, could be made to feel defensive – and may just cave and let you write anything you want. Which kind of defeats the object of working with them in the first place. (And an eagle-eyed colleague may later pull you up on your incorrect use of hyphens.)
As ever, if you have questions, you know where we are.
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