Expert: Dan Smith - 1/9/2011

Question
Hyphens drive me crazy!  Is there a hyphen in long-term care or is it long term care?  I think I've seen this as both.
Thanks so much!

Answer
Compound adjectives are an ambiguous area in English. I hyphenate "long-term care". But note that if the care is long term (the description is in the predicate), it is not a compound adjective. What is more, this is one of the areas in which the language evolves fairly rapidly, and compounds become single words (nationwide).

The way I try to sort it out is if the two words in a potential compound actually form a single concept and do not follow the verb in the sentence, I make it a compound.

I assume you know that words ending in "ly" are always adverbs and never hyphenated.

Also, terms beginning in "self" are always hyphenated (self-esteem, self-concept, self-help).

I tend to go with more hyphenated compounds than most.

Hope this helps.