Expert: Dan Smith - 10/9/2005

Question
Hi Dan,

We write aviation technical manuals and there are a LOT of instances when we are confused about jointing to make compound words. A couple of examples:

1. Flight crew or flightcrew, and in that same line, we sometimes see crew members or crewmembers.

 To make this even MORE confusing is flightcrew members or the other way, flight crewmembers.

How can we know what to use?

I was C student in English, and it shows!

Thanks,

Jerry Naekel

Answer
I wouldn't worry too much about this one. The important part here is that you establish a rule that you will follow in the materials you are responsible. It is important to be consistent in the same publication or set of publications.

There are no hard and fast rules in this area, and the langauge tends to change. The trend is that words that are often used together come to be regarded first as compounds that are hyphenated and then are fully combined to become single words. What is at issue is not particular grammatical rules, but perceptions of contemporary convention.

If you're going to combine "flight" and "crew" as "flightcrew," then be consistent and make it "flightcrew members." But be aware that you are not following a rule regarding the terms themselves. You'rs just being consistent in the same document.

It helps to keep in mind that rules of grammar are not prescriptive, but descriptive. Languages change all the time.

Hope this helps.