A to Z Challenge, 2014: Freshly Squeezed Adverbs

Oh Heck! Another Quirky Writing Error

I recently went to a street fair in Summerville, South Carolina, and amused myself by taking pictures of people and signs.

I was a bit hungry and drooled over the deep-fried Oreos, the deep-fried mushrooms, and the hand-dipped corn dogs, but I resisted their high-calorie goodness. (Note the correct hyphen use on these popular street-fair snacks. I wrote about hyphens in “Deep-Fried Hyphens.”)

Street-fair snacks: hand-dipped fried mushrooms and hand-dipped corn dogs, among other things.

I considered having a cool drink to quench my thirst.  I checked the signs and found that I could have

Fresh Squeezed Lemonade

 

Freshly Squeezed Lemonade

Fresh Brewed Iced Tea or Fresh Squeezed Lemonade

Hmmm. It got me wondering about hyphen use again. Which of these drinks is listed correctly? Should it be fresh squeezed lemonade or should it be freshly squeezed lemonade? And do either of these need a hyphen? The answers to these questions have to do with adjectives and adverbs.

Adjectives modify or describe nouns. Multiple-word descriptors before a noun require a hyphen to clarify meaning.

deep-fried Oreos
deep-fried mushrooms
deep-fried artichokes
hand-dipped corndogs

Adverbs with -ly endings modify verbs and do not get hyphens.

But now, here come the adverbs. Adverbs do not follow the same add-a-hyphen rule, primarily because the adverb makes the meaning of the phrase clear without any help from a hyphen, thank you very much.

• Freshly squeezed orange juice.

The juice has recently been squeezed from the oranges. Freshly modifies squeezed (past participle), telling us when the juice was squeezed.

But wait, in this next example, fresh modifies orange juice, a noun, making its use okay as well.

• Fresh, squeezed orange juice.

In this case, fresh modifies orange juice (fresh orange juice) making its use without a hyphen okay. It is fresh juice, and it is squeezed juice. A comma makes it clearer.

Here are examples of -ly adverbs correctly written without a hyphen.

**  recently discovered secret
**  freshly baked bread
**  freshly brewed tea
**  freshly pieced quilts
**  newly discovered ores
**  freshly picked veggies
**  brightly lit sign
**  highly paid officer

Now, just to confuse things, you use hyphens with some adverbs, (much-deserved vacation, well-known author), but I’ll write more about this in another post.

If you want to read more about orange juice, you can read this article: Freshly Squeezed: The Truth about Orange Juice in Boxes.

And you might want to try this recipe for Fresh Squeezed Lemonade.

Space invaders would probably get all of these hyphens mixed up, but wait, they can try the Alien Sippers: fresh lemonade that happens to be from squeezed lemons.

But who worries about hyphens on a hot day at a street fair while drinking cool lemonade or orange juice. Well, me. Obviously.

Your turn: What quirky errors do you find in writing? Which ones annoy you the most?

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Janice Hall Heck is a retired educator, blogger, wannabe photographer, and now nitpicky editor of On the Horizon, a bi-monthly community newsletter for Horizons at Woods Landing, Mays Landing, NJ.

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A to Z Challenge, 2014: D is for Deep-fried Hyphens

Oh Heck! Another Quirky Writing Error

Hyphens can be troublesome little pipsqueaks. You see them used incorrectly just about as often as you see them used correctly.

Today I went down to the 42^nd Annual Flowertown Festival in Summerville, South Carolina, a street fair that covered many blocks on Main Street and much of downtown Azalea Park. The gorgeous azaleas, already in full bloom, filled the park with pinks, lavenders, and whites. Showy dogwoods displayed their white flowers. Beautiful flowers and beautiful weather. Perfect for the festival.

Street vendors lined the streets and park pathways: arts and crafts, ornamental garden décor and wooden outdoor furniture, flowers and veggies, jellies and sauces, doggie leashes and outfits, gourmet foods and hand-made soaps, and much more. Food vendors claimed their share of the festival real estate, too.

And among the usual hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken-on-a-stick food vendors, I found the following items for sale: deep fried Oreos, deep fried Twinkies, deep fried Snickers, deep fried peaches, and deep fried apple fries (all minus a required hyphen).

Being a picky editor, I cringed about the spelling/usage, but I still ate a deep-fried Oreo, snickering all the while about the lack of hyphen.

Here’s the rule.

In a multi-word adjective (phrasal adjectives), when each word by itself does not describe the noun, you must use a hyphen.

These high-calorie yummies are neither “deep Oreos” nor “fried Oreos,” but “deep-fried Oreos” (Oreo cookies that have been submersed in hot oil and fried). Therefore the multi-word adjective should have a hyphen: you need both deep and fried together to describe this yucky incredible treat.

Obviously, rules for hyphens do not apply at street festivals, county fairs, zoos, and other food-filled outdoor activities!

Here’s the corrected, but definitely unhealthy menu:

deep-fried Oreos
deep-fried Twinkies
deep-fried Snickers
deep-fried peaches
deep-fried apple fries..

Here’s to your health!

Your turn:  What quirky errors do you find in writing? Which ones annoy you the most?
Janice Hall Heck is a retired educator and now nitpicky editor of On the Horizon, a bi-monthly community newsletter for Horizons at Woods Landing, Mays Landing, NJ.

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